Under The Knife

It’s been a while since I’ve made a blog entry. I have been concentrating on overcoming some health issues that I have recently encountered.

In March of this year, I underwent a long-awaited hip replacement to correct a severe arthritic condition in my right hip. I needed to undergo an extensive regimen of exercises, walking and physiotherapy to regain the thigh muscles strenght after the operation. At the six-week mark, follow up x-rays revealed an issue with the replacement. The appliance had sublimated approximately 2 cm (3/4 inches) down into the femur. The options I was faced with was (a) wearing orthotics for the rest of my life to compensate for the imbalance, or, (b) undergo a second surgery to correct the issue.

On May 19th, the revision surgery was completed and I then had to let the bone heal and the appliance to set for a six-week period where I was not allowed to put full weight on the leg. Two weeks ago, I had my progress check-up with a new set of x-rays. This time everything is absolutely where it should be. I have been given the go ahead to resume physiotherapy, exercises and walking.

Felt like one step forward and two steps back, but with this green light I am taking multiple steps forward again. One of those steps is the resumption of my blog and genealogy efforts.

I had been wondering how my ancestors would have dealt with health issues that are addressable today.

My father suffered from severe arthritis in the later part of his life, resulting from his time in captivity in Japanese Prisoner of War camps during World War II. There were no replacement surgeries available for him to ease his suffering. He battled through his issues and continued working as a general labourer as long as he could, before he had to be retired.

My paternal Grandmother suffered from a kidney disorder that was identified a “Bright’s Disease” which is a historical classification of multiple kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. Unfortunately, the catch-all of Bright’s Disease did not allow for the proper treatment of the root cause kidney disease and many people, including my Grandmother and two of her brothers, died as a result. Today, advances in medical science and diagnostic capabilities allow us to determine the “subset” disease more precisely and focus the treatment accordingly instead of a more broad-brush approach to cover a myriad of issues.

Indeed, today we are able to successfully address health concerns much more effectively that we could have in the past. I’m sure that in the years to come research into areas like human genome sequencing and stem cells will provide us with cures for significant fatal illnesses such as cancer, etc. and allow us to look back on them much the same way as we now look back on the issues that impacted our ancestors.