Almost Eight Months

On April 2, I moved from Chicago to St. Louis. How I managed to do a move of that magnitude - household and goods, etc. - still boggles my mind, especially as I still had some pain, difficulty negotiating steps, and with all the painkiller stuff still exiting my body, was not quite as sharp as I would have liked to have been. However: the packers packed us, the unpackers unpacked us, I managed to buy whatever we needed to make the house hospitable, and over the space of about 2 months, I managed to put EVERYTHING away.

Well, not quite. There's still a bunch of stuff on the bed in the second bedroom, and the kitchen is still not in the best organizational shape. But for the most part, the house works.

I even managed to find a new job - by the end of April I was employed, and by June 1, had started the job.

All these things are good. The one big downside? Living in a city with almost no public transportation, and having to go to work and other things by car, means a far more sedentary lifestyle. My walking has gotten better, as has my ability to go up and down stairs. But: I gained back ALL the weight I'd lost. Every last single solitary pound of it. And boy, I can feel it. The scar sometimes feels like it's straining for dear life. And I've begun to weeble again. It's rather gross. I didn't expect to gain more than 20 pounds in just a few months. But ... here I am.

An acquaintance who also had her hip replaced had a huge complication: her incision came apart, and she wound up having to go for more than a month's rehab in order to get the wound back together. I wake up every morning terrified that THIS will be the day my leg splits open. Oh, the horror.

So ... I've begun to do my hip exercises again. I'd completely stopped exercising, which surprised me - I'm generally a bear about rehab exercises. So, now I"m at them again. I can feel a difference - the legs are getting stronger. There's no place to walk near work, so I'm going to have to figure something out. Here, there's a treadmill, and if I can walk to do some of my chores, that might help.

Oh well. Good news and bad news. I hope there will be less of me to report in the next blog entry. I'm seeing a new doc this week - hope he doesn't collapse in shock at my obesity.

At the four month mark

Yeah, I know. I've been less than diligent about keeping up with this. A little thing called life got in the way: my husband's job in another state is necessitating a move. So I've been working on assembling the details. It's not easy to do when one's still at less than 100%! Hopefully, it will get done with a minimum of horror.

As for me: Several victories. The doc saw me two weeks ago, and said I don't have to come back until December. I'm walking without limping (except when I stand up after sitting for a while). I've given up the raised toilet seat (which REALLY made my husband happy!). I can put on my own socks, normally! Tying or strapping shoes, though, is still a bit of a trial. However, I do find I can bend somewhat, even though I'm not supposed to, so as long as I'm careful, I can generally get the shoes done.

Being able to take walks is an absolute and utter delight. I took a long walk along Lake Michigan, did some photography, and went shopping at a local outlet mall with a friend a few weeks ago. We power-shopped for four hours before my hip started to complain. The last hour was awful - walking back to the car, I had to sit three or four times - but I was delighted to feel like a normal person again!

Moving, though, as well as applying for jobs in my soon to be new home city, means that I have not had the chance to work out or take walks. I spent a lot of time either sitting and making lists, or standing and filing. I'm starting to lose some physical conditioning, which I hate. I force myself to do at least a minimum of the exercises, and that seems to help.

Once I get to my new city, I'm planning to start Bikram Yoga. Yes, some of the poses will be more than I can do, but the woman who answered the phone at the local studio assured me that they could adjust the practice to suit my level of fitness and my movement restrictions.

In the meantime - gotta get back to filing.

I'll check in some time next month.

For those readers who are either recent patients or soon to be patients, please feel free to write! I do check in and am happy to answer any and all questions. Also, it's fun to know I have readers. :)

At the six week mark

Recovery from this operation has been a crazy thing. As I've only got insurance coverage through the end of February, I had to make sure to get all my physical therapy appointments made. So, I've got all 18 booked through the middle of February. Health insurance reform can't come too fast for the likes of me.

Anyway, on to where I'm at: I've been doing my exercises pretty assiduously since the at-home physical therapy stopped the day before Xmas Eve. I've also continued to not use the cane at home, but only when I go out. A few victories: Yesterday, I climbed onto a bus, and managed to get off it. I've also been doing some solo outings: Two trips to my job-hunting support group, one shopping trip with a female friend, and today, a walk after PT up to a grocery store, where I picked up a shopping bag full and WALKED HOME. For the past year, I couldn't even conceive of not taking the bus home from that particular grocery. HUGE victory!

RIght now, I still have all the crazy movement protocols. No crossing the legs, at the ankles or the knees. No twisting the trunk. I keep forgetting about trunk twisting, but am becoming increasingly expert at turning my head all the way around without twisting my body. I showed the PT portions of my full-body stretch, to see what would be OK for me to do. He said that as long as I don't bend down to try to touch my toes, I can do the rest of the stretch. DANG. But I want to keep recovering.

The PT not only increased my reps for the exercises, he also gave me several new ones to do. I know they're good for me, etc., but lord they HURT, and they're BORING. Wish I could figure out a way to make them more interesting. I keep thinking about how I'll be able to clamber up and down stairs, ski down beginner slopes, do Pilates, and go to museums and spend some happy afternoons wandering around, in order to make those boring exercises more palatable. Now that I can take a bus, more of the city is opening up for me.

A discovery: I'm allowed to flop my right knee outward. So I'm practicing that, for the eventuality of being able to put my right foot on my left knee so that I can put on my right sock and shoe. Stairs and the right shoe are my next two big challenges. Occasionally I can get a sock on the right foot if I tuck the foot up behind me and blindly pull on the sock as best I can, using the rug. I did figure out a maneuver for the right sock that involved two spatulas and a pasta grabber, but it really has not worked well. And I'd rather just be able to do it right.

Small news flash: I have a follower! Thank you. I should find out more about the permanence of movement protocols on Monday, after I see the surgeon, and I'll blog about it then.

New Year's Hip

And here we are, on New Year's Day. Recovery continues at a nice clip. Today's Friday. This past Monday, I decided to go caneless in the house. So, to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, I marched to the umbrella stand and popped the cane in, much to my husband's amusement.

A week earlier, I also got approval to sleep with a pillow between my legs, instead of the splint. So, Big Blue (the splint was a big blue foam rhombus) went down to the recycling room. Bye!

So far, I'm limping, but doing pretty well getting around the house, and doing basics. I can stand without pan and do my whole maquillage, and cook dinner. I've also mastered getting dressed. Getting a sock on my right foot, however, is still a challenge. Right now it takes a wok spatula, a pair of kitchen tongs, and a rug to get a sock on the foot, if the husband isn't around to help. I'd go sockless except for Chicago winters - temps are in the single digits these days, and if I want to go outside, I'd better be wearing socks if I don't want popsicle toes.

I got signed off of at home physical therapy last week. So far I've been procrastinating about starting offsite PT. I want to go to a facility that has a pool, whereas the husband wants me to go to one that's within walking distance. Since if it were him, he'd insist on the more chichi facility, I'm going to go to that one. It will cost the same, and the facility will refund cab fare, so it's no real biggie, financially.

I am still doing my morning exercises - I think they'll be a feature of my life for a long time. It's a good way to wake up, and my legs definitely feel better after doing the moves, isometrics and lifts.

Onward and upward!