Total Hip Arthroplasty and Recovery in Madison, Virginia

We spent the last six months in beautiful, agricultural and rural Madison, Virginia. We chose Madison as it was near the home of my third grandchild in Orange, Virginia who had just relocated from Colorado. It was also near the Culpeper regional University of Virginia affiliated hospital where I was scheduled to have a total hip replacement.

During the recuperation process, I continued my studies of the American Civil War. Much of the war located in Virginia happened in these parts. Culpeper traded sides three times. Lee licked his wounds in nearby Rapidan after the debacle in Gettysburg. However, Lincoln finally found the general he was looking for in Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was relentless in his pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia and eventually chased Lee down, forcing the unconditional surrender in Appomattox ~two years later.

We enjoyed watching spring and summer change to fall and then to winter. Since we have lived mainly in the tropics for the past 12 years, it was nice to see the seasons change again. We could watch the annual fall leaf show unfold from our front porch with a view of the Shenandoah National Park. This was nice because we made the drive up to The Skyline Drive a few times and the closer the show got to peak foliage, the more jammed packed the drive became with fellow leaf peepers from all over the world.

Waiting for Lilly to arrive on Amtrak's Crescent at the Culpeper train station, a far cry from where Lilly was leaving from, NYC's Grand Central Station. At first, I think she had a little culture shock about her new home for the next six months.

This train station was built in 1903, replacing several others. The first one was built in 1852. It survived the Civil War but the constant fighting took its toll and it was replaced after the war.

In my initial meeting with the surgeon, he, ahem, suggested that I would recover more quickly if I were to lose some weight. His assistant also provided me with a workout routine to strengthen the hip muscles. They were right. But man do I hate cardio.

Culpeper's Gold's Gym was a serious musclehead kind of place. Powerlifters were constantly clanging and banging their weights. When the older manager was there, he insisted on Classic Rock, but the minute he left, the young employees would put on screaming, tortuous heavy metal. I was not particularly thrilled by the scene, but it quite understandably drove Lilly crazy.

One day we went to the  Cedar Mountain Battlefield I was explaining to Lilly that across this field the Confederates did blah-blah and over there by that creek the Yankees did blah-blah....

I noticed a blank look on Lilly's face. I asked her what was up and she said she was trying to decide which location she disliked the most: visiting Civil War battlefields or the Stairmaster at Gold's Gym.

One often hears how far hip replacement surgery has come. 30 years ago you stayed in the hospital for 10 days, now you get out the next day. Still, it ain't no fucking joke. I am talking several months of a walker, a cane and then physical therapy to learn to walk again. After all, it is your skeleton they are chopping up on.

When I was laying in my scrubs in pre-op, the anesthesiologist came in with a syringe, saying he had some happy juice for me. "Count backwards from 10 to 1, but it doesn't matter because you are not going to make it to 8 anyway". I woke up later in a hallway with a brand new hip, so there is that.

Oh, and I got to ride around Wally World in one of those electric carts. Something I wouldn't have thought to do in yesteryear.

In a lot of ways, staying in rural Madison County was like an adventure in another land. It was fairly isolated, although cosmopolitan Charlottesville was only an hour away. There were vast fields of corn, hay and soybeans and as such, tractors and other multi-million dollar John Deere agricultural machinery were a common sight on the county roads. It was serious Trump country, signs that proclaimed "Farmers for Trump or even Plumbers for Trump" were everywhere (our hosts had Fox News running all day long with the sound muted). You also had hikers, leaf peepers and various outdoor enthusiasts coming from places like Washington DC to visit the park or to hike White Oak Canyon and Old Rag 

Our Airbnb hosts were awesome. Rosemary, who ran the place, is a retired orthopedic nurse and she, unfortunately for me, talked glowingly about the upper body strength of the of the orthopedic surgeons that were going to rip out my femur from my osteoarthritic damaged hip joint in a few short weeks. Her husband Joe grew up on a nearby dairy farm. I am not sure he had travelled much further than the county road they lived on. But he was as strong as a fucking ox. As I was huffing and puffing with my walker up their steep driveway as part of my PT routine, 74 year old Joe was rolling up the hill the 200 pound pieces of tree work that they had just had done. People pay money for that shit at Gold's Gym.

We had dinner with them about once a week. It started promptly at 5:00 PM. Water was the beverage, white Wonder bread was on top of the fridge if you wanted it and dessert was something like pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. There was some type of quiz as after dinner activity. I won the Civil War one...they didn't know I was Professor Leake in another life. Joe said that Lee might have surrendered but he sure had not. We also went to Thanksgiving dinner at their Baptist Church. Beards, giant pick up trucks and Carhartt attire were quite popular. 

Like I said, the stay was like a positive adventure in an unfamiliar land.

Olivia came to visit her maternal grandparents at Lake Anna, about an hour away.

Got to visit with all of the grandkids, my Mom, a few friends and a few scoundrels from my previous life in Charlottesville. Here we say goodbye to Olivia as she heads back to Boise.

Owen came one day to run around the Old Rag Granite.

Visited Owen with some items from my gag bag.

Of course, Cooper was in nearby Orange for the six months.

What adjective would one use to describe Cooper's reaction to granddad? Wary comes to mind.

Went to the Montpelier Races and met up with several high school buddies. We were involved in much malfeasance and misconduct starting in junior year in high school, through the University of Virginia and attending music festivals up into late middle age.

All recuperated and ~15 pounds lighter, we said goodbye to Rosemary and Joe and headed to New York to visit and tend to some biz with Lilly's family.

I think I have done my last driving on East Coast Interstates. After months on country roads, stopping for hay balers etc. I went to the chaos of I-95, all in three hours. Cars passing at 80 mph in all lanes, the constant construction, the concrete barriers.....  spiked my blood pressure to crisis levels. Gonna find another way.

One day we went on a day trip to Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, New York. Hip did fine on the falls. 

Special shout out to Armin Aalami Harandi, MD and all support staff, nurses and physical therapists at UVA Health. Job Well done!!

Then it was JFK to Cancun for the winter. Like coming home.

Our favorite cenotes are going to have to wait until the Christmas Holiday tourist rush subsides.

Thanks for stopping by