Hip Replacement
10/02/07 15:35
Ron was quite
young at the time, but sometime in the '50s he
remembers Pop at the county hospital after having
his hip replaced. It was revolutionary at the
time and he was one of the first in Utah to have
it done. They didn't let kids in hospitals at the
time, but Ron remembers the family who did get to
go in for a visit, waving out the window to him.
Funny, I remember the same thing when Brent was
born; I was nearly five. They held him up to the
window and let me wave to him. This is very
different from my daughter, who was born at 9:53
p.m. on Christmas Eve, at a birthing center and
we were home before 7:00 the next morning. Her
brother was rocking her less than ten hours
later. He thought he got her for Christmas (he
was 14 months old).
Laree w/Ron's
help
Pop may well have had EB, as Kathy suggested, but Ron's guess about the origin of Pop's limp is different.
Ron was quite young at the time, but sometime in the '50s he remembers Pop at the county hospital after having his hip replaced. It was revolutionary at the time and he was one of the first in Utah to have it done. They didn't let kids in hospitals at the time, but Ron remembers the family who did get to go in for a visit, waving out the window to him. Funny, I remember the same thing when Brent was born; I was nearly five. They held him up to the window and let me wave to him. This is very different from my daughter, who was born at 9:53 p.m. on Christmas Eve, at a birthing center and we were home before 7:00 the next morning. Her brother was rocking her less than ten hours later. He thought he got her for Christmas (he was 14 months old).
Saturday, September 8, 2007 - 06:39 PM
Kathryn
Why did Pop have his hip replaced? Was it the auto accident that also took a couple of fingers?
My dad had a limp during his later years and often remarked that his father had the same thing. Sometimes heart difficulties can cause a limp or arthritis. Difficult to know.
Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 03:48 PM
Laree
I don't know why Pop needed his hip replaced. Maybe Ron remembers. I would guess damage from arthritis, and that it was hereditary. My dad had hip replacements and brother Dave needs one. I have a hip ailment that evades diagnostic attempts.
Although this is probably not the entire reason for his limp, it appears as though he injured his leg when he was quite young. He (at least not that I can discover), actually tells how the injury occurs, But Francis does say:
“Lawrence (Francis’ half-brother, 6 months older than him), James (Francis’ half-brother 13 years older than him) and I entered the B.A.C. nearly four weeks late in 1914 and roomed together at the home of E.E. Williams on 200 East.
A few days after I entered school an inter-class track meet was held and I was persuaded to run the quarter mile. I knew this was unwise, while, though I had been doing a great deal of walking and climbing hills, I was not in shape to run this difficult race. I won for my class but cold hardly get up the hill to the Gym, and for over a week my heart did not beat regularly for more than a few minutes at a time. We did not have or know of such sources of information as we do now and I did not consult a doctor, but just kept it to myself thinking that I had inflicted permanent damage to my heart and would not even be able to live a normal life. The condition improved, however, and I gradually got to running again and trained regularly all that winter and the next but was always conscious of the period irregularity of my heart. I was never refused Life Insurance or Military Service because of it.
I sometimes think I was overly anxious to excel and become popular as an athlete. Since my failure to become a musician and in playing athletic games, I concentrated all my efforts on being a foot racer. There was another reason also. The injury I received while rolling rocks in the Grand Canyon the winter before starting High School left the cords in the calf of my leg and back of my knee short so I walked with a hitch.”
Annie also tells an amusing story about that same injury:
“Frant after graduating from the 8th grade as we had both done in the Spring of 1913, was spending the winter at the sheep herd to get money for college. He had had an accident to his leg and had come for medical attention and therapy. Although he was on crutches, it did not stop him from joining in the fun of sleigh rides, evenings playing crockinole, Rook, and other inside games.
