Spinner1.... Your narrative hits pretty close to home for me, brother. Similar timeline, workplace injury took out my left knee, surgically repaired, and then a long rehab time with it. Since then, I always go afield with a staff. A few years later, arthritis took out my right hip. The new one is titanium and ceramic. Works pretty good, but since then I seldom wade, and uneven streambanks find me slow and unsteady. This past fall, my doc's prediction showed up, and my left hip is failing. A new one is in my near future. As for now, I use a cane all the time, and any fishing but from a dock or handicap access is out. Surgery after another workplace injury left me with limited range of motion in my left shoulder. Wear and tear have left me with a similar limit in my right ( casting arm ) shoulder, but, I can still swing my 5wt. I'm clear across the country from you in far northern CA. We still have lots of snow, and most local waters are iced up. Adrift. Good way to put it. Kinda waiting for stuff to happen. Retired now a year and a half, and it's a different life than I thought in many ways. Still good, though, and after the next new hip and a bunch of PT & rehab I'm confidant and optomistic.
Point is, brother you are not alone, there are many of us out there. I truly believe life is what you make it. I'm looking forward to a happy retirement, and battles aplenty with some local browns, brookies, and rainbows. Next week I'm starting on a new 4pc 9' 4wt with birchbark grips to keep stowed in the back seat of my pickup at all times. That way I can snag every opportunity for some time on the water, even if just an hour on the way from A to B.... My fly boxes are full, and still I'm tying drys and nymphs. Meantime, soon as the lake near here is thawed, I'm off to the handicap access dock with my 'glass popper rod a friend from FAOL built for me years ago to give the crappie a run..... Life is a blessing, brother... Soak it up...