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Patient Stories, Podcast

Running with Bionic Hips: Carrie Bradshaw’s Marathon Milestone

2 days ago
65 min read
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Summary:

In this episode, Carrie Bradshaw returns to the Arthritis Life podcast to discuss her remarkable journey from double hip replacements to completing the Boston Marathon. 

Cheryl and Carrie discuss Carrie’s diagnosis of hip dysplasia which led to osteoarthritis, her hip replacement surgeries in 2022 and 2023, and her experience running the Boston Marathon. Carrie emphasizes the importance of self-advocacy, having a strong support and care team, and setting mini goals during recovery. 

They also candidly talk about the emotional struggle with post-marathon blues and how time, support, and new goals helped Carrie overcome it. Overall, Carrie aims to give hope to others facing similar medical challenges.

Episode at a glance:

  • Carrie’s Arthritis and Double Hip Replacement Journey: Cheryl and Carrie discuss Carrie’s arthritis diagnosis and how that led to having double hip replacements.
  • Carrie’s Experience Running the Boston Marathon: Carrie shares her experience of running in the Boston Marathon in April 2025. 
  • The Importance of Self-Advocacy and a Support Team: Cheryl and Carrie discuss the importance of advocating for yourself and having a strong support system to help you overcome challenges.

Medical disclaimer: 

All content found onArthritis Life public channels was created for generalized informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Episode Sponsors

Rheum to THRIVE, an online course and support program Cheryl created to help people with rheumatic disease go from overwhelmed, confused and alone to confident, supported and connected. See all the details and join the program or waitlist now! 

Speaker Bios:

At age 40, Carrie Bradshaw’s world was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with bilateral congenital hip dysplasia & severe osteoarthritis and was told by doctors that she would need double hip replacements. Carrie is a young mom to two kids (Theo and Poppy), a former elementary school teacher, and a passionate marathon runner & Boston Marathon finisher. Eighteen months after her double hip replacement surgeries, Carrie is back to doing what she loves – running – and will be running the iconic Boston Marathon in April 2025 with her new, titanium hips.

Cheryl Crow

Cheryl is an occupational therapist who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for over twenty years. Her life passion is helping others with rheumatoid arthritis figure out how to live a full life despite arthritis, by developing tools to navigate physical, emotional and social challenges. She formed the educational company Arthritis Life in 2019 after seeing a huge need for more engaging, accessible, and (dare I say) FUN patient education and self-management resources.

Episode links:

Full Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Cheryl Crow: Okay, I’m so excited to have Carrie Bradshaw back on the Arthritis Life podcast. You might remember her from episode 147 From Marathon Running to Double Hip Replacements and Back: Carrie’s Story. Welcome, Carrie. Can you let everyone know where you live and what is your relationship to arthritis?

[00:00:22] Carrie Bradshaw: Hey, Cheryl Crow. I’m so glad the band’s back together. Yes. Yeah, I live in Houston, Texas, and I met Cheryl Crow a year ago at the Johnson and Johnson Healthy Voices Conference, and we hit it off. Yeah, I had both of my hips replaced, like Cheryl said, due to arthritis because I had something called hip dysplasia, which causes arthritis in young adults.

[00:00:46] Carrie Bradshaw: So I ended up having both of my hips replaced in 2022 and 2023. I was able to get back to training and running and I ran the Boston Marathon in April. 

[00:00:58] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, amazing. And so, yeah, if they [00:01:00] want, if people wanna hear your full, you know, diagnosis and treatment journey with OA and congenital hip dysplasia, they should definitely go back and listen to that episode because you didn’t know you had hip dysplasia, you just knew your hips were hurting and so how did they diagnose that? Just as a reminder? 

[00:01:15] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. Just to go back I was 40. I, you know, I was born with hip dysplasia. I was an athlete, played soccer, never knew I had it. I did have aches and pains in my back especially like growing up and then after kids and even when I was pregnant.

[00:01:29] Carrie Bradshaw: But I never, I kind of just thought it was normal. And from running, I try, you know, I kind of just let it go until it got to the point where I couldn’t walk anymore and my like leg was hip, was locking up. That’s when I went in and got imaging done and they diagnosed me with hip dysplasia and because there was arthritis I couldn’t, I had, I couldn’t preserve my hips.

[00:01:51] Carrie Bradshaw: I needed to get hip replacements, but yes like Cheryl said, I never knew. I found out at age 40 when I really couldn’t walk. And yeah, [00:02:00] doctors told me I would, I was, I’m a marathon runner, and doctors told me, many doctors told me that I would never run again with hip replacement. 

[00:02:07] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, it is. Your story really is incredible and just to make sure I review this, that it, the kind of arthritis that can come from hip dysplasia or congenital hip dysplasia is osteoarthritis.

[00:02:20] Cheryl Crow: So it’s like the localized arthritis at that joint as opposed to the more inflammatory full body like lupus, like condition of like rheumatoid arthritis where you have fatigue and inflammation of like maybe the heart and the lungs and the eyes. So there’s just, it’s a different kind of arthritis. And that’s just little sprinkling in a little arthritis education.

[00:02:44] Carrie Bradshaw: Correct. 

[00:02:44] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. So at last time we talked, you had been training for the Boston Marathon and today I wanted to catch up to you with you and find out how it went. But first of all, for those listening who aren’t runners, can you explain like, why is the [00:03:00] Boston Marathon so popular or kind of what is it famous for?

[00:03:05] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of hu there, there’s a lot of great marathons in this world, but Boston is just, it’s so special. I consider it like the Super Bowl of marathons. Yes. It’s very iconic. Has a lot of history. I love New York City Marathon too, the New York City Marathon, but Boston, there’s just something special about it.

[00:03:23] Carrie Bradshaw: And I ran it in 2015 before kids and thought I would be back soon, like after kids, and then everything, you know, with the hips and COVID. It took me 10 years to get back there. But yeah, like I was just saying, it’s just for the runners, the energy is amazing. The city shuts down, so it’s on Monday.

[00:03:44] Carrie Bradshaw: It’s always on a Monday. Most races are on Saturday or Sunday, most marathons. This one’s on a Monday, always on Patriots Day in Boston, and the whole city shuts down and they come out. And so the crowds, the people, the whole city comes together. It’s awesome. And the energy is just [00:04:00] amazing. Yeah, and I just, like I said, it’s iconic special, has a lot of history and yeah, it’s a blast.

[00:04:07] Cheryl Crow: That’s so cool. I just, I thought of that question last minute, but I realized because I used to run a little bit, but not marathon levels was more like 5ks. And now this year I started running again. Partly inspired by you, partly inspired by my strength training and just wanting to get more fit.

[00:04:21] Cheryl Crow: But point being, it’s even if you’re just a casual runner, you probably heard of the Boston Marathon ’cause it is, like you said, like the Super Bowl of marathons, but I wanted people who maybe didn’t know anything about it to understand like, the prestige. You can’t just, anyone can’t just run it.

[00:04:35] Cheryl Crow: You have to run a fast time to even qualify. Right? 

[00:04:38] Carrie Bradshaw: For the most part, yes. In my case this time I was gifted like a golden bib because of my story. So there are mostly, yes, like I qualified in for 2015 most of the time you have to qualify, but they have a small percentage of charity runners. So technically, if you want, I mean you could also qualify by, you know, getting fast.

[00:04:57] Carrie Bradshaw: But you could run with the charity [00:05:00] and some companies and brands get special bibs and somebody through Johnson and Johnson, the company that made my hips, was able to gift me a special bib to be able to, you know, run it after my hip replacements. 

[00:05:14] Cheryl Crow: Wow. Yeah, so that’s amazing.

[00:05:17] Cheryl Crow: So how did the race go? What are some of the highlights and maybe low lights? ’cause no marathon is a picnic usually, right? 

[00:05:25] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah, so highlights my family and one of my best friends, Ann, and my aunt and uncle flew there to support me and my surgeon, Dr. Stocks. That was cool. It was so special having all of them there to support me and just, it was like my victory.