One evening we had spent the time enjoying some of these games. Mother and her family were renting a house just across the street from Frant’s home, so he didn’t have far to go. After telling him goodnight on my steps, I stood and waited until he could get safely down and on his way. He put his crutches down firmly on the front step and swung out to make the first step. His crutch tips caught in a crack and held steady. His body swung out and he landed on the snow on his back and seat, halfway to the gate. After helping him up onto his crutches again, it would have been very unkind of me not to have reversed the order of gallantry and escort him safely home, which I did.”
In addition to that, apparently his hip replacement never really “took” On page 67 of “Reminiscences” Francis states:
“Just before reaching the age of sixty, it became necessary to sell the feed and seed plant, in May 1953 after only a little over thirteen and a quarter years operation. This unwanted retirement was necessary because of a worn-out hip joint and respiratory troubles.
Mother did not have good health through it all. She spent most of the year in bed and arm chair because of a heart condition. She, of necessity, learned to relax in spite of many things to do and now, at near seventy-two has good health considering everything and we have had many good trips together, made possible by employment from Kent at Perma-Pak.
As we worked day and night much of the time at the Feed & Seed Plant, we had all indebtedness paid and with the raise in valuations were able to put away some in savings, besides having twenty years’ payments coming in.
July 1, 1953 , I had a hip joint replaced and in August began to get around on crutches. We rented our home in Cedar to Jay Overson, who purchased the feed and seed plant, keeping the basement for our use when in Cedar.
The winter of 1953 and ’54 we spent in Mesa working in the Temple and visiting the surrounding country and special attractions in Phoenix and doing other interesting things with Ether and Marion and their wives. In the spring we had a nice visit with Vern, Glenna and family in Los Alamos where we had Laurel and Gay come on the bus. We then brought them home to Provo where they lived until September 1955, when they moved to Bluewater, New Mexico, where they still reside.
We spent the summer of 1954 in Salt Lake living with Kent while I took a reading course in the Salt Lake Clinic while waiting for Dr. Oakelberry at the occasion of his many attempts to get my new plastic hip joint to work. I began to feel certain that he had put Chev. parts in a Ford body and forgotten a grease plug.”
He then discusses traveling, but still has trouble with his hip. When they were on the Palmyra Pageant Tour in 1957, he says:
“I had by this time graduated to a cane instead of crutches.”
Later he talks about working for Kent at Perma Pak in 1956 and says:
“I worked four of five days, though still on crutches until 1959, and enjoyed it very much.”
Pop may well have had EB, as Kathy suggested, but Ron's guess about the origin of Pop's limp is different.
Ron was quite young at the time, but sometime in the '50s he remembers Pop at the county hospital after having his hip replaced. It was revolutionary at the time and he was one of the first in Utah to have it done. They didn't let kids in hospitals at the time, but Ron remembers the family who did get to go in for a visit, waving out the window to him. Funny, I remember the same thing when Brent was born; I was nearly five. They held him up to the window and let me wave to him. This is very different from my daughter, who was born at 9:53 p.m. on Christmas Eve, at a birthing center and we were home before 7:00 the next morning. Her brother was rocking her less than ten hours later. He thought he got her for Christmas (he was 14 months old).
Saturday, September 8, 2007 - 06:39 PM
Kathryn
Why did Pop have his hip replaced? Was it the auto accident that also took a couple of fingers?
My dad had a limp during his later years and often remarked that his father had the same thing. Sometimes heart difficulties can cause a limp or arthritis. Difficult to know.
Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 03:48 PM
Laree
I don't know why Pop needed his hip replaced. Maybe Ron remembers. I would guess damage from arthritis, and that it was hereditary. My dad had hip replacements and brother Dave needs one. I have a hip ailment that evades diagnostic attempts.
Although this is probably not the entire reason for his limp, it appears as though he injured his leg when he was quite young. He (at least not that I can discover), actually tells how the injury occurs, But Francis does say:
“Lawrence (Francis’ half-brother, 6 months older than him), James (Francis’ half-brother 13 years older than him) and I entered the B.A.C. nearly four weeks late in 1914 and roomed together at the home of E.E. Williams on 200 East.
