I had my first hip replacement surgery in 1980 in America. It was a miraculous procedure that enabled me to walk normally, after walking for a year on an undiagnosed broken femur that eventually collapsed. I was even able to return to the tennis court.

Shortly after my surgery, my doctor discovered an infection. The surgeons opened the area, cleaned out the infection and put me on a six-week course of intravenous antibiotics. This intervention saved my hip replacement for six years.

But then the infection returned. This time, the surgeons removed the infected prosthesis, put me in traction to keep a space available for a new hip and, once again, gave me a six-week course of intravenous antibiotics.

I received a second hip, but it also became infected. It was removed and again I was connected to intravenous antibiotics for six weeks. Although there were several surgeons who were willing to put in a third hip prosthesis, one wise doctor explained to me that I probably had a drug-resistant bacteria hiding in my hip joint, ready to re-emerge after another foreign body was inserted into it.

At age 30, I made the decision to forgo the surgery and live with what is a significant handicap – no hip joint and one leg nine centimeters shorter than the other.

For 37 years, the infection in my bone lay dormant. I didn’t return to the tennis court but, instead, I became a swimmer. “There are many dreams you can fulfill in your life, even without a hip,” my knowledgeable and compassionate family doctor told me at the time. He was correct. I married, became a mother and a grandmother. I had an amazing and meaningful career as a teacher, both in America and in Israel, we made Aliyah in 2000, I completed my doctorate in education and became an author of children’s books.

In 2025, that dormant infection decided to “wake-up” and pursue me with a vengeance. I ended up in the hospital with sepsis and, as I write these words, I am grateful that my life was........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)