I think I've mentioned it before? Have I?
If not, the short story is that my right hip has degenerated into what yours will look and feel like when you're (or probably does look like if you are already) about ninety-six.
Both the condyle of my femur and the acetabulum of my pelvis are rotten with arthritic buildup and jagged with bone loss. I've lost so much bone that my right leg is about 3/8-inch shorter than my left.
You can imagine how that affects my gait.
In order to keep from going in circles like a defective wind-up toy I have a heel lift in my shoes and boots. I can't wear any sort of sandal or open-heel footgear like slippers without listing and staggering like a British cruiser at the Coronel (sorry, I'm still reading Massie's Castles of Steel...).
The sonofabitch hurts, too.
Mostly it's just a low-grade sort of hurt, a dull ache or even a sort of hard pressure at the top of my leg, along with a lot of muscle soreness from compensating for the short leg length.
But every once in a while it decides to really attack. I had a very active day yesterday, clambering up and down a steep site on Sylvan Hill, and it got a lot of hard use. Ten years ago I'd have taken a hot shower and gotten a good sleep and been fine. Last night I lay down at 7:30 and woke up at 3am aching and too sore to go back to sleep.
That's not all that unusual. It's hard to sleep on the bastard; I can't lie on my right side or stomach, there's no comfortable position for it. Even on my left side the unsupported right hip eventually starts to spike at me. And on my back is usually okay, but even then the pressure on the hip joint does bad things after a while.
I'm not saying this to complain.
I got myself here, between hard use and outright abuse, and I'm gonna play the cards I've been dealt. There are a lot of people out there dealing with worse. But there are times when it gets a little tiring, knowing that the sonofabitch is always there, always poking me in the ass and reminding me that nothing will get better until I get a cybernetic implant, like this guy:
That's right. My destiny is to be fucking Darth Maul.
Oh, well.
I suppose it could have been worse.
Oh, yeah. That.
