August 12, 2025. This is the day before full hip replacement surgery. It's been a long journey just to get to this point. And as part of that journey, I feel like I am at a turning point with much more to do. Perhaps that is why I have been contemplating my next journey on the Camino Santiago as a pilgrim. Not so much to find myself but as a goal or objective to get me through these physical challenges... and perhaps along the way I will find myself. That remains to be seen.
Five years ago (55 years old) during the pandemic, in 2020, I found myself in the hospital, and no, I didn't have Covid but I was having a heart attack. I had a four-way by pass, which I believe saved my life. I had been diagnosed with type II diabetes in 2018. Oddly enough, I had lost 50 pounds before my heart attach as I worked to keep by diabetes under control. Last October (2024), I lost my mother who suffered many physical difficulties as a result of diabetes and I am determined not to go down that same road but I have kind been going down that road - no pun intended.
About 3 and a half years ago I stepped off my bike before I was completely stopped and jammed my left hip. "Wow, that really hurt... no that really hurt," I told myself at the time. I got myself back home and my hip was never the same again. It never healed and evolved into an impingement, and further into an arthritic condition that was never the same again. So over three years I lost more pounds and improved my A1C and got my cholesterol to rock bottom (that's a whole other story).
Although I have worked to improve my condition, the hip problem is not going away and a hip replacement is necessary. I have struggled with the decision but now I have surrendered to the notion of a new hip that I believe will broaden my horizons. I have much more to do in this lifetime and I am setting goals and objectivea in front of me as things to look forward to. After heart bypass surgery and fill hip replacement and in honor of my mother, I am thinking the Camino de Santiago is what I need to honor the journey I have been on in the last 10 years. And tomorrow's surgery is actually is my First Step on the Camino de Santiago as I can't do that without healing my body. That's going to happen.
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