Small update…

Yesterday, I completed my first of (apparently many) visits to the physical therapist for my hip arthritis.

I received a little bit of a massage, which I appreciated, but I hold little hope of it actually being helpful. But, the therapist did propose an interesting theory on how I got sacroiliitis.

Over 20 years ago… heck… nearly 30 years ago… I had spinal fusion because of scoliosis. In short, my spine was/is curved in such a way that it was putting pressure on my heart and lungs. That’s bad and surgery needed to be performed.

This surgery meant rods of steel were pasted to run down the sides of my spine. Part of the glue they used to hold them in was marrow taken from my hip. This is the very same hip that is giving me problems now.

The therapist thinks that the structure of that hip was compromised because of the scoliosis surgery.

Weakened hip bone + age + weight + osteoporosis + arthritis = where I am today.
Sacroiliitis is just another factor in an already precarious situation.

While the therapist admits that she’s not an expert, she’s speaking from experience from working in the field for multiple years.

Honestly, I can’t find fault with it. Her logic is fairly sound.

This also kind of gets me off the hook a little. I know that some conditions, most notably osteoporosis, were caused by anorexia. That is something that I completely take responsibility for – despite the brainwashing from the House. I hold myself accountable instead of passing blame.

But, this was caused, in part, by an operation that I didn’t have any control over. If given the option and not scared half to death at the time, I would have passed on a surgery that had a high probability of causing permanent harm if not death. (My scoliosis operation was in its infancy as only three or four people had it before me.)

Even if I didn’t have osteoporosis, it’s likely that arthritis and sacroiliitis would have developed eventually. I may have just hastened it a couple of years.

It still sucks, without a doubt. It just feeds into my fear of falling. Should I fall and crack that hip, I’m… I’m certainly not going to be happy… especially if my spine becomes involved.

But, at least, this isn’t a weakness that I can blame on myself.
All I can do is try to make it better.