Hip replacement hampered his pace, but only temporarily

Posted in St Paul Pioneer Press on Sun, Jan. 22, 2006
By Bruce Brothers

Twin Cities racewalking guru Gary Westlund refers to himself as a hipster.

Westlund is “a hip guy” in the literal sense, however: He underwent total hip-replacement surgery for the second time just a month ago.

He relies on humor to combat any depression that accompanies the deactivation of a typically highly mobile person.

As in: “I had hips that were good for 50 years, and then I had a factory recall.”

Or this: “Use it 'til you lose it, then have it replaced if you can, then get moving.”

Westlund, 55, was diagnosed about 10 years ago with a degenerative joint disorder related to congenital hip dysplasia. On Jan. 27, 2003, he underwent hip-replacement surgery on his right side, and on Dec. 19, 2005, he returned to the operating room to get his left hip replaced.

“There's nothing like losing something as significant as the ability to move strongly and normally, nothing like it that makes you appreciate it more,” he said.

An upbeat man who coaches racewalkers and founded Charities Challenge on Valentine's Day in 2003 to help raise awareness and money for such causes as fighting diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, cancer and other conditions, including aging, Westlund advocates fitness the way some people advocate peace.

A gymnast during his high school days in Columbia Heights, he simply “loved the idea of being fit,” he said of how he got into teaching fitness classes many years ago.

Before long he discovered the benefits of walking, and someone then introduced him to the competitive aspect of racewalking. It was a perfect fit, and Westlund thrived.

“It was an occasion to reach for more: faster times and longer distances,” he said.

MARATHON MAN

He took the reverse route of many after an ankle injury prevented him from the heel-and-toe racewalking routine several years ago and he was forced to turn to running for exercise. Already in excellent shape, he trained for two months and ran the Twin Cities Marathon that year in 3 hours, 23 minutes, good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

That TCM is one of 37 marathons in which Westlund has completed, but none was more rewarding than the Rome Marathon just 14 months after his first hip surgery. He went there with a Charities Challenge group. He started the race running with a few of the faster people from his group, then he slowed to hook up with slower participants coming along, then began walking with some of those back in the pack.

“I was just going to keep going until I had to sit down. It turned out, I made it to the finish line," he said with a chuckle. "It's a great way to see the city of Rome.”

PATIENT PATIENT

These days, Westlund has established different goals.

The other day, he happily set down his cane, but walking up a flight of stairs still feels like an accomplishment. Last week, he was able to sit on a rowing machine for the first time since his second surgery and really work up a sweat.

“It’s just so good to move,” he said, noting that he hopes to hike either 5 kilometers or 2½K at a Charities Challenge walk against obesity at Como Lake on April 1 (for more info, see www.charitieschallenge.org). “But I’m being really careful not to do too much.”

Westlund takes care to heed the advice of a physical therapist who told him, “You’re going to do fine; you don't need to hurry.”

It’s a step-at-a-time adventure.

“I know because of the pain, the weakness in my leg, that I could do damage to the good work the surgeon did if I try to do too much,” he explained. “If I feel pain, I'd better stop, because the setback just isn’t worth it.”

Pain reminds him he's healing, he added, as well as the unpleasant fact he could do damage to the new joint if he doesn't treat it with plenty of tender loving care.

“I could loosen it up,” he said, “and I’ll never run again on it.”

Mostly, Westlund is looking forward to racewalking and cycling with friends, he said, noting that eight months after his first hip surgery he was able to join two people from Charities Challenge and bike around Lake Tahoe, a 72-mile ride.

“That was remarkable,” he said.

“This time, the recovery is going a bit slower,” he said, “but it's going.”

“I tell friends, ‘If I sound down, I am,’ ” he said. “It’s good to own your bad feelings, just like pain. It's OK.”

Westlund attacks those feelings with what he calls self-talk.

“I tell myself — and I choose to believe — that life is good and that my life will be good,”" he explained. “It’s just something that I choose to believe. For four weeks, I wasn’t able to do anything aerobic because I couldn’t move that way. If you go a month without those things, your whole system physically and emotionally will ‘down-regulate.’ Partly what helps is telling myself, ‘It’s temporary.’ I know I will be able to start to ‘up-regulate.’ I will be able to get more active.”

That sounds pretty hip, doesn’t it?

Bruce Brothers can be reached at bbrothers@pioneerpress.com
 

The following photos and text are not part of Bruce Brothers above column, but the photos show Coach Gary happily back in semi-action less than a month after his second Total Hip Replacement.

“Those that can do, and those who can’t can still coach”.

Before Coach Gary could walk around the track himself, he was back to coaching others at Bethel University indoor track from his crutches and a chair.

A couple weeks later, some of those athletes slowed down to walk a couple laps with Coach to cheer him in his comeback recovery walk exercises.
 

Coach Jeanne DeMartino, Coach Gary, Felix Ato-Davies walking at the Bethel U track.

Athletes like these help coach the coach.

Each of these CC athletes happen to be “Comeback Kids”, and have their own health challenges that haven’t stopped them from being winners in recent CC Events races at Bethel U track.

Felix is MN’s fastest race walker, and a CC Challenged Honored Athlete “Comeback Kid”, training and racing very well despite his being deaf since a very young child. Felix is teaching us signing so we can all keep cheering for each other in training and at the races.

Terry Moore joined us in this photo of supportive CC athlete-friends.