My Comeback Story: Andrea A.

A few weeks ago, I crossed the finish line of the Missouri State Championship Time Trial after racing 25 miles at 20.1 miles per hour.

I won - First place in my bracket and I claimed the official title.

Not bad for someone who had both her hips replaced last Fall.

A year ago, I was living in a very different body.

A cycling event last August found me somewhere in Missouri. It was a hot, dry summer day, only 30 miles in on a 65 mile ride.

Trapped in a body racked with pain.

One hip had locked up and the other leg, trying to compensate, seized up in cramps so severe, my bike had to be pulled out from under me.

It was to be my last ride before my first hip surgery. Eight weeks later, the second hip was done and I was on the road to recovery.

What I couldn’t see at the time, was just how small my world had become.

Movement had been my whole life. As an athlete, an equestrian, a fitness professional and a busy mom of five kids.

There came a point where everything I wanted to do had to be weighed against the pain I knew it would cause.

But after my hips were replaced, something extraordinary began to happen — My world started getting bigger again.

Initially, recovery was about the next thing in front of me, and then the next and the next and every day brought a new challenge.

But the pain that I had lived with. The pain that kept me home and the pain that kept me awake at night — was gone.

Each day felt like a precious gift and it was only a short time that I was back in the gym, then back on my horses and then back on my bike.

Mobility came back.
Strength returned.

But the greatest gift of all is the freedom.

The freedom to move again, to live, to ride my horses, walk my dogs and ride my bike.

I share those things not because everyone having a hip replacement wants to race a bicycle.

Maybe your finish line is walking through the grocery store without pain.

Maybe it’s getting down on the floor with your grandchildren.

Maybe it’s traveling, gardening, golfing, hiking, dancing, walking your dog, or simply moving through an ordinary day without calculating every step.

But when you’re standing on the before side of joint replacement, it can be difficult to imagine just how good the after might be.

I want you to know that it can be very, very good.

I didn’t know what to expect and everyone around me used the phrase— manage your expectations.

But what I truly didn’t know and couldn’t see at the time was how profoundly getting my mobility back would change the way I experienced my life.

There is something about losing freedom— and then having it returned to you that makes the ordinary extraordinary.

A bike ride isn’t just a bike ride anymore.

Throwing my leg over a horse isn’t just another afternoon.

Teaching a fitness class isn’t simply my job.

They are reminders.

I can move.
I am free.
I get to do this.

Last year I measured my body by what I had lost.

Today I measure my life by what is possible again.

And the possibilities keep getting bigger.

So yes, I had both of my hips replaced.

Those surgeries gave me back movement, strength and freedom in ways I could only have hoped for when I began this journey.

But when I think about everything that has happened since, I realize something else.

I may have had my hips replaced, but it’s my heart that has benefited the most.

Thank you to everyone at Orthopedic Associates for their warmth and encouragement.

But my deepest gratitude belongs to Dr. Mathew Collard. His extraordinary skill and professionalism gave me confidence when I needed it most, but it was his humanity—his encouragement, his belief in what was possible—that carried me through one of the hardest years of my life.

He didn’t simply give me two new hips.

He gave me back the freedom to live fully in my body—and with it, this beautiful, vital, energetic life I love so much.

Andrea Arena- James