I started to have a hip problem in 2010 and limping around for several years contributed to the knee problem with the other leg that I had to deal with on the Spain trip. Prior to the trip, I hobbled around in pain, not able to exercise or ride my bike, but the “voodoo” rooster shots in my knee in April got me through the Spain bicycle trip. I could walk a little and ride a little but I was not in any kind of shape for this bike trip. Back home, the knee shots allowed us to get through a summer of editing our house, putting it on the market, selling it, and moving to a new house. Downsizing, they call it. My only bicycling was getting two new tubes for my hybrid bike so it would be ready when I was. Three weeks after we moved I had hip replacement surgery. No doubt the move exacerbated it somewhat and I had decided that I needed to get the hip done and out of the way before the knee failed me again.

My surgery was December 1, 2017 and I had an anterior incision that I hoped would heal faster and allow me to avoid all the usual hip precautions that come with a posterior incision. Surgery was good but two weeks into therapy, I got a partial tear in a tendon. So, no more therapy, major pain meds, and rest for a couple of months. I was finally able to get on an exercise bike in March and a real bike by May 1. By the time of the Scandinavia trip in June, I was able to ride about 30 miles but no hills.

Prior to surgery, everyone said, “be sure and do your therapy.” I might rethink that now. The other consideration could be making sure thigh and knee muscles are in good shape before surgery. My knee precluded that. The lack of therapy affected my flexibility; I have to lay the bike on the ground and step over it to get on. Plus no hyperextension initially allowed with anterior THR. At my six-month checkup in June, doctor said to start slow and sustained stretching. So that’s where things stood as we headed to Denmark in mid-June, 2018.