Background Story: How I became Hipster_Chic

Back in 2010, life was good.  I had a great job and was finally enjoying my 'new normal' after moving from FL to GA in 2008.  I was meeting friends, enjoying all that midtown Atlanta had to offer, walking to restaurants, museums and the Botanical Garden.  I loved riding my bike to Piedmont Park, and hiking through many of the amazing state parks throughout Georgia.

And then one day...I was walking to a business meeting and suddenly found myself toppling over my heels, straight down to my knees.

After dusting myself off and feeling my cheeks heat up from the embarrassment of taking a very obvious tumble in public, I checked my shoes.  Certainly one of my heels must have broken while I was walking and caused the fall.

To my surprise, both heels were perfectly in tact.  Hmmmn.

About a month later, I started getting throbbing pains in my right leg.  Mostly at night.  I thought for sure I had overdone it cleaning.  Or maybe it was the way I was sitting at my desk.  It got to the point where it was annoying, but not enough for me to pursue with any medical expert.

About a month after that, I woke up one morning and found my hip aching.  I mean seriously hurting and sore.  It was hard to walk and again, I just assumed I was overexerting myself.  After several weeks and many tabs of Tylenol & Ibuprofen, I mentioned the pains to my GP.  He asked if I had any accidents or spills and suggested an orthopedic doc, so I figured, what the hell?  I started thinking back in time...did I have any accidents in the past year?  Maybe I hurt myself when I took a tumble ice skating several months earlier?  Maybe it was something with my sciatic nerve?

I mentioned these thoughts to the Ortho guy, who basically ignored me, instead asking me lift this and bend that.  He then proceeded to order X-Rays of my hip, and called me back to his office.

"Downhill skier?", he asked.  I was dumbfounded.  How on earth did he know that I spent almost my entire preteen and young adult life on the icy slopes of the north east???

"Yeah, how did you know?" I asked.  

"You had an accident" he replied.  This wasn't a question - it was a statement.

I thought back...an accident?  Well, no, it's not like I was ever carried off in a stretcher or anything.  I mean, I skied with all guys, and sure, I took some pretty wicked tumbles here and there over the years, where I was bruised and achy.  But an accident?  No, nothing like that!

Again, the Osteo guy pretty much ignored my comment.  "You have severe osteoarthritis in your right hip" he replied, "and it looks like you had a old injury, never healed properly, very common in skiers.  You need a full hip replacement."

I was like WHAT?  That's it?  Just like that?  I asked if there was anything else it could be, if there were any other options for treatment.

"No" he said, "There's nothing you can do.  You need a hip replacement."

"Nothing??" I asked.  He mentioned that I could try cortisone injections and anti-inflammatory meds, but that they really wouldn't work.  "You need a hip replacement" he maintained. 

I was in such shock that I left in a huff.  Hip replacement?  Now that's crazy.  I was determined to get a second opinion - anything to avoid what I perceived to be a misdiagnosis.  Hip replacements were for the elderly, after all.  And at 46 years old, I was no where close to being elderly.

It was then that I started my investigation and journey.