Well, let me begin by welcoming you to my hip journey. I think we all can agree that we are first told we need a hip replacement (or two) – everything starts moving in slow motion and we leave our bodies.  I was told I was too young and lingered in pain for two years and until I could no longer walk without a cane. I began to keep a journal and wrote in it daily as I hibernated from the outside world.  The journal became a WordPress blog and a place for me to release my emotions as rapidly as they came up.  Three years and two hip replacements later, I began rebuilding my life.  I, like many, had complications which triggered me even more into googling, connecting, writing and remembering to breathe.  Breathe. Breathe.  S L O W down.

No matter how you applaud yourself (or if you even do after everything you’ve been through)…we applaud you… as you have now become a proud member of the Hipster Club… a community of bionic men and woman around the globe.

No one understands bone-on-bone pain or the landscape of the unknown until they face the challenges of  a reduced quality of life and the fear of surgery.  And, until you have sources of information, support and the knowledge that experience brings…it can be a scary process… Especially to go through or face alone.

For example, I would never have known, if I didn’t receive some good tips from a fellow hipster, to ask for anti-nausea pills in the hospital (caused by the pain medication).  I wouldn’t have known what special devices to get (my grabber was incredible), or to hook myself up with a buddy to go on walks with or bring me food or take care of my pet in the early days after my hip replacements.

That’s why I created Hipster Club, and also a FB style place for hipsters to gather –  hipsterclub.ning.com…

Hipster Club is here for you:

1. For support, and to know you are not alone – we are a club, an initiation into becoming bionic.
2. We get to share our experience, knowledge and become a community for each other to get and stay out of pain within our new bodies.
3. We get to give and get advice and encouragement during a scary transition.  I must add that things have become a bit different from when I got my first hip replacement (at 50).  Now they have what I call “drive by replacements”…all in the same day.  Every year, every month, every day – they have new developments in replacement surgery.  And now with 3-D printing, joint replacements will become totally customized to your own body.

So, I welcome you to the land of becoming bionic and I thank you for finding your way here to The Hipster Club.