A Missing Month

On the night of June 1/2, taking out the recycling, I fell and broke my left hip. On June 3, I had full hip replacement surgery, so I now have a bionic butt, so to speak. A month later, I'm still on a cane, just beginning to ease back into going to the office. The Journal will go to press a couple of weeks late for the first time in my tenure. My backlog is proliferating. I've lost a month of my life

My family has been magnificent. They have supported me, nursed me, put up with me. My boss and staff have been supportive as well, so far, but there's a lot of catchup to do. Today I found myself snapping at Sarah, who after all is enjoying summer vacation, and realized I had my priorities wrong: family is more important than work; it's my family that sustained me through this nightmare.

Until June 3, I had spent only one night in a hospital as a patient: when my tonsils were out at age four. I've only broken two little toes and cracked a rib: never a broken bone of bigger import. I was expecting to have a hernia fixed this summer, perhaps in late June, had all this not happened, but that would not have even required an overnight in the hospital. Then, suddenly, a broken hip, major hip replacement surgery.

Our original vacation plans were for an ambitious driving trip to Missouri the last two weeks of July. We were even planning to take the dog. That's gone with the wind now; maybe something could happen in August if I work like hell all July, but the long trip is probably put off till some future point. I can't do long driving without frequent stops due to worries about clotting, the doctors say; I don't have the stamina rebuilt yet anyway.

Now that I have a titanium butt, I can sit and blog more readily; perhaps I'll be posting here more often. I hope so. I've been forcibly reminded what's important.