Mark Gilroy

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When Is It Time for Hip Replacement?

Just a quick update to let my friends know that next Tuesday I’ll be having hip replacement surgery – the plan is to have the other hip done in August.

I was diagnosed with bone-on-bone arthritis in both hips about six years ago. At that time I had two microfracture surgeries to delay replacement as long as possible. The surgeries had some positive benefit – but it’s been steady pain the whole time. It’s best to keep original equipment as long as possible – but my doctor’s message has always been that life will be much better once they are switched out.

Age 53 isn’t young (or that old) –  but still younger than they like to do replacements – the old rule of thumb used to be 60. With the latest rounds of X-RAYS the doctor didn’t make an immediate comment. He just looked at me. I waited. He waited longer.

I finally said, “I think it’s time doc.”

He said, “That’s all I was waiting to hear.”

When is it time to have hip replacement? Apparently, one of the key criteria is your own assessment of the pain and lifestyle inhibitors in your life.

I knew this was coming – I put on thirty pounds in the past eighteen months and have struggled to workout. My doctor says pain, insomnia, and stress will add the pounds.  My weight as an adult has always had some flux but not wanting to work out is very unlike me. I’ve lost fifteen pounds in prepping for this- but the next fifteen will have to come post-surgery.

I’ve spent six nights in a hospital in my life – never as a patient – three with my son Bo and three with my Dad (Bo doesn’t talk in his sleep as much Dad!) I’ll stay in hospital two nights on each hip. I’ve been told I’ll be walking as soon as I wake up.

Am I excited about surgery? Of course not. But I knew it was time. So I’m feeling great about the decision and have no worries here.

Your prayers are still appreciated!

Don’t Wait for the Perfect Time – Or You’ll Never Get Anything Done

Mark Gilroy blogs on not waiting for the perfect time to do something - otherwise you'll never get anything done.
When the clouds are full of water, it rains. When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls. Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work. Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.
Ecclesiastes 11:3-4 (The Message)

Investors know that timing is everything – but they also know that no one gets timing right all the time. So they preach that successful investing is achieved through consistency and diversity over time. When the sun shines. Even when it rains cats and dogs. Of course someone bought Apple stock at the right time and got rich – but Forrest Gump was a make-believe character. And none of the can’t-miss stock tips I’ve received have made me rich. (Though I may just be listening to the wrong people.)

One of my kids asked me when I knew I was ready to have kids. The answer was simple; when Lindsey, my first child was born. Nothing but the miracle of birth could have prepared me for fatherhood.

Business plans are great. Outlines are wonderful. Planning, pondering, preparing, predicting, and other forms of prognosticating on what is the best path to take are necessary for success. And there are better times to make a move than others. But if we wait for the perfect time – or until we think we know when the perfect time is – we’ll never act.

Phrases that show the importance of timing, like strike when the iron is hot, are insightful, but so is the simple adage that there is no time like the present.

In Aesop’s Fable of the ant and the grasshopper, the ant followed Solomon’s advise to not stare at the clouds but work – get on with your life. Consistency over time.

Marriage. Kids. New home. New city. New career. New workout program. New endeavor. New habit. New attitude. New mission. New you. Plan and ponder. But don’t kid yourself that you can measure every cause and effect to the point of knowing the perfect time to act and do.

The uncertainties of life and the Law of Unintended Consequences mean that even the very best plans get scrapped and rewritten once we start the journey. Doesn’t mean the plans were bad. But it does remind us that the only test of whether something we want to do is possible is trying it. Doing it.

So what’s on your heart and mind these days? And what are you waiting for? There’s no time like the present.