Lauren Jenkins Is 'Getting Stronger' After Hip Replacement at 30: 'Chronic Pain Is No Joke'

Country musician Lauren Jenkins knew she couldn't ignore the pain any longer. What she didn't know if how she could possibly fit a total hip replacement into her already hectic life.

"When you're a touring artist, you're just grinding all the time," says Jenkins, 30, during a recent interview with PEOPLE. "I just had no idea that at the very same time, I was literally grinding my right hip down to the bone. There were times when I could feel my hip locking up and grinding, but there was always the next show, you know?"

She grows quiet. "I just thought that to be human means that you live with pain."

But earlier this year, as the country experienced yet another COVID-19 surge, the artist who broke onto the music scene in 2019 with her critically acclaimed album No Saint made the crucial decision to finally go under the knife.

"Without the pandemic, I don't know if I would have ever focused on my health like I should have been doing all along," the Texas-born, Carolina-raised artist says. "I just muscled my way through it for a very long time."

Jenkins says that if she had seen a doctor sooner, she believes she could have possibly avoided the surgery altogether.

"There are people out there that are not really listening to their bodies," Jenkins says. "Chronic pain is no joke. It takes a huge toll."

Now, six weeks following a total hip replacement, Jenkins says that she is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, recovery has been slow and has held its share of challenges.

"I'm getting stronger every day," says Jenkins, who will return to the doctor in roughly eight weeks for yet another follow-up appointment to ensure everything is healing as planned. "I'm learning to walk again, and I just got cleared to drive and fly which means I can start touring again as soon as my strength is back."

Jenkins has certainly been thrown her share of personal and professional curveballs throughout the past few years. In 2020, after a European run of sold-out shows, Jenkins returned to Nashville to not only find the pandemic starting and tornadoes circulating… but at the very same time, she was dropped by her record label.

"It's an ugly business," states Jenkins with a sigh. "In the course of 24 hours, my whole world was rocked."

Nevertheless, Jenkins persevered, immediately heading into the studio to create new music with a revamped team of people with her best interests at heart.

"For the first time, I don't have old white men telling me who I should be or what my art should sound like," explains Jenkins, who plans to release a new EP later this year. "I've been trying to shake off some of those voices for the last 10 years and really follow my own voice, and that's been a bit of a journey. I'm just scratching the surface of what I'm capable of. But I can honestly say that making this new music has been the most beautiful, wonderful experience that I've ever had in the music business."

Adding to this beauty is the beauty she is also experiencing in her personal life, as Jenkins is set to marry fiancé Patrick Davis this October.

"It was pretty shocking," says Jenkins of the proposal that took place at a songwriter's festival in Napa last summer. "I think I had a panic attack!" She laughs. "But it was amazing, and it was beautiful, and I was surrounded by a bunch of my friends and colleagues and music. It doesn't get better than that."