Au revoir Monaco

Monday I got back from my trip to Paris and Monaco. I'm still jet-lagged; it's 4:50 AM and I can't sleep!

I was really nervous about getting around over there. One of my favorite things about Paris (and other places that were built before cars were invented) is that it's made for walking. This time, though, that seemed a little intimidating. I wasn't sure how I was going to get around. When I got to Paris, my apartment wasn't ready so I had to go entertain myself for a few hours. I had a good time walking around and took a lot of pictures, but I was tired from the plane ride and my hip was pretty painful. I tried to figure out the Velib, free or low-cost bikes that are everywhere in Paris, but it turns out that you need to have a credit card with a "puce", or chip, on it. American cards don't have this. Besides, although there are Velib stations every 300 meters in Paris, the closest station to my apartment was still a few blocks that I didn't necessarily want to have to walk every time I wanted a bike. I found a place that rented bikes for longer-term, and got one for 4 days @ 25 euros.

Riding was so much fun! The mayor of Paris is very supportive of cycling and alternate forms of transportation, and in addition to starting Velib he has added many bike lanes. Smaller streets were great for riding on as-is, medium-sized streets generally had small bike lanes to the side, and large boulevards had a lane dedicated to bikes, buses and taxis. I thought it worked great! I didn't quite get the hang of turning left from a bike lane that's on the right side of the street, and lots of the routes I typically walk were hard to replicate on a bike because of one-way streets, but the fun of riding around more than made up for those minor drawbacks. Plus, riding bikes doesn't put weight on my hip joint, so it just doesn't hurt like walking does.

I took the train to Monaco for a work conference, the real purpose of my trip. I booked the closest hotel to the conference center to try and minimize my walking. This also happened to be one of the most expensive hotels, so I shared a room with my boss. I thought about renting a bike but it was quite expensive, and the conference center was only about a 5 minute walk. Besides, although the ride to the conference center was along the beach and very flat, a ride to anywhere else would have been hard--there are so many hills! I did take the bus some but I also just walked a lot, and it hurt.

The conference was a lot of fun, and my presentation went well. Monaco is beautiful but very expensive, and very touristy (rich tourists). I'm glad to be home!

Resurfacing surgery for the left hip is still on for November 15. I got the plane tickets yesterday.

The Crutchless Wonder

On Wednesday I saw a new doctor here in Atlanta, Stephen Smith. I took him the x-rays that I had from the previous week. He didn't say a whole lot about my situation, probably because I told him I had already had the core decompression on the right hip and had scheduled the resurfacing on the left hip with Dr. Mont. He seemed to think that my choices were good ones and he said he could be my local orthopedist, which was a relief. I needed one here but the ones I had already met didn't seem to be on the same page with me. He seemed like he would have been reluctant to perform the resurfacing himself, which kind of just reassured me about my choice to go up to see Dr. Mont in Baltimore. Dr. Smith has only done around 40, and Dr. Mont has done over 1,200 I believe. I'd happily go to Dr. Smith if I decided to just get a replacement though.

As soon as the appointment was over I Fedexed the x-rays up to Dr. Mont. Jill, his physician's assistant, called me Thursday afternoon--it must have been right after they received them. She gave me the okay to walk crutch-free! She said it would help with the pain to use assistive devices (crutch or cane) when possible, but that I had no more restrictions on weight-bearing. Well, she did say not to do heavy loading on that joint for a year, but with the combination of the ON and the future surgery on the left hip that shouldn't be a problem!! I'll be perfectly happy to stay far away from heavy lifting, marathon running, and downhill skiing, thank you very much. Jill also said she thought my left hip looked good for the resurfacing in November, although she was going to check with Dr. Mont and call me back next week. And, she said he had some number of grams of wine that were okay to drink! I was kind of excited about someone telling me an amount to drink that was considered safe, if this is true. I'll check back when I talk to them next week. I'm not always good at estimating what is a reasonable amount of yummy wine to drink or food to eat! I am, on the other hand, VERY good at justifying "just a little bit more won't hurt!"

It's very exciting to be able to use my arms for things other than getting around. Still, it's a little disappointing to recover from surgery and still be in pain and not be functioning normally. As much as I try to fake it, I'm just not very good at walking these days. A girl in the locker room asked about my limp today. I didn't mind answering her questions and I'd much rather someone just be upfront and ask if they are curious, but I guess I thought maybe if I didn't have my crutches that people wouldn't know anything was wrong with me. On the other hand I realized I've grown sort of attached to my crutches: I didn't have my card to get into the gym, and the receptionist wanted to see it. I said "don't you recognize me? I'm the one with the flame crutches!" even though I didn't have them with me. It still didn't work, she didn't recognize me but I stood there and dug through my purse until she got sick of me and just told me to go.

A week from tomorrow I'm leaving for Paris and Monaco! Between now and then I have two major tasks: complete two papers at work and figure out how I'm going to get around over there...