My Osteoarthritis progresses

Since I could no longer play or Ref hockey I set out to find some other activity to be fanatical about. Actually I didn't quite give up right away. I took about six months off to see if the rest would settle the pain down (it didn't). All I did was put on some weight. So then I decided to lose some weight. I did so fairly well, probably losing up to 50 pounds. Then I tried skating again, a disaster. Once the osteoarthritis begins there are inevitable changes that occur in the joint. Most notably with hips your leg begins to rotate outward, degree by degree. The end result for me was that it was like trying to skate with someone else's legs. I wiped out a few times and then went home and sold my hockey equipment.

In the meantime I kept up with conditioning as much as possible. I was usually working out 4-5 times a week at the gym, plus a lot of cycling. My conditioning level was good. The pain was becoming an issue and I thought that the time was upon me. I went to my Doctor but she elected to send me to a Musco-skeletal specialist rather than a surgeon. He proposed some exercises and drugs that helped get me through another year or so, after that I was referred to a Surgeon. By the way, the drug that I found the most useful for my particular manifestation of OA was Diclofenac. Later that was teamed up with Toridal, which worked for a few months. Then, finally, weaker narcotics. Even so, as surgery approached, walking with a cane was generally quite uncomfortable.