[00:05:41] Carrie Bradshaw: I felt like a victory lap. You know, after everything I had been through with my hip replacements and the recoveries. Just like I said, the energy in Boston is incredible. Getting to see them on the course was awesome. Then my coach, Meb Keflezighi, he won the Boston Marathon in 2014. [00:06:00] He was actually on the live broadcast on ESPN during the race, which is cool.

[00:06:06] Carrie Bradshaw: It just, every, all these sign weird science gifts kept winding up that my coach then Meb, was asked to be on the broadcast. So when I finished, he gave me my medal, which was cool. 

[00:06:18] Both: Wow. 

[00:06:18] Carrie Bradshaw: I’ll have to give you a picture. Meb gave me my medal and then we went up to the photo bridge, like this huge bridge where they have all the TV cameras and different media outlets.

[00:06:30] Carrie Bradshaw: And we went on ESPN or the local. We went on ESPN Live to talk about my story and how he coached me. So that was pretty fun. And then just celebrating with my friends. I mean, I’m leaving out the running part. The running part was great until it wasn’t at a bio that sounds like, yes, the first 15 miles were great and so fun.

[00:06:48] Carrie Bradshaw: And then I fell down. I tripped because there’s so many cups and it like, yeah, like wet cups. I slipped. Luckily I didn’t hurt my hips. The sweet man stopped and helped [00:07:00] me get up, which was I can’t find him. I wish I could thank him properly. And he waited. He helped me get up, but that kind of shook me up.

[00:07:07] Carrie Bradshaw: But I was able to keep going, saw my family. And yeah, after a mile 15 or 16, the wheels started to come off and that’s when, so Boston is known for hills. It’s called Heartbreak Hill. 

[00:07:19] Carrie Bradshaw: Heartbreak hill is at, from mile 20 to 21, I believe. But there’s four hills, four or five hills total. Four hills called the Newton Hills.

[00:07:28] Carrie Bradshaw: And they start, I wanna say, is it at 16 or 17? And go to mile 21. And at that time in a marathon, you are exhausted. So it is a heartbreak. It is so hard. So when I hit the hills I remember looking at my family, my old 20.5 on Heartbreak Hill, and I was like, never again. And that’s very common. It’s like having a baby.

[00:07:51] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. You know, you never, it was like, this is never again, because I was just, it was painful. But, you know, I made, I knew I would make it. And there were [00:08:00] people, my friends, and Ben, my husband told me that my friend Ann and Ben told me that there were people like hunched over on Heartbreak Hill, like leaning over the railings, like looking like they were just gonna collapse.

[00:08:12] Carrie Bradshaw: It’s so intense and so hard and mentally hard. 

[00:08:17] Carrie Bradshaw: So that was a low light, but also a highlight because I got to see my, you know, family and friends. Yeah. And just running it. And then, oh, one of the best highlights of Boston, whether, you know, for me and for everybody, is at the very end, you take the famous right on Hereford and left on Boyleston.

[00:08:36] Carrie Bradshaw: And Boyleston is, it’s probably a quarter of a mile down, maybe a half, quarter to a half of a mile down Boyleston. You see the finish line and the street is just packed. 

[00:08:48] Carrie Bradshaw: So many people watching and cheering and you just, you feel like you’re like a celebrity for a minute. Well, you are.

[00:08:55] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. Boyleston is really special. Just hearing the crowd, seeing the finish line. It’s [00:09:00] just this iconic the end of the marathon. 

[00:09:02] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. And I, I don’t know if this is me projecting, but I feel like if, I wonder if you felt like pressure because you know, you had gotten, you have been able to represent hope to a lot of people who’ve gotten a hip replacement, who might still want to stay active. Whether that means marathon running, whether that means dancing, whether that means, you know, whatever that looks like for them. And I feel like I would feel for me, like a lot of pressure, like I would want it, but then I would also be like, I wanna just be able to just, if I need to stop this marathon, I don’t wanna feel like I’m letting down a bunch of people.

[00:09:37] Cheryl Crow: Did you feel that pressure?

[00:09:38] Carrie Bradshaw: Yes. I was so nervous. And it was, people were like, Carrie, you’ve already won. And I’m like, I felt yes, because a lot of eyes were on me and I was running to give a lot of people hope in my situation. I did feel a lot of pressure and anxiety and nerves, more so than I did when I ran it in 2015.

[00:09:57] Carrie Bradshaw: I knew I would get across the finish line, [00:10:00] whether that meant I had to crawl or walk or, you know, use a walker. But it was the pressure Yes. The anticipation in Yes. The fear of letting people down. 

[00:10:10] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. 

[00:10:10] Carrie Bradshaw: I had, I was, it was overstimulating. 

[00:10:14] Cheryl Crow: I can imagine. I mean, with all the people and the, and just the lead up, like you’ve been training for so long, like, how many, I don’t even know if you can count, like how many months you had planned or 

[00:10:25] Carrie Bradshaw: It was about a I found out about a year, less than a year out that I would be running it. But I didn’t start training officially training, I was already running until the fall, or I guess, yeah, I started building up in the fall.

[00:10:37] Carrie Bradshaw: But yeah, it, you put all your energy and, you know, a heart and soul into this training and this goal, which leads me to my next point about a low light. When it was over, I actually struggled with it, it’s typically called the post marathon blues, but it felt like it can be depression sometimes.

[00:10:57] Carrie Bradshaw: And it hit me really hard [00:11:00] for a couple months after the Boston Marathon. And I was really sad and almost felt like alright, now what? I put my heart, this has been like my dream, it’s been my why for two over two years and now it’s over. I’ve put everything into this.

[00:11:16] Carrie Bradshaw: Now what do I do? And I feel like after I finished and got back home to Houston I start, was able to finally start to process some of the different feelings and what I went through for the last several years to get to that point. Like I, I had, I think I kind of pushed him away because I was so focused on getting to Boston and I was you know, I had this goal and I, nothing, you know, I was blocking everything, all my feelings out.

[00:11:44] Carrie Bradshaw: And once I finished it, there was the letdown, like the come down, but also okay, now it’s time to actually process the last three or four years. 

[00:11:54] Cheryl Crow: And do you mean like the recovery from your surgeries and all of that?

[00:11:58] Carrie Bradshaw: Everything leading up to surgeries, [00:12:00] the diagnosis, not the fear.

[00:12:02] Carrie Bradshaw: All the stages of grief. 

[00:12:04] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. What helped you in that time process? Did you go to therapy or did you talk to friends and family or read things or listen to things or all of the above? 

[00:12:13] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. No, I, you know, I kept trying to fight it. I should have probably seen a therapist. I felt like I was fighting it because, and I almost felt embarrassed that I was feeling so sad about something.

[00:12:27] Carrie Bradshaw: I, I felt like I should be so happy and I wasn’t. 

[00:12:30] Cheryl Crow: Oh God, that sounds so much like my postpartum depression. Yes. Sorry. It took me so long to figure out that it was Yes. Yeah. Yes. 

[00:12:37] Carrie Bradshaw: My mom joked, and I say joke in it in quotes because it’s a dark joke. She’s Carrie’s going through her postpartum depression.

[00:12:44] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. It was like, it felt like that. Yeah. And I was like, I felt guilty and ashamed and embarrassed that I was having, and I was just, I kept trying to fight it and shake it off, and it just kept lingering for two months. Eventually it passed and I, you know, I was able to kind of process a lot of my feelings [00:13:00] during that time.

[00:13:00] Carrie Bradshaw: It just, I just needed time. 

[00:13:02] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s, so, I think that resonates, I’m sure with many people, like I was saying, I relate to that with my postpartum experience where you’re like, objectively so many things are good about the situation, but I’m not feeling good about it.

[00:13:19] Cheryl Crow: And then you think, well, what’s therapy even gonna do? I mean, I’ve been luckily because I was a little bit resistant, but I finally just went and I got really lucky with a home run with my first therapist, you know? But to anyone listening, this is just, sorry, supposed to be about your story.

[00:13:34] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, but I feel like compelled to be like soapbox moment. But it doesn’t, you don’t have to wait until things get worse to go to therapy. Like it’s, if you’re struggling at all, it’s okay to ask for help. Like even if other people in the world have it worse than you, ’cause that’s what stopped me for a long time.

