Tuesday is my five week check up and I'm hoping for clearance to:
Walk w/o crutches or cane.
Drive.
Bend over to pick up things off the floor (ie break my "precaution" of staying at 90 degree angle...not that I haven't done this already a number of times...just want to be legal about it)
Swim.
Soak in hot tub.
Get massage, even at scar site.
I'll also be reviewing the knee xrays that were taken the week before my hip surgery...will get opinion re: potential effectiveness of the synovial fluid injections and whether they will help with increasing knee pain.
September MRI and scope showed that my right knee has level 3 and level 4 deterioriation/bone on bone action. It's a 1-4 scale, so I know the knee replacement is on the radar screen, too. Just wondering what's the next best step and what will actually help.
Does another six months w/o surgery make a difference? I guess it does if I can lose some weight and gain more strength in that time. Trouble is that knee is truly hindering my PT. Last night when pushing out chair from kitchen table before standing, my knee somehow tweaked and I was at a big 10 on the pain scale...a number I don't remember hitting in a long long time...ugh.
Well, next Tuesday I'll have some more information to help make the decision about timing for knee surgery.
In the meantime, making plans for road trip to Harry Potter in FL in April, followed by a week in Hilton Head with college friend and her family! Yes! Hope to ride bikes there and swim...
Just walked to the end of my street and back without a crutch or cane or limp!!!!!!
Three weeks post-op and on the right track.
No pain meds yesterday, just tylenol. Pain meds only as needed and/or once on PT days.
Trouble is, it's my right knee that's been hurting more than my hip.
In September I had an arthroscopy and was told I'd need a total knee replacement. Hip came first.
Now trying to figure out how to keep moving forward with exercise, recovery and attention to the knee as well as the hip. At least I know what's next. Part of me just wants to get a new knee asap and get all the recovery/rehab "behind" me. Other part of me wants to "buy time" with some kind of injection that relieves severe arthritis pain for a period of time.
Guess it's time to circle the wagons again with the docs. It surprises me how hard it can be for me to make the phone call to discuss the knee pain or get an appointment. I called this morning and left a message to discuss with my surgeon's nurse, yet it took at least 10 days to do that.
So very hard to ask for help.
So obvious that is why things have progressed to this point.
Old parts of me just trying to do what worked and what they thought I needed oh-so-long-ago.
I'm working in my "other" therapy to try and soften these edges and let these old parts take a break from their rigid tendencies and just go outside and play....
A new hip. It matters more than I anticipated and in ways that surprise me.
I can stand tall. And the freedom of this new part reverberates in my whole self -- body, heart and soul. Old parts, old perspectives, old points of view break open as I stand straight and tall. For instance, I am surprised by how much I do. As I notice my frustration with the gradual progress of healing and physical therapy, I see with fresh eyes the part of me that is constantly striving, determined, ambitious.
With meditation, sitting, breathing, study, prayer -- I have been cultivating the growth of a quieter side of my Self. A calmer part, a gentle part, a simple part.
Both matter, of course. The striving Self and the sitting Self.
And in the freedom that comes with standing straight and standing tall, there is renewed room for all my parts.
Parkington Sisters was standing room only at Snow Library yesterday. Bummer! Didn't have the nerve to work the crutch angle. Will pay to see them...only hope it's soon. In the meantime, enjoy some of the video clips posted above from one of my favorite bands! The first clip on left, "Sailor Song," is awesome...listen to the entire song, you'll be glad you did.
Gee, who knew a week could go by so fast when just staring out the window and trying to stick to 3 rounds of PT/day!
It's been a bumpy week. So I'm hoping this week my body and routine will be a little steadier.
Last week on Monday the PT introduced resistance to a number of exercises with one of the colored elastic bands. After the morning set and the afternoon set, I was feeling it. Sore and stiff, I was swallowing pain pills closer to every 4 hours than my usual 6 hours.
It didn't help that I was expecting my period. Or that my Uncle Bill's funeral was on Tuesday. I'd been hoping to go and as Monday evening wore on, I realized I needed to rest. Solution: Stay home on Tuesday, let Gary be our family rep at the funeral and lay off resistance and do only a few of the standing, sitting and lying down exercises rather than the full routine. It worked.
