Screws and All {Mrs. America Bound}

As many have asked about my recent hip surgery, I wanted to explain what happened and share in my recovery. I knew that training for Mrs. America would take hard work, but I didn’t expect it to break my hip! 

Running with my Chocolate Labs, Boomer and Derby, was a huge part of my preparation for Mrs. Indiana. We would run a few miles almost daily and I loved that it was a wonderful workout for all three of us. When I won the title at the end of April, I immediately started planning my strategy for my road to the Mrs. America stage (after celebrating with a bowl of ice cream or five), and it largely involved continuing to run with my girls. 

I kept running after winning Mrs. Indiana, as usual. One day, I started experiencing excruciating pain in my left hip. After trying to manage the pain for awhile with no success, I went to my doctor, who referred me to an orthopedic specialist.

An MRI proved what my orthopedic doctor had suspected; my hip had a stress fracture. Fixing it would require putting screws in my hip. My first thoughts were about how scared I was to have surgery since I had never really gone through something like this before. My surgery history consisted of having my wisdom teeth removed so I wasn’t exactly used to an operating room and I’m a bit of a chicken.  Heck, I have to close my eyes for every other scene of The Walking Dead. Then my mind went straight to Mrs. America. How long would recovery last? When could I start exercising again? How many appearances would I have to miss?  This was a hard pill to swallow. 

Fast forward a week and now I’m happy to say that surgery went well and I am recovering, slowly but surely. Right now, I can only hobble around on crutches, can’t use stairs (so we moved a bed into our living room which I secretly love and wish could be a permanent change), can’t drive, or put weight on my left leg. I get to be really cool; I use a walker straddled over the toilet to use the restroom and family members take turns babysitting me. 

I’m sad to be missing out on so many appearances and volunteer opportunities that I had lined up, as it will take several weeks to get back to normal movement. I hate that I can’t be out there showcasing how wonderful the Mrs. Indiana and Mrs. America organization are for a while, but I know that my health comes first and I know that I’ll just have to hit the ground running once I recover.  I am so thankful for a wonderful doctor and fantastic family members who are taking great care of me. I’m looking forward to getting back out in the community and I cannot wait to arrive in Las Vegas in August to represent my state, screws and all.