hygge all the time

Apparently, Denmark is the happiest country in the word. According to a very credible news source, Facebook :  "Denmark endures dreary winters with the help of an arcane cultural concept known as "hygge." Hygge apparently has no direct analogue in English, and related words like "coziness," "togetherness" and "well-being" only cover a fraction of its nebulous definition".  

For once, I am totally ahead of my time. I love to hygge. I hygge all the time! My two favorite hobbies are 1. staying home in my pajamas and 2. eating by the fire! I am so European! Hygge-ing is about all I feel like doing lately...which is good because I am having surgery to repair my hip joint.  The exact source of my intense thigh aching has been mysterious. While my SI joint continues to wiggle, I am no longer having low back pain and my lumbar MRI looks good, too. All the "ologies" have looked at me (rheumatology, neurology, and psychology).  They think I might have a hypermobility syndrome which is a connective tissue disorder where ligaments get stretched out super easily, causing joint & soft tissue injury and thus,  chronic pain. This could explain why something always gets hurt.

God, I hope so!

They also think my hip joint is the pain generator due to my unstable pelvis. My leg pain does not fit  the classic presentation of a hip labrum tear, which is usually only groin pain, but a steroid shot in to the hip joint really helped for 6 wonderful weeks.  After tons of research, Jake & I  flew to Chicago to see a hip preservation specialist, Dr. Nho, who noted my hip labrum looks "abnormal" and the joint has an impingement.  He thinks these issues in my hip could be causing my pain. Obviously, there are no guarantees, which is stressful. He advises that he fix the bone impingement and labrum and tighten the hip capsule which will help stabilize my pelvis.  I have a second opinion coming up, but I have tentatively scheduled surgery in Chicago on December 13. It is an arthroscopic, same-day surgery, although the recovery and rehab is long: 3- 4 weeks on crutches and 4 months of physical therapy. Eek!

hip hip hooray?

Even though we were only in Chicago for 12 hours, we found time to enjoy the blistering Chicago winds,  ride the El, and try a Triple D restaurant where Jake ate five pounds of pulled meat for his only meal of the day.

eat meat

 I am very grateful for my husband - he always supports me and loves me no matter what hurts. Major thanks to Steve & Liz for helping with the kids and my mom for listening to my pain! Now accepting book and movie recommendations for my long winter on the couch...