I love this game so much and can't wait for the DLC this summer. In the meantime, I bought this cairn sculpture and put it in my yard, so I can remind myself every day of my journeys to Kami.
So long story short, around a year ago give or take, I started having problems with my right hip. It seemed muscular, like a tight piriformis, some glute pain, some pain in the TFL/IT band region. I was working on it in Pilates and PT, but then maybe around last fall, I started to have groin pain.
Despite private PT once a week and now private Iyengar yoga twice a week, plus exercises on my own (basically from "Heal Your Hips" that my ortho doc told me to get), the groin pain has gotten much much worse.
The piriformis pain, the glute pain, and most of the TFL/IT pain is more or less gone but occasionally flares but only mildly. However, I now I need to hoist my right leg up with my hand to get into the driver's seat of the car, walk with a limp, and if I want to go on even a gentle short hike, I need walking poles. WTF!
I really really thought the conservative approach would work for me. I saw an ortho doc in Dec 2025 and based on my X-rays and how i was presenting then, he thought I "might" at some point be a THR candidate and I should think about it. I basically ignored that.
But then I went back to him in January 2026, maybe in a bit more pain, got an MRI, and based on that and physical exam, he said he really thought I might be a candidate and I should get a steroid shot for diagnostic purposes.
I got a second opinion from another ortho doc in February who thought maybe rehab would work. I got the steroid shot in March. It didn't do much. Apparently, that and my pain and limited mobility means I need a hip replacement.
Went back to both ortho docs in April and May and apparently the shot that didn't do much, my pain which is constant but sometimes bad and sometimes not that bad, and my limited mobility, not to mention my kind of Quasimodo gait, led them both to say I need THR and it's time to start talking to surgeons.
I'm a bit depressed about it and feel like I let myself down. Meanwhile, my yoga and PT teachers are emphasizing "pre-hab" and say I should do well with surgery and we'll jump into rehab post-surgery.
I have three surgeon consults set up (anterior approach) and then I guess we'll see how long it takes. Now I wish I'd got the ball rolling sooner because the top surgeons are really booked out.
Is what I'm going through normal? I confess that sometimes I still hope I will wake up and my hip will work again and everything will be fine and I won't need surgery. I'm 70 and it's scary and I wish I didn't have to, but both ortho docs say that the main thing patients always say is "I wish I'd done it sooner."
Long story short two separate opinions from orthopedic docs recommended hip replacement. I have three surgery consults scheduled. All do anterior approach.
One surgeon works at Scripps La Jolla, another at UCSD, and a third in private practice and operates out of Advanced Surgery Center in Escondido or Scripps Mercy.
I’m not familiar with surgery centers. Are they better or worse or the same as hospitals as far as risk, complications, and outcomes go?
