Second Anniversary

     It no longer hangs on a screwdriver. Yesterday, February 7, Central European Time, was the second anniversary of the day I broke my left femur bone as a result of losing my balance doing a yoga exercise. Surgery in Prague resulted in an implant of a titanium pin to stabilize the bone. After a few months of rehab exercises my leg seemed to be almost as good as new.

     Around this time last year, however, my left hip was giving me quite a lot of trouble after a summer of apparently full recovery and travel in Europe and I wasn't celebrating any anniversaries. Over a period of several months I consulted four different orthopedic doctors and was seriously considering surgery to remove the pin which seemed to be causing inflammation and discomfort where the metal met the muscle. The problem was that the doctors here in Japan didn't know what screwdriver to use to remove the pin that they were not familiar with. 

     There ensued a farcical attempt, through email and snail mail, to get the information from the hospital in Prague where the surgery was done. I described this situation in a series of posts entitled It All Hangs on a Screwdriver on this blog at that time. Finally, a friend in Prague went directly to the surgeon who had done the operation and got the information. But, the surgeon here was still skeptical and dissuaded me from having the pin removed. (I was dissuaded because I no longer had any confidence in the surgeon, and preferred not to be cut by someone I didn't feel comfortable with.)

     As a result of that and because of my own inclination to take care of my own body I decided to work at improving the condition of my hip through exercise. Although the hip is not 100% of what it used to be, and being cautiously optimistic, I believe that it has strengthened further as a result of concerted and concentrated strengthening, flexing and stretching exercises plus walking almost daily and swimming once a week. I have reached the point where I can lie on my left hip reasonably comfortably (I couldn't do that without pain before), can walk for longer periods with less fatigue and can do a passable Lotus yoga posture. Of course, I'm keeping my fingers crossed . . . and doing my exercises religiously. But, for now, voila. . .

Lotus