[00:13:49] Cheryl Crow: What do I have to complain about? You know? And yes, but objectively everyone has it better than someone else, and everyone has it worse than someone else. So that can’t be our [00:14:00] metric for deciding whether to go to therapy, 

[00:14:02] Carrie Bradshaw: looking back if it ever happens again, which I don’t, I mean, it could to a certain degree, may, you know, extent, but not the extent you know, after Boston, that, you know, not to the extent of how I felt after Boston. If I had to do it over again, I absolutely would’ve talked to somebody. And I did talk to a friend whose sister was an Olympic athlete in another country, and she said her sister went through it after the Olympics.

[00:14:27] Carrie Bradshaw: It’s very common with Olympic athletes. I wanna say Michael Phelps. I started kind of searching online about it, and a lot of professional athletes after a big buildup like the Olympics for years, their Super Bowl or whatever, it’s over, they lose like their sense of purpose.

[00:14:41] Carrie Bradshaw: That was part of it, but there was a little more for me because I was coming back from such a emotional and emotionally, you know, exhausting and a hard time in my life.

[00:14:51] Carrie Bradshaw: But she told me that the professional, some professional athletes, including her sister, struggled after the Olympics with [00:15:00] depression. 

[00:15:00] Cheryl Crow: It’s so common. And I’m sorry, I don’t mean to say that. I’m telling you, you should have gone to therapy. I was just thinking of anyone listening. It’s so to feel like we’re giving you like a permission slip if therapy is something that might help you.

[00:15:11] Cheryl Crow: But it could also be like reaching out to friends, hearing other stories, realizing you’re not alone. That can be very therapeutic too. And like you said, just the therapeutic value of time. I mean, sometimes we just, my therapist said sometimes emotions are like a wave and like you could try to beat it back.

[00:15:27] Cheryl Crow: You could try to make it go faster, but like it’s just gonna crest and do its thing. Like you can’t control the wave, you know? 

[00:15:34] Carrie Bradshaw: Right. And I remember, so Boston was April 21st.

[00:15:37] Carrie Bradshaw: And I remember I started crying two days after, just like I was emotion. And it was it, but I didn’t cry. When I crossed the finish line, started crying, just things started hitting me.

[00:15:49] Carrie Bradshaw: And then when we got home, I remember I left my suitcase out. My, the clean clothes, not the dirty clothes. Oh yeah. My suitcase away for like over a month. It was like symbolic. I don’t [00:16:00] know what’s the level. And then, so that puts us at May and school’s getting out with my kids. And then the summer hits June and I don’t think I got, I don’t think I got out of it until the end of July, so it was more than a couple months.

[00:16:16] Carrie Bradshaw: And I remember thinking like in July, around July 4th alright this is the, not just like the post marathon blues. 

[00:16:24] Carrie Bradshaw: And I talked to another friend of mine and he had sent me some articles about it as well. And you know, I kept trying to force myself just keep running and setting new goals.

[00:16:33] Carrie Bradshaw: And I do have new goals that I’m excited about, but that wasn’t helping. It’s I, like you said, time was the answer. 

[00:16:39] Carrie Bradshaw: Just letting myself, that’s one of my big pieces of advice for any of, you know, anything in life really that you’re going through that’s challenging. Just let yourself feel it.

[00:16:49] Carrie Bradshaw: And don’t put yourself on a timeline. It’s not linear, the healing and, you know, process things. 

[00:16:55] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. And I think, I mean, I think this is just, this isn’t even what we had. We didn’t even plan on talking about this [00:17:00] on the tangent. No, but this is great. This is why I like having a kind of a skeleton outline, but then we can go with where the conversation goes.

[00:17:08] Cheryl Crow: Because I think it’s I, there’s an analogy I’m trying to cobble together in my head. But I, this is something that I’ve seen when I was in trained as occupational therapist and like physical rehabilitation where it’s like people when you’re, let’s say when you’re still hospitalized, like inpatient setting after an injury or surgery or something like that, and you’re like, okay, I’m just gonna I’m focused just on being able to walk again or being able to whatever.

[00:17:34] Cheryl Crow: And it’s like people, they, you’re so right. They don’t necessarily process the trauma, what’s happening to them till they kind of tell, they’re like, just focus on one thing and put everything else in the back burner. And then at some point you have to get back to like your quote unquote regular life. And then that’s when things like people say like everyone brings you flowers and is supporting you like right at the acute stage of like injury, illness.

[00:17:57] Cheryl Crow: But then like when you really need the help is [00:18:00] when you’re like, you got that first initial goal met and then now you’re like realizing that you have to integrate your old self, right?

[00:18:07] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. Like when, after when somebody’s like grieving, right? 

[00:18:10] Cheryl Crow: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Well, I mean it’s such, I forgot to say by the way, just, I’m always trying to imagine like when I listen to podcasts and people like, don’t define what they’re talking about.

[00:18:22] Cheryl Crow: I’m like, what are you guys talking about? A marathon is 26 miles, by the way, if you can know that. 26

[00:18:27] Carrie Bradshaw: 26.2 

[00:18:27] Cheryl Crow: 0.2. Okay. And then kilometers. ’cause I did realize that like over 10% of the listeners are not in the US so that’s 42 point. One six mile or kilometers 42. Basically 42.2 kilometers.

[00:18:42] Cheryl Crow: So, if Google is right, so if that’s correct, yeah. Or 

[00:18:47] Carrie Bradshaw: 26.2 and 42 point something. 

[00:18:50] Cheryl Crow: So that is a very long, long time. And can you remind me of your surgeon said, I think out of the hundreds of surgeries he’s done of hip replacements, he’s had maybe [00:19:00] a couple people run or do marathons. 

[00:19:03] Carrie Bradshaw: So I know he has done I think he’s done over 10,000 knee and hip replacements. And I can’t remember the exact amount for hips. Probably more hips than knees. I think he’s had a few run half marathons, and I want, maybe he had two, I can’t remember if I was the third or if there were three, run a marathon, but he’s never had anybody, you know, do the Boston Marathon.

[00:19:24] Carrie Bradshaw: But he was the only doctor. Just to go back to the whole, not to bury the lead about the surgeons, he was the only one who believed I could run again. And I made him, you know, he backed it up. It wasn’t just oh, he’s telling me what I wanna hear now I can go run. He backed it up. But yeah, he had the courage to say that and, you know, there’s no guarantees.

[00:19:44] Carrie Bradshaw: And yeah, he supported me from, you know, before day one before I went into surgery. Yeah. And was that was so special and emotional when he flew out there for me. 

[00:19:54] Cheryl Crow: That I can only imagine. Yeah, I think people listening who might [00:20:00] be, you know, know that there’s a hip replacement surgery in their future.

[00:20:04] Cheryl Crow: I know it’s actually a little bit more common with the population of people in their twenties or thirties who had juvenile idiopathic arthritis. So that kind of arthritis that’s affecting you while you’re in your growing years. You know, if it started when you’re five or six, sometimes that can lead to the need for hip replacement surgeries more so than like rheumatoid arthritis, which I have, which normally affects more like the small joints of like fingers and toes and wrists and stuff.

[00:20:27] Cheryl Crow: But point being, you know, no, they might be wondering is there anything you did during your, when you started running again, did you do anything differently than somebody who didn’t have hip replacement surgery? Did you have to follow certain, like precautions or rules, or did you do certain stretches?

[00:20:44] Cheryl Crow: I’m just curious. 

[00:20:45] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah, so, there’s two methods, or there might be a third, but the main the most common two methods for a hip replacement are called posterior and anterior. my doctor does the posterior, which is kind of on the side by, like your yeah. [00:21:00] And, that’s a little bit of a longer recovery in the first six weeks versus the anterior. But every doctor just go, my, my advice, you know, is to just choose the doctor and each doctor has their preferred method to choose the doctor you’re comfortable with first.

[00:21:14] Carrie Bradshaw: So at six weeks. So I had the posterior method done. So for the first six weeks you can’t, you have to lay on your back. You can’t cross your legs. You, I couldn’t sit on a couch. You have to be very careful because there’s risk of your hips coming up coming outta socket.

