Rebekah Gleason Hope had always taken pride in remaining active and healthy. She enjoyed running and playing soccer, alongside many other physical activities.
But when Hope was only in her late 30s, she was told that she’d chronically injured her hamstrings. Hope began going to a chiropractor when she was 41, but they simply told her that she had to stop running.
Hope recalled, “I just started bawling because that was my life and I didn't know what I would do with myself if I couldn't run.”
Although the doctor gave a poor assessment of Hope’s health, he didn’t want Hope to undergo hip replacement surgery until she was at least 50. Prosthetic hips only last around 15 to 20 years; he feared that having her hips replaced too soon would force her to go through two replacements in her lifetime, rather than just one.
For Hope, the prospect was bleak either way, “I can't run, I can't play soccer, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I guess it's not impacting my life in any other major way.”
Back at home, Hope chose to only selectively listen to her doctor. She continued to run, took up biking to avoid heavy impact on her hips, and tried to stay active to keep her health up – but nothing worked.
Her condition only continued to get worse.
Hope was forced to change all her shoes to slip-on shoes that required no laces because she couldn’t bend down to tie them. She wore dresses and skirts because she couldn’t lift her leg high enough to put on pants, and she couldn’t even pick up a pen when it fell to the floor.
Hope knew something needed to change.
After seeking out the opinion of a second doctor, Hope finally had her hip replacement surgery five year sooner than her first doctor had advised: 45.
At that point, the doctor was shocked that Hope’s hips could still support her as she walked to the operating room. “But I have a high tolerance for pain,” Hope shrugged it off.
For her, the surgery and her subsequent recovery was far more important. “The surgery itself wasn't so horrible because as soon as I woke up I could feel that the pain in that hip was gone. The huge scar was nothing compared to the pain I didn't even realize I had been suffering from.”
Hope’s new outlook on life allowed her to speed through her physical therapy and gave her five years of her life back, “It wasn't until I had my hips replaced that I realized how much pain I was living with on a daily basis. I can do almost everything now.”
