I had my right hip replaced ten weeks ago. This is what it looked like a month ago when I went in for my first post-op check-up. I had become a (partially) bionic man.

And here’s the funny thing. It was arthritis in my right hip that doomed my natural joint, and I had it in my left hip too, though it wasn’t as bad. A couple of weeks ago, when my new hip had settled in and my leg muscles had repaired themselves, I realized that my man-made right hip was outperforming my aging left one.  The words “Better, stronger, faster than before” from the old “Bionic Man” series came back to me. I began to think of replacing other parts; I was taking an increasingly sympathetic view of Brigadier General A.B.C. Smith in Poe’s story “The Man Who Was Used Up,” which, if you don’t know it, you can read about below.