For me, the world and all my plans have come to a screeching
halt. It’s a very long story, but in a
nutshell, I learned a few weeks ago that my hip joint is shot to hell (bone on
bone, they said) and there’s nothing to do but replace it. It was quite an unexpected shock to get the
news. I went to the doctor knowing they
would take an x-ray of my knee and possibly my hip, wanting to get the go-ahead
for physical therapy to fix me (I’ve been limping around a bit, and my knee
hurts if I walk a lot or stand for a long time), and thinking worst-case
scenario would be a cortisone shot in the knee.
Well, oh hell no. The
doctor put a cortisone shot in my hip and told me it’s not an emergency
situation, but not to put it off for long - schedule the surgery because shots
are going to be my life until the surgery is done. Fortunately, he saw nothing wrong with the
other hip or either of my knees. I
researched the doctor and the hospital where he works, after deliberating for
two days, I called back to schedule surgery.
They connected me with the nurse who does the scheduling, she pulled my
chart, and said “Oh honey, you were just here.
You have to have at least two more cortisone shots (3 months a part) and
then at least three gel shots (3 months a part) before we can put you on the
schedule. Right now, we’re scheduling
surgeries for eight months out. You
won’t be having surgery until the end of 2022 at best”. I told her the doctor told me not to delay
long. She said my insurance wouldn’t pay
until there is proof that the shots aren’t helping. I scheduled the next shot appointment for
January.
Next, I called my insurance company. They said, “bullshit!” If it’s bone on bone and doctor says surgery
is the fix, why waste time and money on shots?
Get it done before my knee or back get damaged from limping. They recommended I get another opinion and
find somebody who can do it sooner than eight months.
Now I have an appointment in Lexington in a few weeks with
somebody who has a great reputation (based on Internet reviews and my
sister-in-law who lives in Lexington.
I’m hoping to get surgery sooner rather than later...perhaps over
Christmas or my spring break in March.
We will see what they say.
Meanwhile, the cortisone shot didn’t hurt as much as people tell me they
hurt...the doctor put it in after rubbing something really cold on my hip
first. Moments after, I moved my leg
around a bit and the doctor remarked it greatly improved my mobility. Well, maybe so, for a few days. But now, my limp is worse and it hurts sooner
when I walk very far. I’m blaming the
shot, but maybe it’s just that now I’m paying more attention to it. Someone and I played golf yesterday and I
took Tylenol after because everything was aching. Being crippled is not for me. Perhaps the real point of the shots is to
make you grateful for surgery.
To change the subject (PLEASE), Gracie traumatized me one
morning last week. It was still very
dark and I was making my lunch to take to work.
Gracie goes out in the mornings and spends the days inside until Someone
or I get home from work. Anyway, she was
outside and I heard her barking, and then something that sounded like a cat
started howling. My thoughts were that
Gracie was terrorizing a cat, perhaps a feral (several live behind out house in
the woods), or worse, one of the neighbor’s cats. I ran outside just in time to see Gracie with
something larger than a squirrel or rabbit in and gray in her teeth. She was shaking it violently and it was
screaming. I shouted “NO!” which is one
of only a few words that Gracie understands, grabbed a broom and smacked her
with it. I heard the poor animal’s last unearthly
squeak, Gracie dropped it and stood over it.
I grabbed her collar, and pulled her back into the house. It was dark, but from the garage light and a
quick glance, it looked like a gray striped cat.
I grabbed a box and flashlight, and went back outside (leaving
Gracie in). I was hoping the cat was
dead so that I wouldn’t feel compelled to take it the vet for euthanasia or
whatever was needed...it’s not right to let an animal suffer. I was relieved to see it was a raccoon and
already very dead. It looked like Gracie
broke its neck. Poor thing...it makes me
sad to think about it. It’s likely that
Gracie cornered it in our garage.
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| Gracie smiling |
A few days later, I was sweeping the kitchen and saw both
Molly and Gracie in the family room acting strange. Molly ran behind the couch and out from under
the couch ran a little ground squirrel.
Gracie lunged at it but it darted to safety under the love seat before
she could catch it. Molly ran to the
love seat and tried to squeeze herself under it, but it ran back across and got
under the couch again. I opened up the
back door to the deck so that perhaps they could chase the creature to the
outside and it would have a chance to escape them. Finally, I stopped watching and within 10
minutes, the cat, dog, and hopefully the rodent were all outside. On one hand, I wanted our pets to take care
of the pest, but on the other, I hate for anything to die needlessly (plus, I
didn’t want bloodshed in the house).
Our fall weather has been mostly hot and dry. Leaves were later than usual to begin changing
color, but just in the last few days, the color is stunning. We had a hard rain last night and many of the
red and orange leaves dropped off the maples.
Today the sun is shining and it’s breezy. Every little gust brings down more
leaves. Within a few more weeks, the
hills will be bare. Ugh...winter is a dreary
time of year, but at least we have holidays to occupy our minds and time with
until January. Oh yeah, and surgery, buying
a car, buying appliances, getting new floors, painting walls, ...and whatever else
comes along.
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| Late October leaves |
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| Fall leaves smell wonderful |