[00:21:30] Carrie Bradshaw: After six weeks you go for your check first checkup and you get those, assuming everything is okay, those precautions get lifted so you can, you don’t have to sleep on your back anymore, which is great. I started, I think it took me six or seven weeks to start walking normally, and I gradually just built up my walking and at 12 weeks to where I, walking without a cane or a walker.

[00:21:52] Cheryl Crow: At 12 weeks you have your next appointment or? 

[00:21:54] Carrie Bradshaw: I did, at least. 

[00:21:55] Cheryl Crow: Okay. 

[00:21:55] Carrie Bradshaw: And at this point, I’m assuming everything’s okay. I [00:22:00] got cleared to keep walking. I’m still doing PT. I could start adding in a little bit of jogging, but nothing intense. And no, no training per se, no intervals, nothing fast because it takes six months for the prosthesis to fuse to the femur bone.

[00:22:16] Cheryl Crow: Ah, okay. 

[00:22:16] Carrie Bradshaw: That sounds really fancy. So like this, so it’s a big stem and it has to get, you know, fused to the bone and it takes six months and you really, a lot of people rush it. And even if most of the time they’re okay, I don’t think it’s worth it. I hear from a lot of people who are rushing it before that six months, and I think you just need to allow everything to fuse properly because you don’t want to compromise that.

[00:22:37] Carrie Bradshaw: It’s not worth it if you’re playing the long game. So it’s like critical window. 

[00:22:41] Carrie Bradshaw: Right? Yeah. So I was very careful. Waited six months to start really training. Did a little bit of, did walking a lot. PT started strengthening my muscles and once I got to six months and everything looked good, I got the green light to start training.

[00:22:53] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s when I started running more, I’m still doing my PT exercises. And I ran the half marathon, the Houston half [00:23:00] marathon that January. So a few months later. 

[00:23:02] Cheryl Crow: Wow. 

[00:23:02] Cheryl Crow: So, so did running feel different to you on your new hips? 

[00:23:06] Cheryl Crow: I mean, it’s kind of a dumb question, but 

[00:23:07] Carrie Bradshaw: At first, yes. At first, yes.

[00:23:10] Carrie Bradshaw: It, I was scared too because I wasn’t sure what my limits were. I was afraid to hurt something. I remember I was sore, like on the outside of my hip when I was at the beginning. But as I got stronger and my body, you know, as the time went on that kind of went away and I was getting strong. My other muscles were getting stronger to help protect, you know, my core and my hip.

[00:23:33] Carrie Bradshaw: My, core was stronger to help protect my hips. Eventually, no. Now sometimes I forget I even have them, right? 

[00:23:39] Cheryl Crow: That’s the goal. 

[00:23:39] Carrie Bradshaw: First I felt them. I know I do have a little pinching pain in my right hip flexor, but other than that. Yeah, some days I forget that I have ’em, I still get a little scared, you know, pushing myself and running.

[00:23:51] Carrie Bradshaw: But yeah, I mean, it’s been a game changer. 

[00:23:54] Cheryl Crow: Well, that’s such a hopeful, you know, story for people who have to again, be active again after, you know, when [00:24:00] taking your recovery seriously, following the precautions. And again, not to say that every single person listening could do a marathon right on bionic hips, you know, but it’s just knowing that for some people, like in your case it was possible. And I think you’re helping rewrite the story for other people too, right? 

[00:24:17] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah, I hope so. And that’s, yeah, I hope so. I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me saying that I’ve given them hope.

[00:24:23] Carrie Bradshaw: I will go back to what you just said. You made a good point. About not just because you, I wanna just clarify. Yeah. Cheryl does too. Just because you get a hip replacement does not mean you could run a marathon. Yeah. It’s kind of like pregnancy. I say because I was, I’ve always been a runner.

[00:24:37] Carrie Bradshaw: I was a marathon runner, so when I got, I was already running a lot when I got pregnant.

[00:24:41] Carrie Bradshaw: So my doctor was okay, assuming everything was a, you know, healthy pregnancy. He was okay. And even encouraged me to continue running throughout my pregnancy. Now, if you’ve never been a runner, I don’t think they would, most doctors would probably encourage someone to start running while pregnant.

[00:24:58] Carrie Bradshaw: I imagine it’s similar [00:25:00] to the whole hip replacement thing. Maybe wait a little longer. Don’t start training for, maybe just work on walking first. You know, I wouldn’t go straight to trying to do long distances if you’ve never been a runner. That was part of the reason why my doctor felt comfortable with me trying to get back to it.

[00:25:20] Cheryl Crow: Yes. Yeah, no, that’s a really good point. That is the advice, at least when I was pregnant 10 years ago, over 10 years ago now. I said that, yeah, don’t you’ll continue to do the activities you used to do before, but , don’t start like a brand new thing. And I think, right.

[00:25:32] Cheryl Crow: I think that’s where like becoming , I don’t know how to say this, like poster child or like inspirational person in the community of people with chronic illness can be a little tricky sometimes. I’ll speak from my own experience, but also I’m imagining from yours too, where you’re like, so sometimes people are tempted to say things like, well, if Cheryl, like for example, for me, it’s so much simpler physically than years and that like I’m, I can swing dance right now.

[00:25:56] Cheryl Crow: I can swing dance 22 years into rheumatoid arthritis, but there were [00:26:00] times when I couldn’t swing dance and there may be times in the future where I can’t, so I would never say, and swing dancing is like a part for me. A partner dance where someone’s pulling and pushing on your finger joints, which can be really tender and really hard, but I would never say, well, just what’s your excuse?

[00:26:15] Cheryl Crow: Just ’cause you have, doesn’t mean you can’t dance. Look at me. I can look. I don’t wanna say that to people because everyone’s, even if we have the same diagnosis, we don’t have the same bodies, we don’t have the same limitations. So I am guessing you’re probably sensitive to that too.

[00:26:29] Carrie Bradshaw: Yes. And I do get a lot of people who reach out to me and ask me and I just say, this is what I always make sure to clarify. I do not replace a PT or a doctor, obviously. I’m just sharing what worked for me and my experience and I will say, I had both of my hips done, my recoveries for, were very different for each hip, which just shows everybody’s recovery is different.

[00:26:51] Carrie Bradshaw: I had a longer recovery on my right hip, which is, which was the second one to get done. I had tendonitis. That hip flexor still kind of [00:27:00] pinches.

[00:27:00] Carrie Bradshaw: Every recovery is different. Everybody’s body, everybody’s background. So, yeah. I mean, maybe if you know, wanna get back to playing like, you know, sports, but you haven’t done it in many years, it might take you a little longer to get your body prepared for that.

[00:27:13] Carrie Bradshaw: Just yeah. I just wanna, yeah. I don’t want anybody thinking, oh yeah you know, we had, Carrie got her hips replaced and ran the marathon. So I’m gonna go get my hips replaced so I can run the marathon and No it’s not.

[00:27:22] Carrie Bradshaw: Just like with your dancing.

[00:27:24] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. No, it’s such a tender thing. ’cause you wanna give people hope, but then you don’t wanna be like, unrealistic or whatnot, you know? It’s kinda like a little tightrope to walk sometimes. And and you know, the other thing I know that you had said maybe you might wanna talk about is about advocacy.

[00:27:42] Cheryl Crow: Like learning to become an advocate for yourself and maybe for as a mom as well. We had kind of talked about this a little bit before recording, but what would you like to share with people about your journey towards i’ll say those of us that are probably like people pleasers, right?

[00:27:57] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. We’re like nice, happy people that we [00:28:00] want everyone to be happy, you know? So it’s hard to advocate sometimes when you’re like that. So what do you wanna share about that? 

[00:28:06] Carrie Bradshaw: About being able to help others? Yeah. Yeah. Well I started documenting my journey after I had my first hip replacement.

[00:28:15] Carrie Bradshaw: And basically, you know, I guess it’s been a two and a half, three years, three years since the first one. I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and people who have heard about my story, who are going through their own hip problems, reach out to me. Which is great. And I’ve been able to help a lot of people and help them navigate and give them hope that, like you said earlier, that yes, the recovery can be tough, but it’s so worth it to get your life back, whatever that means for you.

