Slow down, you move too fast

 Since my appointments with both the orthopedic surgeon and my physical therapist, I've been weighing the pros and cons of both putting off surgery for as long as possible and pulling the trigger and just scheduling it.  Surgery sucks.  It hurts.  You're out of commission for a while.  It's expensive.  There's always a chance it won't actually solve the problem.  So if my pain is manageable with a cortisone injection and being consistent with my PT homework, maybe postponing it a year, two years, five years is possible.  I can be on board with that, right?

Picture it.  Brooklyn.  2023.  

My girls and I are visiting Dayna and her family in New York for a long weekend in November.  We're running late walking Dayna's kids to their gymnastics class, so we have to hustle.  I love to hustle.  Hustling is my favorite.  

Except I can't keep up.  I'm straggling farther behind with every block.  I'm getting outhustled by an 8 and 6 year old.  The only one whose pace I can match all weekend belongs to the 16 year old dog (I'll save you the math...that's 112 in dog years).  While I've known I've lost the pep in my step over the past year, that weekend in New York was eye-opening.  And heartbreaking.

But I still wasn't quite ready to schedule surgery.  I opted for scheduling a cortisone injection.  It seemed to provide some relief when I had one in January, so having another would allow me to avoid making a decision about surgery for a little while longer.  

Except it took two weeks of phone tag to finally schedule the procedure, and the appointment wouldn't be for another five weeks.  At least I'm outhustling the pace of healthcare in America, am I right?

The universe must know I need help when it comes to making big decisions, so it bestowed upon us the open enrollment period for our health insurance.  With our current plan, our out of pocket max will double starting January 1, 2024.  DOUBLE.  Changing to the bomb diggity plan would cost a little bit more per month but would "only" increase our out of pocket max by $1000.  So I basically have a week to decide if I'm having surgery in 2024 so we can make the best choice for our insurance plan.  Greeeeeat.

Feeling paralyzed with indecision, I used the phone-a-friend lifeline.

My friend Anne is one of the fittest people I know and lives a lifestyle similar to my own.  She had her hip replaced a few years ago, so I called her to pick her brain a bit about her timeline leading up to surgery (did she try to put it off and if so for how long?), her recovery, and her post-surgery level of activity.  Chatting with her shoved me off the fence, and today I scheduled my total hip replacement surgery for Wednesday, March 20th.  

Whoa. Ages that end in 5 have always been significant for me, and it looks like 45 will be no exception.

More feelings to come.