A few days after I entered school an inter-class track meet was held and I was persuaded to run the quarter mile. I knew this was unwise, while, though I had been doing a great deal of walking and climbing hills, I was not in shape to run this difficult race. I won for my class but cold hardly get up the hill to the Gym, and for over a week my heart did not beat regularly for more than a few minutes at a time. We did not have or know of such sources of information as we do now and I did not consult a doctor, but just kept it to myself thinking that I had inflicted permanent damage to my heart and would not even be able to live a normal life. The condition improved, however, and I gradually got to running again and trained regularly all that winter and the next but was always conscious of the period irregularity of my heart. I was never refused Life Insurance or Military Service because of it.
I sometimes think I was overly anxious to excel and become popular as an athlete. Since my failure to become a musician and in playing athletic games, I concentrated all my efforts on being a foot racer. There was another reason also. The injury I received while rolling rocks in the Grand Canyon the winter before starting High School left the cords in the calf of my leg and back of my knee short so I walked with a hitch.”
Annie also tells an amusing story about that same injury:
“Frant after graduating from the 8th grade as we had both done in the Spring of 1913, was spending the winter at the sheep herd to get money for college. He had had an accident to his leg and had come for medical attention and therapy. Although he was on crutches, it did not stop him from joining in the fun of sleigh rides, evenings playing crockinole, Rook, and other inside games.
One evening we had spent the time enjoying some of these games. Mother and her family were renting a house just across the street from Frant’s home, so he didn’t have far to go. After telling him goodnight on my steps, I stood and waited until he could get safely down and on his way. He put his crutches down firmly on the front step and swung out to make the first step. His crutch tips caught in a crack and held steady. His body swung out and he landed on the snow on his back and seat, halfway to the gate. After helping him up onto his crutches again, it would have been very unkind of me not to have reversed the order of gallantry and escort him safely home, which I did.”
In addition to that, apparently his hip replacement never really “took” On page 67 of “Reminiscences” Francis states:
“Just before reaching the age of sixty, it became necessary to sell the feed and seed plant, in May 1953 after only a little over thirteen and a quarter years operation. This unwanted retirement was necessary because of a worn-out hip joint and respiratory troubles.
Mother did not have good health through it all. She spent most of the year in bed and arm chair because of a heart condition. She, of necessity, learned to relax in spite of many things to do and now, at near seventy-two has good health considering everything and we have had many good trips together, made possible by employment from Kent at Perma-Pak.
As we worked day and night much of the time at the Feed & Seed Plant, we had all indebtedness paid and with the raise in valuations were able to put away some in savings, besides having twenty years’ payments coming in.
July 1, 1953 , I had a hip joint replaced and in August began to get around on crutches. We rented our home in Cedar to Jay Overson, who purchased the feed and seed plant, keeping the basement for our use when in Cedar.
The winter of 1953 and ’54 we spent in Mesa working in the Temple and visiting the surrounding country and special attractions in Phoenix and doing other interesting things with Ether and Marion and their wives. In the spring we had a nice visit with Vern, Glenna and family in Los Alamos where we had Laurel and Gay come on the bus. We then brought them home to Provo where they lived until September 1955, when they moved to Bluewater, New Mexico, where they still reside.
We spent the summer of 1954 in Salt Lake living with Kent while I took a reading course in the Salt Lake Clinic while waiting for Dr. Oakelberry at the occasion of his many attempts to get my new plastic hip joint to work. I began to feel certain that he had put Chev. parts in a Ford body and forgotten a grease plug.”
He then discusses traveling, but still has trouble with his hip. When they were on the Palmyra Pageant Tour in 1957, he says:
“I had by this time graduated to a cane instead of crutches.”
Later he talks about working for Kent at Perma Pak in 1956 and says:
“I worked four of five days, though still on crutches until 1959, and enjoyed it very much.”