Tuesday was my first day home alone, so I started with a phone call to my friend Kris, then a text from Kathleen who stopped by with coffee, pumpkin muffin, and her collection of Freaks & Geeks DVDs....
Hilarious and too true comedy series of early eighties in high school. Great for a laugh and a lift of spirits. Of course a visit from Kathleen, complete with designer shoes is always fun!
Next our best man, Robb, called. He was headed to Provincetown for a work project and stopped in with flowers on his way back up Cape. Short lunch visit at the kitchen table where I'd already started watching Freaks & Geeks while eating some yummy soup from Joan. Feeling pretty good by now.
Climbing back into bed to rest around 1:20 when Anne and her daughter stopped by with a purple plant and my new business cards...with my Boston address!!!! Yes, we can now meet at One Post Office Square Boston in my brother's new office space. www.bostonoffices.com
By Wednesday, I was ready to try resistance again. And I went to the office for a few hours to check emails. Also started riding the exercise bike for two 7 minute intervals. And, of course, more snow.
Thursday was a snow day and my period finally started. Stayed in doors, snuggled and read William Trevor's novel Love and Summer. Thumbs up!
Friday, more Freaks & Geeks, a short trip to the office, and some effort to organize at home between rest and PT exercises. Garrison coaching me all week long, helping to hold the resistance band or counting along at my side.
Saturday, may have overdone it. Trip to the toy store for Lego Ninjago starter set...hot toy for young boy. Some clothes shopping at winter sale in town. Tried to catch the Parkington Sisters, but it was standing room only....Listen to Cool Tunes By Parkington Sisters Then off to the PTC Winter Ball for a couple of hours. Probably too much walking, standing, sitting...don't know, but knee is really acting up...
We'll see what this week brings...thanks for listening and I'll try to post more regularly.
Good news! I came home on Day 2 -- Thursday evening! You're on the "fast track," Dan the physical therapist told me. When I voiced concern to the case manager, I was told, "Don't worry, we won't kick you out of the hotel Baptist." My doctor's nurse stopped in and suggest that I wait to see how I feel on Thursday. Sure enough, I woke ready to go, especially knowing that I could spend the whole day at the hospital before Gary picked me up at 5:30pm. It's all the physical therapy I had pre-op. And the great care I received at New England Baptist.
Now, I'm sitting at my computer looking out to a snow-filled sky and wintry marsh. The full moon high tide over the weekend covered the marsh and one of the local great blue herons was standing just a few feet from our kayak yesterday afternoon, surrounded by winter ducks -- all fishing for food in the shallow waters. Looks kinda like this shot below, minus the birds!
Before surgery, I had been thinking of going to rehab as a great jump start to recovery, yet when the different nurses, physical therapist and case manager all commented on my strength relative to their other patients, I realized that going home would be the better option. Especially when I thought about the fact that I wouldn't have a private room and more importantly...the risk of INFECTION!!!
NEB has a low infection rate. First, they do not have sick patients, it's all elective surgery and no emergency room/trauma. So they keep the infections out. Then, they alter procedures to reduce the risk of infection. For instance, I don't have stitches. I've been glued together and tomorrow I take off my bandages and that's it. Just supposed to leave it dry and open to the air. Guess they'd rather see me come unglued at home than get an infection in the hospital when the stitches are removed.
Another post-op highlight: I walked around the middle school track one time yesterday!!! Gary says it's a 1/4 mile...maybe. Whatever it is, it feels good. I felt it this morning more than yesterday, so I went for a shorter walk on our street before it started snowing.
Here's how I know the new hip works:
yesterday,several hours after surgery, I walked from bed to window with Dan, the physical therapist, at my side. As I stood up from the bed, he said "stand straight" and I did and I could without any of the crazy pain or contortion! I looked at him, "I can!
That's my new hip?!" "Yup,that's your new hip."
Dan came back around 7:30pm and I walked with crutches out into the hall!
By the way, I'm in the room next to the Celtics suite...it's vacant at the moment.
Doc stopped in this morning. He's good-looking in a brainy sort of way, round specs with quiet serious demeanor. Asked him how it looked when he got into the joint. "Nasty," was his one word response.
Well not any more!
