World sport one

MORE PAIN

Hip pain has been bothering me again. Stiffness, soreness and tightness when I walk too much – forget about running. I have to stretch every day and do strength training to keep my body strong, and experience any sort of joint pain relief.

I thought my regimen would keep me from needing any kind of future medical attention; I’ve already done acupuncture, physical therapy and taken up swimming over running but nothing seems to be able to reverse the process of arthritis and joint pain.

“Joe, your hip looks pretty bad from what the X-rays tell me. You might have to join the club pretty soon.” My lifelong doctor, Dr. Al told me. The club, by the way is everyone of his patients who have had hip replacement surgery.

Today, my plan is to continue doing my workout and stretch, walk as little as possible, swim as much as possible and see if I can keep this hip joint pain in check. If the joint pain is too much for me then I will have to go under the knife.

THE PAIN BEGINS

Ever since I was thirty- has it been that long? I’ve had one rule when exercising or playing sports. Whenever I feel some discomfort, I stop and wait a day or two. If I don’t listen to my body the damage lasts longer and so does the pain. However, if I listen to those initial warnings I’m usually pain free and I can start up again, usually as quickly as the next day. These days the pain that I am facing is joint pain.

A couple years ago, I began to have hip pain in my left side after a long run. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to run so cutting it out was hard. I did it because I’ve learned to pay attention to my body when it gets in pain. I stopped running and began a swimming regimen. I also started stretching.

It pays to listen to your body, even though my hip pain has continued I’m talking to people, reading and trying to find new ways to live.