After years of suffering with arthritis and loss of cartilage in my right hip, I’ve recently undergone a procedure known as “hip resurfacing”.

So how did I get this way at just 52 years old? The stupidity of youth!

After years of suffering with arthritis and loss of cartilage in my right hip, I’ve recently undergone a procedure known as “hip resurfacing”. The process is similar to a total hip replacement, but instead of cutting off the top of the femur bone and inserting a spike down your leg, they clear away the damaged bits from ball and socket and cover them with a titanium and chrome cap and receiver, very much like capping a tooth.

As I write this, I’m almost 4 weeks post-surgery and while I have many weeks of rehabilitation in front of me before I can walk without a limp, I’m doing great. The hip pain that caused me to eat Tylenol and Advil like candy and that caused many a sleepless night is gone, totally gone.

So how did I get this way at just 52 years old? The stupidity of youth!

I started plastering in my early teens, and jumping off of scaffolding and flat tops was as natural as doing a back flip off a diving board. I thought nothing at all of jumping off of a saw horse and landing hard on my right leg dozens of times a day, despite very good advice to be more cautious that was offered by seasoned veterans. Some of us younger guys even dared each other to jump from the second story into a sand pile, and of course I could never turn down a dare…

Plastering and drywall are physically hard jobs and we need to work smart if we’re going to last. What have you learned the hard way since those foolish younger days?