Lately the steroids seem like they are really helping things with my hip. I go back to the doctor tomorrow, but over the last couple of weeks, I've been able to do a decent amount of workouts.

Most of the books I read in the month of October were travel guides. During my free time last month, I was in hard core planning mode for my return trip to Japan. The last time I went, Meghan did much of the planning since I was kind of tied up with grad school stuff. And since our trip was pretty short last time, we stayed in and around the Tokyo area.



But this time around, I'm going for way longer. That means I'm going to explore more than just Tokyo and the surrounding areas. I'm traveling to Kyoto and Hiroshima, and since I know nothing about those cities, I've been doing a ton of reading and researching.


Just for fun, here's a picture from that last trip of me freezing my face off on Mt. Fuji.

Other than the travel guides, I did manage to read two books for fun last month.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
This book tells the mysterious tale of a girl who claims to have gone four months without eating. When a nurse and a nun are sent to monitor her behavior and see if something miraculous is occurring, the girl's demeanor changes and she becomes bed-ridden as she wastes away. This book made me so sad for the little girl and so angry at her pious, holier-than-thou family. I tore through this book really quickly. Definitely a good read.

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett
This was one of the best books I've read so far this year. Chapters alternate being telling a fictional story of how Jane Austen came to write some of her most famous books and telling the modern day mystery of the origins of the first draft of one of those books. While I did find the ending to be a tiny bit predictable in the mystery part, this book was a perfect read. I loved the characters and didn't want the story to end.

I'm trying to pick my reading up again in November since I have a stack of library books now calling my name.

So I had another follow-up appointment with my doctor on Monday. I basically filled him in on all the things I shared in my last hip post.

Running is pretty Ok, though my hip gets tight and sore afterward, but certain yoga poses are still not very comfortable.


A gorgeous fall run along the water on Monday.

The doc did some more tests and then we talked for a bit about surgery and next steps.

The immediate next step is that my doc put me on a very short course of steroids to see if they would help at all with the inflammation and lingering pain.

I go back in two weeks to access progress again.


My 'roids

But the real next step is to decide if I want to do arthroscopic hip surgery.

My doctor told me at this point, it's my choice, and I basically have to decide what level of pain and discomfort I'm OK living with.

And I'll be honest, I don't have a good answer to that question.

There are some days when my hip seems pretty fine. I'm slowly starting to be able to get back to some running. I took a barre class last night. I rode a bike to that barre class. I didn't have any pain.

There are other days when I sit in a strange position on my sofa and go to stand up and there's some pain. Or the soreness is worse than normal after a workout.

It's annoying and I don't like it, but it's not debilitating (or at least not as much as it was over the last six or seven months).

I also realize all this minor relief is likely tied to the cortisone shots I got, which means it's potentially temporary. I've heard some people get the cortisone shots and then they end up not having much if anymore pain years later. Those stories seems pretty anecdotal though, and there's no guarantee that will be what happens for me.

Surgery scares me though -- even arthroscopic surgery, where the incision would be small and the recovery time wouldn't be too terrible. I'd still have to get knocked out, be cut open and fixed up, and then deal with some level of recovery. There's always a chance of complications.

I have two friends who had this surgery last year. They are both pretty fine now, back to their normal activities and both are so glad they had the surgery. That makes me feel a little bit better about things if I do decide to have surgery.

There's also the argument that if this is going to be a life-long thing that it's better to address sooner. I'm young and fairly healthy, which means recovery would likely be easier than if I were to end up having to have this same surgery in like 20 years.

I'm just really conflicted. Surgery seems so drastic right now when things aren't terrible. I'm getting by.

I don't plan to make a decision this minute. I have time to think on it, make a list of a million questions to ask my orthopedic surgeon and see how things progress. Basically this is where I am now: Surgery is scary. I don't want to do it. But at the end of the day, it might end up being the right choice.