No one told me it would feel like I was hosting an alien…

By Karen Middleton

When I retired after ten years as CEO of the CSP, I had all sorts of plans, none of which involved having my hip replaced! I injured my hip during a Pilates class (I know!) three months before I left the CSP but as all good physios do, I ignored it and continued with a hiking holiday and plenty of other weight-bearing exercise. 

Of course retirement brings a little more time to pay attention to yourself and so started my orthopaedic journey and an MRI that I couldn’t quite believe was mine - the damage was horrendous with virtually no joint space and bone cysts all over the place.

When I was a practising clinician, I came to the conclusion that when people retire, their bodies seem to ‘retire’ too and all sorts of problems start. I now think that retirement allows you to notice what’s going wrong and do something about it!

Whilst it’s years ago since I watched hip replacement surgery or started a patient on their rehab journey post-op, I still felt that as a physiotherapist I had a bit of an advantage when I had my Total Hip Replacement (THR), but I well and truly became a patient – and learnt so much that I was totally unaware of as a result.