[00:28:42] Carrie Bradshaw: And rather than living in this chronic pain. Because I understand that it’s scary to go through with the surgery, but my point is I’ve been able to help give hope to a lot of people who are nervous about getting their hips replaced, even if they’re limping around. I was, like, I would’ve felt the same way.

[00:28:59] Carrie Bradshaw: [00:29:00] I delayed it and delayed it if I had an aha moment, like where it was like, that’s my sign, which made me finally get it done. Because I couldn’t go trick or treating, I was limping around the block.

[00:29:11] Carrie Bradshaw: Trick or treating with my kids, and I had it scheduled a week later and I was gonna cancel it.

[00:29:16] Carrie Bradshaw: But I ended, I was like, no, I can’t even trick or treat what am I doing? I just need, I’m getting the surgery. So it’s hard to pull the trigger and like actually go through with it. It’s scary because you don’t know what, how long the recovery is gonna be or how painful, but i’m able to tell people somebody yesterday messaged me asking, so was it worth it?

[00:29:34] Carrie Bradshaw: Two people did actually, and I said Absolutely 1000%. 

[00:29:39] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. 

[00:29:39] Carrie Bradshaw: That with no regrets, like absolutely go, if you’re in pain, do it. If you’re thinking about it don’t keep delaying it because in another year from now, just think you could have already been, you could be living the life you wanna live.

[00:29:52] Cheryl Crow: Yes. And this is just me being an occupational therapist, but definitely haven’t specialized in this, you know, joint replacement area ever. But what [00:30:00] happens in the body is that are your body’s always trying to compensate. Like your body and your brain are smart in many ways, right? So if you have some sort of imbalance, whether that’s from, you know, a severe osteoarthritis in your hips or even mild over time, all the little tissues and joints and muscle, everything’s trying to figure out how to compensate for that.

[00:30:23] Cheryl Crow: But the problem, so the longer you get into a deformed position or not symmetrical or not ideal position physically, then when you get that, finally you get that joint replacement surgery. All the little muscles, tendons, ligaments around there have already had this they’ve already been like, okay, we figured out how to adjust to this the best we could.

[00:30:44] Cheryl Crow: But now we’re in like even in like a wacky, weird, warped position. So you’re starting from a worse place when you’ve let it get really bad. Now sometimes people don’t even know how bad it is. It’s not like that’s how I was, that’s you literally had a kid and we’re running marathons on severely osteoarthritis.

[00:30:59] Carrie Bradshaw: Which is, and [00:31:00] I had other signs and looking back, my lower back was compensating for years. I had two stress fractures in my lower back because it was having to pick up the slack for my hips. And I would ache a lot. Like my husband, I can’t remember if I told you this, my husband Ben remembers like many years ago, like 10 years ago, you know, back when I was running training for marathons before kids, maybe even after our first child.

[00:31:21] Carrie Bradshaw: I would wake up in the night with this pain or like this uncomfortable feeling, and I would be doing these crazy stretches on the bed trying to like with my leg pull in it, because I just needed some sort of relief and it was because my hips were deformed. They weren’t built correctly.

[00:31:36] Carrie Bradshaw: And one other thing I was going to tell you that, you know, leads back to your point is after I got my hips replaced, my gait changed. And, but leading up to it where my body, it took a while for my body to adjust, everything was so sore. And my gait has changed for the better.

[00:31:53] Carrie Bradshaw: And you know, before I had my hips replaced, I used to supinate, which means for you kind of run on the outside [00:32:00] of your shoe. So like the pinky side. Like the outside of my running shoe. I didn’t mean to, but if you looked at my running shoes. The left side would be kinda worn down.

[00:32:08] Carrie Bradshaw: ‘Cause my foot would go left. It was because of my hips, I’m imagining, I’m guessing, assuming now that doesn’t happen. 

[00:32:13] Cheryl Crow: Wow. 

[00:32:14] Carrie Bradshaw: Interesting stuff, right? I mean, yeah. So my body was compensating and after the surgery it was like, whoa, what’s happening now? Now you’re changing everything again.

[00:32:23] Carrie Bradshaw: And it took a little while for all the parts to you know, get used to the, all the, all of my original parts to get used to the new ones. 

[00:32:31] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a totally normal part of the process. But you know, if you are, if you have been made aware by your medical team that like a joint replacement is really in your future, you know, obviously take their advice, you know, but just know that for many people, like your case, like delaying it is not the most helpful option.

[00:32:51] Cheryl Crow: Sometimes it’s really worth it to just get it over with. 

[00:32:54] Carrie Bradshaw: I’ve actually started doing coaching consults with people who have a lot of questions. Yeah. It’s really cool. [00:33:00] ’cause I can give my undivided attention to them for an hour on the phone and help them navigate the process. And the same thing from a couple of ’em.

[00:33:07] Carrie Bradshaw: They’re, they keep pushing it. I think they’re in denial. I felt the same way, hoping for a miracle that something will get rid of it and fix it. And one guy I talked to, super sweet, he, I’m like you he’s, I’m like, look, there’s never going to be a good time. I asked him like, what’s your next year look like?

[00:33:23] Carrie Bradshaw: He has kids. I went through all the, and I’m like, I get it. It is such an inconvenience on so many levels, but there’s never going to be a good time to go through with something like this. Assuming your doctor supports it and your insurance, you know, will cover it. There I say knock it out now. So in two months you’ll be so much happier in three months.

[00:33:43] Cheryl Crow: It’s really hard. It’s like the devil, you know, like it’s hard for people to, even if they’re in pain, like I, I even feel sometimes that I’m the most you know, I’ve had so many great experiences with Western medicine, with my rheumatoid arthritis, but anytime I have to change my medication regimen, I’m always a little nervous and I’m like, oh, maybe I’ll just wait [00:34:00] two more weeks.

[00:34:00] Cheryl Crow: I know this is what I’m used to. Right. And so the unknown is scary. The unknown. But it can become less scary when you could think of these examples of people where it’s been so helpful like in your case, you know? 

[00:34:15] Carrie Bradshaw: Well, I have a funny little story to tell you.

[00:34:17] Carrie Bradshaw: Yesterday, somebody reached out to me and asked me about geez, I’m 50. My hips are going, you know, acting up. Was it worth it? Are you happy you did it? And then I went and checked his profile and I’m like, holy cow. He was a Navy Seal and he’s asking me if it’s worth it. And I’m like wait. You are a Navy seal. And he’s like this amazing, tough man who’s been in probably tough situations. I don’t even imagine If you can get through that, you can get through a hip. Like dude, you’re seal. I go my recovery was tough.

[00:34:49] Carrie Bradshaw: I’m not going to lie, but I’m pretty sure this will be a piece of cake for you. And he is still nervous about potentially going through with it. And he’s a Navy Seal or he was .

[00:34:58] Cheryl Crow: Wow. I’m not, I’m [00:35:00] laughing not ’cause it’s that’s human nature though the unknown. 

[00:35:02] Carrie Bradshaw: He wanted me to tell him that it was gonna be okay.

[00:35:05] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Wow. 

[00:35:06] Carrie Bradshaw: So I’m happy to do that, but it just shows we all have the same fear of the unknown. It’s a big deal. Surgery, changes in life. 

[00:35:13] Cheryl Crow: I mean, it is legitimate. I don’t wanna downplay it. Yeah. Like any surgery, there are things that could go wrong a hundred percent. Like it’s very legitimately scary.

[00:35:21] Cheryl Crow: I don’t wanna invalidate fear. But you can help mitigate that fear by, you know, reassuring yourself of the times when it went, that does typically go well. And then also remembering that if there is some sort of complication ’cause that can happen, that you will persevere and you will, you know, get through it.

[00:35:39] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna, you know, there’s some questions I have at the end. I call them rapid fire questions, but they’re really, they’re actually like, like long questions. 

[00:35:49] Carrie Bradshaw: I love rapid fire. I’ll try to make them concise. 

[00:35:52] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. No. I’m saying myself I’m always like, 

[00:35:54] Carrie Bradshaw: oh, you’re gonna be long answers.

[00:35:54] Carrie Bradshaw: Okay, got it. 

