HIP HIP HOORAY!
EAMONN: Liam Gallagher is 49 and thinks he’s much too young to have hip replacements. When I was 27, I thought the same – and it was probably one of the biggest mistakes in my life. Granted, I was much younger than the famous rocker, but my pain back then was just as intense. It’s quite a shocking thing, at that young age, to be told by a surgeon that my hips had worn out. After a sharp intake of breath, I concluded I would soldier on, because I didn’t want to have to go through the whole procedure again in, say, 20 years’ time. I may have been right on that front, but I was definitely wrong waiting until I was 55 to finally give the go-ahead for a bi-lateral replacement (that’s getting both done at once). Having done so, it’s my desperate wish that what I had will last me for the rest of my life. But what about the life I wasted in finally taking that decision? Not being able to play football or garden games the way I wanted to with my children when I was in my 30s, when they were five, six, seven or eight. Becoming more restricted and less active in my 40s, piling on extra weight and taking more and more painkillers. By my 50s, I was nearing my wit’s end, knowing the operation had to happen. Sleeping was a problem because of the pain, as was, by and large, everything else. Finally, I ran out of time and had both replaced. I regret my indecision and procrastination because I feel that I lost too many years to being immobile. Liam thinks it’s a bad look to have a hip replaced. When he is 60 he will ask himself: why didn’t I do it sooner? The pain goes, the flexibility returns and I can guarantee him, he’ll only Look Back in Anger.
‘I lost too many years to being immobile’