Hipster

It's 0439 as I write this. In two hours I'll be driving my Mom to the hospital in Loveland, Colorado, for to have her hip replaced.

An example xray stolen from the interwebs. This one shows a narrowed joint space in the left hip and more normal joint space in the right.

She had the starboard one done in 2014, now it's time for the port one.

Here's Mom's right hip before surgery. No joint space and the femoral head is disintegrating.

Past time by far, actually. She's been in a hell of a lot of pain and for far too long.

Here's the one-year follow up. Nice new metal and plastic hip on the right, but the joint space is gone now in the left.

If her previous experience is a reliable guide, she'll get almost instant relief from the pain and vastly improved mobility. She recovered much more quickly than is the norm from the first surgery. She's likely to do the same this time.

And here's the one from last month. That joint is failing fast.

Major surgery is a big deal and fraught with risk. They do these things with a spinal these days which makes me feel better -- general anesthesia can be pretty taxing on the whole system. At 75 her reserve tank isn't quite as full as it once was, and there's less margin for slop. These things have become rather routine here in the 21st century, but there's still a lot of worry.

Hanging out sheets a couple of weeks ago, in a damme snow drift, with a destroyed hip joint.

Knife is scheduled to drop at 1030 local.