[00:35:55] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. I always like long rapid anyway, which is okay ’cause we got time, but yeah. Okay. I know you [00:36:00] answered this last time, but I find myself like even year to year, month to month, my answer changes a little bit. What are some of your best words of wisdom for somebody who might be newly diagnosed with either hip osteoarthritis or congenital hip dysplasia?

[00:36:16] Carrie Bradshaw: Okay. My main first piece of advice, I have a couple, is do your research. Interview more than one doctor. Find your care team and your support team. Do advocate for yourself. I didn’t just listen to the first two doctors I went with who would’ve replaced my hips. They probably would’ve been great. But I kept going.

[00:36:36] Carrie Bradshaw: I advocated for myself and my, you know, what my goals were. And I got lucky. I found Dr. Stocks, but, and then I also researched PTs. So my, either from your surgeon to your PT, to your support team at home. Make sure you have a full good care team and support team around you, positive people before and after, during, and after this [00:37:00] surgery.

[00:37:00] Carrie Bradshaw: Because you’re going to need to rely on some people and you need to have people who you know, are supportive and don’t bring you down basically. Yeah. So find your team, do your research, advocate for yourself form your team. I guess Second is if you, once you get the surgery, set mini goals, like you were saying about occupational therapy, your patients would be so focused on the next step.

[00:37:24] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s how I got through with it, through it all is maybe that’s getting out of bed to the bathroom. 

[00:37:30] Carrie Bradshaw: Or maybe doing my little ankle pumps the first couple days to get the blood flowing. And then eventually you get a few more simple quote unquote exercises, but they’re really hard. But you just take it hour by hour, day by day, zoom in.

[00:37:43] Carrie Bradshaw: And then pretty soon the hours are turning into days that you get through and you have a little goal. Do your PT exercises, take your shower, whatever the goal is, but focus on the little goals and milestones along the way. And that goes for running as well. Even if you don’t have a hip replacement, like you focus on the mile [00:38:00] you’re in.

[00:38:00] Carrie Bradshaw: Don’t think about everything that’s ahead and celebrate the little mile the your achievements. Even if they seem small, it’s important to celebrate and acknowledge. The little wins that you have along the way, whether that’s for me, finally using my walker to walk down the street or not using my walker anymore, or taking my first shower or doing my PT exercises. Really? And they didn’t hurt a lot. And then eventually walking a mile, running a mile, you know, and eventually then running the Boston Marathon, like I’m jumping, but like it did, I didn’t go from surgery bed to Boston Marathon.

[00:38:39] Carrie Bradshaw: You have to break it up. 

[00:38:41] Carrie Bradshaw: Celebrate the process. The journey. 

[00:38:43] Cheryl Crow: A hundred percent. Honestly, that’s one of the things I loved about becoming an occupational therapist is that it almost like they would force us in school to break down a simple goal into even more parts than you could think possible.

[00:38:56] Cheryl Crow: Right? And you’re like, oh yeah, to bring, like one of them was [00:39:00] literally write down in 15 or more steps, the steps that it takes to get a cookie from the table to your mouth. And you realize, oh, it’s not just put your hand down, it’s oh, your extensor muscles, like your oh my God, wait, biceps and then triceps your triceps extension.

[00:39:20] Cheryl Crow: Then you have to do wrist pronation. Then you have to do finger extension and then reach out with your thumb. It’s every single little thing. And your brain has to also have an ideation cognitively of what is it? What is my goal? My goal is to reach and grasp this cookie, and I have to sustain my attention on that task.

[00:39:39] Cheryl Crow: And it’s so many little things. You’re like, wow, you don’t take things for granted when you break ’em down. Right. Sorry. Little nerding out. 

[00:39:46] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. That was the same the same, you know, feeling after it can’t get outta bed oh my God, I can’t even just imagine trying to scoot and use your arms, but you can’t move your leg like you’re trying to keep everything straight.

[00:39:57] Carrie Bradshaw: Because if it goes in just a little bit. You [00:40:00] get the shockwave and then getting to the bathroom and you, everything was so hard that, you know, early on. I can, but yeah you take it, you learn to, you have a, you get a different perspective and you have a better, a greater appreciation.

[00:40:14] Cheryl Crow: A hundred percent. I mean, I have to say, I told you this before, but I had hip pain for the first real time in my life for the last two weeks. Not related to my rheumatoid arthritis as far as my PT and I can figure out, but it’s mostly, it’s from some like pelvic floor instabilities and stuff, but, and then the kind of exacerbated by maybe running on top of those, that kind of was a straw that broke the camel’s back.

[00:40:36] Cheryl Crow: But I told her, I just I couldn’t believe just rolling over in bed how hard that was or how much pain that, and even though I knew academically, I, it was, it’s different to feel it, you know? 

[00:40:49] Carrie Bradshaw: Right. Because yeah. All of a sudden now this task or movement that you never even thought about gives you pain.

[00:40:55] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Your pain is, it’s a great teacher, you know? [00:41:00] Right. 

[00:41:00] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. There are a lot of overlaps. Yeah. But in any it doesn’t even have to be a hip replacement or a surgery, but yeah. Just like when I had a big run today and it’s instead of thinking, oh my God, I have this many more miles to do, I don’t know if I can do it.

[00:41:12] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s what my brain was freaking out. You have, I have to remind myself, just stay in the mile. Don’t think about what’s going ahead. Right. 

[00:41:20] Cheryl Crow: Well, that might actually bleed perfectly into the next question, which is, do you have a favorite quote or inspirational saying for tough days?

[00:41:27] Carrie Bradshaw: That one. Stay in the mile you’re in. Yeah. You know, like I just explained, just stay, try not to think about everything you have ahead. Stay in the interval or the mile you’re in. Sometimes when I’m running now I remind myself ’cause I have bad running days too. You have, I have great days.

[00:41:41] Carrie Bradshaw: I have bad days and I have okay days. On the bad days, I try to remind myself when it feels hard and I’m just not in my rhythm, that I get to do this. You know, taken away and stolen for so long and now instead of, oh, I hate this, it’s no. I get to do this again. Just reminding myself that this is a gift.

[00:41:59] Carrie Bradshaw: [00:42:00] And yeah, just I’m guessing like I’m strong. 

[00:42:04] Carrie Bradshaw: You know, strong. Be strong. You’re tough. I feel like there was another one. Or maybe be brave. Push yourself, be brave, be strong. Those just simple little reminders. Yeah. Just stick in the hard times when I’m running, you know, when I wanna quit.

[00:42:20] Cheryl Crow: Or even just dealing with pain in general, whether it’s from running or anything else. I do, we can do hard things or I can do hard things. That’s one of mine that I really like. 

[00:42:29] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s, but that’s, yes. I used to say that to myself.

[00:42:31] Cheryl Crow: Yes. 

[00:42:32] Carrie Bradshaw: I can do hard things. Yes. I love that. I love that one. I feel like there’s another one.

[00:42:36] Carrie Bradshaw: If it comes to me, I’ll let you know. 

[00:42:37] Cheryl Crow: Oh, no worries. Do you still have to use things or get to use things like you know, heating pads or do you have any, like gadgets that you use to in your daily life or because you’ve had the hips replaced? It’s kind of fixed it to some degree, so I wasn’t sure.

[00:42:53] Carrie Bradshaw: Well, for training and running, yes. 

[00:42:56] Carrie Bradshaw: I have a foam roller. Ah, so I basically, [00:43:00] and I have this ball, this special ball to roll on the 

[00:43:03] Carrie Bradshaw: psoas muscle, a lot of people probably, yeah, don’t know what that is, but it’s like inside your how would you describe it inside your abdomen? 

[00:43:10] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, I’m, I have a really hard time like describing things in visual words ’cause I have to see it on the model. Right. You know what I mean? But it’s like the groin area back from the back to the, 

[00:43:21] Carrie Bradshaw: and this deep muscle can get really tight and it actually can cause back pain. And so to get in there, like the PT has to dig into your abs to get to the iliac.

