Westserve

The tables turned.

This week was one of those turn around times – when the tables get turned, and things work out quite differently to what you expected.

Since January, I’ve been chasing up a cause for increasing discomfort in my right leg. I walk for exercise, and have had some other minor problems with my feet, that occasionally cause some discomfort.
For the last few months though, the pain in my upper right leg has been sufficient to make me cut back on the amount of walking I was doing, and disturb my sleep.
Last week, I saw a physio to try and get to the bottom of it.
Physiotherapists must be trained in sado-masochistism. I would hate to have a session with one after they had a bad weekend.
Kylie was pretty good, but in seeking to get to the cause of my problem, she stirred things up in a major way, and the next day I was in serious pain, and doing very little.
On reporting this at the next visit, she went much more gently, and referred me for an x-ray as she suspected I had some physical damage to my hip. So I trooped off to ‘Western Imaging’ – a place I know well from Rob’s many visits – and duly submitted to be irradiated.

Kylie the physio was suspecting a labial tear in my hip cartilage, however it came a something of a rude surprise to see the technician’s report: advanced osteoarthritis of the right hip.
My GP was even more taken aback as she looked at the absence of space between the ‘ball and socket’ of my right hip, saying something like “where did that come from?”

Bottom line: The damage is done, and I’m looking at a hip replacement within the next 2-5 years. Hopefully, between now and then, the pain level can be controlled with anti-inflammatory drugs and pain killers.
It will also mean some lifestyle changes, and different exercise regime.

All this was a bit of a surprise, although not a shock – I’ve been through too much with Rob’s health issues to know that good health is not to be taken for granted. But it does bring a tinge of anxiety to my mind about the future. I fully expect to have to care full time for Rob in due course, and this puts a dent in my self-confidence in my ability to do that. I’m not yet 49 years old (almost!) and so this seems a little premature, and in that sense it’s disturbing. I’m also not used to having the tables turned, and being the ‘sick’ one!
But of course, God is very good at dismantling our self-confidence by way of encouraging us to be more dependant on Him. And in that sense, I’m grateful to him already for his loving and gracious care of us, and His concern that I submit further to Him and learn to trust him more.