The Story of My Hip

And how I had to learn some patience.

Three and a half months after my total hip replacement surgery I found myself at the General Store in Kennedy Meadows, CA, a resupply place along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the High Sierra mountain range in California.

My first backpacking trip post-hip replacement surgery.

While most everyone we met along the trail were headed to their next stop along the PCT, my husband I were hiking five miles and calling it a day.

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. I had the smaller of my two backcountry packs only partly filled. My spouse was carrying the bulk of the load. But we were only staying one night so it wasn't a lot.

And I was so excited!

It had been a while since I had comfortably backpacked without pain in my hip. But, wow, had I lost some strength. Those were a challenging five miles of relatively flat terrain.

It was a beautiful weekend and we found a campsite along a creek with pine trees bringing some shade. We cooked our dehydrated meal and it was the best ever! We made hot chocolate and it was the best ever!

I even slept pretty well, even though I chose to bring my lighter weight, fold-up pad that wasn't all that comfortable. Just being outside, in our tent, on an overnight trip was amazing. I felt almost giddy.

When we hiked the five miles back to the store the next morning, we ran into even more people along the trail. One man, in his mid-seventies, was completing the section through the Sierra that had been covered with snow the previous year. When he got to Kennedy Meadows he would celebrate completing the entire 2650 miles of the PCT!

We also met a young couple who were nearing the end of their PCT journey as they were hiking south-bound to the Mexican border. They gave us tips about nutrition and shared the kinds of meals and snacks they brought for their adventure. One was a graduate student in nutrition who reminded us that as we age we need more protein and he recommended bags of nuts! They also were impressed I was hiking after a hip replacement, even though I had only gone 10 miles! When we dropped them at the trailhead, it was a good feeling to be mutually impressed with what all of us were doing.

On the drive home down Highway 395, I thought about my next trip and began planning in my head.

But, what I didn't know at the time was the pain below my knee on my other leg was going to sideline me for another six months...

A couple of weeks after we returned from this backpacking trip, I had a series of medical appointments that confirmed that the pain in my leg was not in my head. I had a compression stress fracture, likely caused by advancing osteoporosis. I was on a reduced load-bearing regimen for a month and when that didn't heal the fracture, I was told, "no walking." I was on crutches and my family members pushed me in a wheelchair around the block for our evening walks outside.

It was not the resilient bounce-back from my hip surgery that I was expecting. In fact, it was a real struggle. Walking, which I used for both my mental and physical health, was restricted so I had to dig deep to the other kinds of tools I had to help my wellbeing as I healed. But I still yearned to walk.

It took a lot of getting used to because longing for something else doesn't really help, I discovered. Acceptance works better. That is a lot easier said than done.

Some friends brought me puzzles, stacks of interesting magazines, books they recommended. Others brought fun food and joined me for a meal inside my house. I watched movies and television shows I had missed. I used a card deck called Nature Meditations: Simple mindfulness practices inspired by the natural world that was really cool. I read one short chapter in How to be More Tree, by Liz Marvin, each evening as a devotion. I colored in an "adult swear words coloring book" my daughter gave me! And I learned a lot of empathy for those who face immobility. It was hard but it was good.

In mid-March of 2025, I was given the all clear to begin to put weight on my leg. I slowly and gingerly began to walk. And four months later was backpacking on the trail again!