[00:43:30] Carrie Bradshaw: So, but mine gets really tight, especially on that right side with the, have the tendonitis. And so I have the special hit ball that I can roll on in that area and it sort of loosens up the iliac and the psoas, which relieves some of that back pain that I might have. That’s, so the ball, the foam roller just I actually just ordered this really fancy hip hook.

[00:43:51] Carrie Bradshaw: The same company as the Ball. Have you seen it? 

[00:43:54] Cheryl Crow: Wait, I have a Thera Cane. It’s a cane that goes around that you can use it to, like massage self, massage your back, or [00:44:00] your psoas. 

[00:44:01] Carrie Bradshaw: That sounds good too. This is like some fancy hook. You’ll have to look it up.

[00:44:04] Cheryl Crow: Okay. It’s probably fancier than the one I have is not too fancy.

[00:44:07] Carrie Bradshaw: This is like a $200 hook. And I’ve been like, I’ve been wanting it for a year and I finally was like, I’m gonna try this. I need a miracle. 

[00:44:14] Cheryl Crow: Oh, I’ve seen ads for this. Yes. I’ve never tried it. 

[00:44:16] Carrie Bradshaw: I’ll let you know if it’s worth it. I got it on Amazon, so if it’s not worth it I’m sending it back because it’s $200, but I’m gonna try it.

[00:44:22] Carrie Bradshaw: And apparently it gets in there deeper than that little ball and it gets in that iliacs and the psoas and can relieve that tension. 

[00:44:31] Cheryl Crow: Okay. Good to know. 

[00:44:32] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah, I’ll let you know if it’s worth it. 

[00:44:34] Cheryl Crow: Okay, perfect. Yeah, we’ll have to have you on a third time. 

[00:44:36] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah, I’ll come on whenever. Yeah. There are some other little tools.

[00:44:40] Carrie Bradshaw: I have a little scraper tool for my muscles, but yeah, basically even if I didn’t have the hip replacements, all of these tools are excellent for, you know, all for all of us. 

[00:44:49] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Especially that. I remember the first time I ever went to PT I partially tore my MCL on my left side from playing soccer about two years after my RA diagnosis actually.

[00:44:59] Cheryl Crow: [00:45:00] And it was my first time I ever actually hurt my knees playing soccer, which is Wow. ’cause it wasn’t even college soccer. It was like just a pickup game, which was for fun anyway. And they were like, whoa, your IT bands, they were like, your IT bands are crazy tight. They were like, those are like.

[00:45:15] Cheryl Crow: A what? What’s something that’s to like a, I don’t know, like they’re just, were like a rope. Yeah. They were. Yes. Yeah. They had I, that was the first time anyone ever massaged my IT bands and I was like, Ooh, ouch. But also 

[00:45:28] Carrie Bradshaw: yes. Yeah. They get super tight. Yes. And it’s so uncomfortable. 

[00:45:31] Cheryl Crow: Yeah.

[00:45:32] Cheryl Crow: But then it feels good after. Totally different note. Okay. Do you have a favorite book or movie or show you’ve been consuming recently? 

[00:45:41] Carrie Bradshaw: You know, I haven’t been in, I haven’t had the time lately. I’ve been marathon training has taken over my life. And then obviously kids. And normal life stuff. I haven’t sat down and watched a show, like a whole series yet.

[00:45:52] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah, I’ve watched Elf the other night with my kids. I Love Elf was fun. That was a movie, but I haven’t, what else? I feel like there might be.

[00:45:59] Cheryl Crow: Do [00:46:00] you listen to music while you’re running or podcasts or no? 

[00:46:02] Carrie Bradshaw: Yes. And I like podcasts. I listen to music. Yes, I love my music. I even, I turned Christmas music on at the house right now.

[00:46:09] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. But yeah, I guess the last movie I saw was Elf, but after my first hip replacement, I watched all of Schitt’s Creek. Have you seen it? 

[00:46:17] Cheryl Crow: Oh, that’s so funny you say that. I’m on the last four episodes,

[00:46:21] Carrie Bradshaw: i’m obsessed. Yeah, that’s my favorite show. It’s so good. So that is that. So that show reminds me of my first, I started it like on the first night I got home or the second day maybe, and watched all, how many seasons are there?

[00:46:32] Cheryl Crow: Seven, six, I think. 

[00:46:33] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. Yeah. I watched all of it and like I love that show. That’s my favorite show. 

[00:46:38] Cheryl Crow: I love it. It’s up there. My favorite is Parks and Recreation.

[00:46:43] Carrie Bradshaw: I haven’t seen it. 

[00:46:43] Cheryl Crow: It’s a great one. Amy Fuller. She’s so us like she’s us. Okay. Oh really? 

[00:46:47] Both: Okay. Awesome. Awesome. 

[00:46:48] Carrie Bradshaw: No, in books.

[00:46:49] Carrie Bradshaw: I’ve had some audio books, but I haven’t sat down and read a whole book in a while. I read Meb’s book. My coach. 

[00:46:54] Cheryl Crow: Oh, nice. Nice. That’s amazing. No, I’m always just getting ideas from people on the podcast. I think it’s just fun. I listen [00:47:00] to a lot of pop culture podcasts like that give me ideas of music to listen to or podcasts or movies and yeah, stuff like that.

[00:47:07] Carrie Bradshaw: Well, what podcasts are your favorite? 

[00:47:10] Cheryl Crow: I like one called Pop Culture happy hour. For getting ideas. And there’s also well, one that’s really specialized. It’s called it’s called every single album and it’s by The Ringer. And they talk about different pop girly albums. And it sounds men too, but mostly, you know, like Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Ariana.

[00:47:29] Cheryl Crow: They view like in detail of every song. I just love that because that’s such a, I nerd out about. Yes. Like the new Taylor Swift songs, they got all into it. they have one episode for every one of her. It started every single album, like one episode per Taylor Swift album. Yeah, so it’s called, I’ll put links to all these in the show notes.

[00:47:47] Carrie Bradshaw: Yes. What about books and shows? 

[00:47:49] Cheryl Crow: Well, so what, okay. This is terrible. My husband and I, when we have to like, turn our brains off, and so we watch like terrible reality tv. I shouldn’t say terrible, but we watch, you know, love Is [00:48:00] Blind or Survivors. People love that show. They’re fun. It’s just, honestly, we pause and we like talk about it.

[00:48:06] Cheryl Crow: We’ll talk about oh, like what should she, how could she have communicated better or how could he that is actually a way we bond. And then survivors also just, it’s also fun, like from a psychological perspective. And prestige. TV wise, I absolutely love Severance and or so, and, or is, it’s a, I’m not really normally into Star Wars, but it’s really well done and severance.

[00:48:27] Cheryl Crow: I’m also not normally into creepy, like weird suspenseful mystery things, but I’m usually into like happy things lately you know, yes. Like Elf, elf, I love welfare. I watch SNL, we watch SNL like every week. Yeah. And a Saturday night live. I listened to Conan O’Brien’s podcast.

[00:48:45] Cheryl Crow: He was a writer on snl. You know, the old night talk show or host? Yes. The old days. 

[00:48:51] Carrie Bradshaw: And then what about books? 

[00:48:52] Cheryl Crow: So I’m really into romantic comedy books and like romance books right now. So I’ve been reading, I could, there’s so many. Actually I am [00:49:00] thinking I, it’s December I got it put together my like best books of the year.

[00:49:04] Cheryl Crow: But it started ’cause I joined a book club in Seattle called the Radical Romance Book Club. And it’s about giving love story, like representation to love stories that aren’t normally shown in the media. So they read books that are about people who are like L-G-B-T-Q or people who have disabilities or health conditions.

[00:49:20] Cheryl Crow: So one of the ones was a woman with rheumatoid arthritis dating a guy who has anxiety. So they each have different challenges. And so, and some of them are you know, you know, people, different racial backgrounds and different, it just it’s really neat. So I’ve gotten into that.

[00:49:36] Cheryl Crow: I was kind of judgmental about romance novels. I thought they were all just weird at first, but then I started reading ’em. I’m like, oh, these are just like romantic comedies with a little bit of depending on the one, sometimes they have steamy scenes, you know, like content warning for, you know, sexual content.

