My Comeback Story: Norm R.

This was seven and five years ago respectively. I have been a paramedic/firefighter/special operations/rescue specialist for over 52 years now. In my younger years I took my body and my strength for granted and when injuries or issues would happen down through the years I would do the minimum to get healthy and do whatever was required or needed just to "embrace the suck" to be able to get back into the game.
Time however, eventually caught up with me and by 2017 my L hip was getting so arthritic that it was severely impacting my ability to even get out of bed without a coordinated five part series of moves, several loud clicks or pops and the first for to six steps were a challenge until things finally started working together. Needless to say this made my job as a wildland fire line paramedic, Medical Unit Leader and/or a Type 2 Public Information Officer a bit of a challenge. (By then I had earned my bones on the street so-to-speak and had been a medic chief for a super rural/frontier Emergency Medical Services provider agency in the mountains of Colorado. As my wife likes to remind me quite often... I am a failure at retirement.)
First round of treatments were physical therapy and a series of Cortisone injections. (BTW I learned there are several different drug combinations for the Cortisone injections so if the first doesn't quite work, see if they have an alternative choice available before saying they aren't for you.)
From there the decision was made to do a hip replacement. That included six weeks of Pre-Hab, physical therapy stressing core strength and opposite leg & balance strengthening and drills. Which worked great! I was walking unassisted, well I had to hold my IV pole as my drug dosage machine was attached, so I had a tether, mere hours after my procedure. They had to caution me to not push it to allow my body to fully heal/recover. Sound, Very Sound advice.
Which included more rounds of physical therapy and patience. Lots and lots of patience as I wanted to get back to doing things/life now... RIGHT NOW GOSH DARN IT! (I believe this is the real reason that we are actually referred to as "patients". It takes so much patience being one.)
When my R hip started to go out a year and a half later, had that one replaced as well. That was in 2020.
So here I am at age 69. I have continued to go out on wildfire and other disaster response assignments including two back to back wildfire assignments this past August in Utah & Wyoming. I have been a member of the Strip Cross Fit for the past year and half and while I feel like a dancing water buffalo among gazelles, most everyone is in their 20's to 40's, I am keeping up, for the most part and still going strong.
The folks at Desert Ortho have taken great care of me & made this possible from the "Oh Jeez" is this what I have to look forward to... to "Let's Get It On! (PS My wife & I use the Desert Inn location as our home office.)
Hope this helps. Norm