[00:49:49] Cheryl Crow: But majority of it is just will they or won’t they, you know, like enemies to lovers, are they gonna get together or not? You know, I really enjoy those. That’s fun. Yeah.

[00:49:59] Carrie Bradshaw: Well, so [00:50:00] when do you find time? Because you’re busy, when do you find time to read? 

[00:50:02] Cheryl Crow: Every, it’s actually been like, probably the only habit that I’ve had ever since I was in like second grade to now is every night before bed I read.

[00:50:13] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s just awesome. 

[00:50:14] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. I read on my Kindle and I’ve done it. There’s pictures of me reading my Kindle on our honeymoon. My husband took it. 

[00:50:20] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s awesome. And that’s awesome. That’s your model, 

[00:50:23] Cheryl Crow: you Yeah, but I will say there were a couple years, guess what? I slipped up and guess what I did before?

[00:50:28] Cheryl Crow: Bed Doom scrolled the internet. Do not recommend that. That was like 2020 through 2023. Like I had a few years, so I should say I did not stay with it for a little while. I stopped and then I was like, what are you doing? ’cause you think, oh, I’m still reading. I literally justified to myself. I say, I’m still reading, I’m just reading the internet.

[00:50:47] Cheryl Crow: That is not what I was like I was, but it’s not the same. So it’s addictive. Yeah. It helps me like at least usually if 20 minutes to an hour I’ll read before and it helps me kind of get into [00:51:00] a relaxed state Yeah. And go to sleep, but Yeah. 

[00:51:03] Carrie Bradshaw: And do you put your phone somewhere else so you don’t get distracted by it?

[00:51:06] Cheryl Crow: Yes, I have to and I actually, I find now that I like to focus on just one thing. Like I have that kind of a ADHD type mind that I, when I, if I don’t force myself to focus on one thing, I’m just gonna keep like opening this window. Opening that window, but like reading, for some reason, I can, I lose myself in the plot and I actually want, I don’t want to get distracted.

[00:51:29] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s awesome. That’s the best feeling when you get into a book. 

[00:51:32] Cheryl Crow: I know, and I’m just really easily pleased. I really like a lot of the books I’ve been reading. 

[00:51:35] Carrie Bradshaw: I love it. That’s such a good break too, from like it’s good for your mind to just escape. 

[00:51:40] Cheryl Crow: Well, and I only have one child, so also my husband, I can play like tag team, you know, and he’s 11 now, so he’s a lot more you’re still in the thick of it with younger kids too, so sometimes it can be harder to, you’re just so exhausted in the day.

[00:51:50] Cheryl Crow: But even reading for depends what, whatever the ritual is, for me, it’s reading that helps me quiet, you know, my mind. And then and then I just, it can’t be too good of a book. I [00:52:00] figured this out. ’cause if it’s too good of a book or too, like romance ones, they’re great because they always part of the genre is it’s gonna have a happy ending, so you don’t have to like, worry what’s gonna happen.

[00:52:10] Cheryl Crow: Whereas some other, I started reading some other genres and then I’m like, I’m, if it’s a mystery, I like, I will not stop myself. Yes. And then I’m like, 

[00:52:18] Carrie Bradshaw: you’ll be like three in the morning and you’re like, I can’t. Yes. 

[00:52:19] Cheryl Crow: Hyperfocused on it. I need to know. I’m not allowed to read anything that’s like suspenseful.

[00:52:24] Cheryl Crow: Otherwise I will not go to sleep but oh, sorry. Back to the questions. This is so funny. I wanna start a spinoff podcast that’s just like like just talking about books. 

[00:52:32] Carrie Bradshaw: Yeah. I would love it. 

[00:52:35] Cheryl Crow: So last question. What does thriving with hip replacement look like to you? Or what does it mean to you too?

[00:52:43] Carrie Bradshaw: Basically what I’m getting to do now, like I said, I get to do this. I made it through the surgeries and recoveries and I’m still, you know, trying to take care of my body and strength train and, you know, do my PT and I’m getting to do what I love again, whether that’s running a [00:53:00] marathon or running, you know, a 5K, I’m getting to train and not worry every single day.

[00:53:05] Carrie Bradshaw: Like when is my hip going to lock up? 

[00:53:07] Carrie Bradshaw: I’m getting to do what I love without pain and I know that for the foreseeable future, I’m hoping I get to run for as long as I can. 

[00:53:17] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. That’s amazing. That’s so wonderful. And where can people find you online if they want to learn more? Or maybe you mentioned doing some, like health coaching or, 

[00:53:27] Carrie Bradshaw: yeah.

[00:53:28] Carrie Bradshaw: On my Instagram, I’m not on Facebook, I’m on Instagram. And my handle is Bionic runner babe. 

[00:53:33] Cheryl Crow: Yes. I love that. 

[00:53:35] Carrie Bradshaw: So my name’s Carrie Bradshaw. That’s why I love hanging out with Cheryl Crow, because 

[00:53:40] Cheryl Crow: I know, it’s so funny. 

[00:53:41] Carrie Bradshaw: We’re so, I love our names together. Together. 

[00:53:44] Cheryl Crow: That’s like our initial bond.

[00:53:46] Cheryl Crow: We’re like, oh my gosh, we have to meet each other. That’s so great. Well, thank you so much. It’s, and we definitely, you know, talked about even more topics than we originally planned, and it’s just, I’m glad to hear that kind of post [00:54:00] marathon blues Yeah. That you’re feeling, you know, that wave has passed and that you’re, you know, on an upswing now. Thank you for that vulnerability and the honesty of sharing. 

[00:54:08] Carrie Bradshaw: No, I’m hoping it maybe can help somebody who might be going through it, whether it’s a marathon or some other life event or achievement.

[00:54:14] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And congrats also just on being the the first person to complete the Boston Marathon with double hip replacements, right?

[00:54:22] Carrie Bradshaw: Yep. That’s what we, that’s what we, that’s what we think. Yeah. 

[00:54:25] Cheryl Crow: Oh, and is it gonna be submitted to 

[00:54:27] Carrie Bradshaw: the, are you trying to, so the, it hasn’t, so for, I’m running the Houston Marathon in five weeks on January 11th, knock on wood, God willing, assuming I don’t get injured. And I am trying to set the world record for the fastest marathon with bilateral hip replacements.

[00:54:42] Carrie Bradshaw: But that’s a whole nother thing, and I’ll make it quick. I applied in July to set this record because it’s never been set. 

[00:54:48] Carrie Bradshaw: They told me it would take 12 weeks to process, and then it went up to 20. We’re now at 20 weeks yesterday. And it still hasn’t been approved. It should be. It should be fine, but it’s like applying for citizenship.[00:55:00] 

[00:55:00] Carrie Bradshaw: Well, that’s record, so hopefully it gets approved. And then in January, assuming I have a good day and I’m healthy hopefully I can set that record and start, you know, start something another, encourage other people to try to break it. 

[00:55:13] Cheryl Crow: Well, I will be watching from afar and 11 is my lucky number.

[00:55:18] Carrie Bradshaw: Yes. That’s your mile. 

[00:55:19] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Yeah, that would my mile.

[00:55:21] Carrie Bradshaw: You 11 for the, okay, so you’re mile 11. Okay, good. You’re mile 11. Okay. 

[00:55:25] Cheryl Crow: But it’s on the 11 and it’s one. 

[00:55:27] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s awesome. 

[00:55:28] Cheryl Crow: One 11. So I’m like, this is a good sign. It’s gonna go well. 

[00:55:31] Carrie Bradshaw: Oh my God. It is. Okay. So you’re mile 11.

[00:55:33] Carrie Bradshaw: That’s easy. Okay. I’ll be thinking about you at mile 11. 

[00:55:36] Cheryl Crow: Yay. 

[00:55:37] Carrie Bradshaw: I can do hard things. I’ll use your quote. 

[00:55:39] Cheryl Crow: Yes. Thank you so, so much. 

[00:55:42] Carrie Bradshaw: Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having me on again. I love hanging out with you. 

[00:55:46] Cheryl Crow: You too.

[00:55:47] Cheryl Crow: I wish you lived closer. [00:55:49] Cheryl Crow: Okay. Bye. Bye for now.

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