Today was another day to file under the 'good days' category. We ( = my whole family) went up to my office this morning to rearrange my furniture, and make it more blood clot friendly. Blood clot friendly, ha ha, does that sound weird or what? Basically I need a way to be able to keep my leg propped up when I'm sitting at my computer, which wasn't possible before. And it was time for a change anyway.
Afterward, we went to the pool, and I was actually able to get in - for the first time in a long time (almost six weeks, to be more precise). I couldn't go in for four weeks after the surgery, I'm guessing because of the risk of infection to the incisions. And the last time we went to the pool, I could not go in because of my bleeding. However, I am happy to report that the bleeding is very much under control now, and I am extremely happy that all my hysteria was for naught. I really do not need any more complicating factors in what I hope can get back to a fairly routine rehab.
My hip... well, it is sore, but holding its own. As I was mentioning to my physical therapist on Friday, it's not just that I haven't done certain things since the surgery, it's that I haven't done certain things since long before the surgery simply because they hurt so much. A simple example is standing with my weight equally distributed on both legs. Another is stairs. Stairs are still extremely difficult for me, but they were difficult for me before the surgery. I can't remember the last time I went up or down stairs like a normal person. My therapist said he was glad I had that perspective because he was often having to remind his patients that it's not just the surgery they are recovering from, but oftentimes many months of dysfunction prior to the surgery. For me, it has been almost a year.
With that in mind, it was very exciting at the pool today because I decided to try swimming - as in actually swimming some laps. Although being a diver in a previous life means that I have spent a lot of time around swimming pools, I'm not actually a very good swimmer, and I have not tried 'real' swimming in about six or seven years. (Shortly after my daughter was born, I got talked into doing a team triathlon with my family, and since I do not like biking and hate running, I got stuck with the swimming leg. That was my only experience with 'real' swimming.) And, weirdly enough, since my hip started acting up this past year, swimming has actually hurt my hip, even just regular old freestyle. Breaststroke has been completely out of the question for a very long time. HOWEVER, I was pleasantly surprised to discover today that A. I can still swim, and B. It doesn't hurt at all. I managed to swim a total of 500 yards - not all at once, but I did one set of 100 yards, one of 200 yards, then two more of 100 yards. I got brave and decided to try the breaststroke on the last 25 yards of my last set - admittedly because I was sort of tired, lol - and... I was able to do it and it didn't hurt at all. Amazing! This made me so happy I can't even tell you.
I guess the thing with this blood clot is that it is an annoying (to put it mildly) complication from pretty routine and elective surgery. The blood clot has become a bigger deal than the surgery itself, which of course is constantly causing me to second guess my decision to have the surgery in the first place. However, despite my doubts, I've always believed it was the right thing for me to do, especially looking down the road long-term. On days like today, when I'm able to do something that I haven't been able to do in a very long time, it really confirms that despite everything, the surgery was a good decision for me. And this makes me happy.
And... icing on the cake. While I was swimming my laps during adult swim time, I noticed that there were several kids standing on the edge of the pool around the lap lane. They were standing so close that when I put my hand on the side of the pool to turn around, I actually grabbed one of the girl's toes. I could not figure out what they were doing, and it made me feel sort of self-conscious, as if they were all standing around watching me. However, it turns out that they were all lined up to take a swim test. My daughter saw the line and decided that she wanted to take the test - which is basically so you can go in the deep end of the pool. For her, the biggest thing is being able to go down the water slides, which she hasn't been able to do all summer. She can swim well enough to go from where the slide deposits you back to the edge of the pool, but to pass the test, you have to tread water for 30 seconds, then swim across the deep end, then float on your back for 30 seconds, and then swim back to the edge of pool on your back. It is the treading water part that has kept my daughter from trying the test all summer, but I think watching all the other kids take the test gave her a rare bout of courage. And... she passed! It was NOT pretty, but she did it! My daughter is extremely cautious and has some (minor) physical challenges, so things involving motor skills do not come easily to her. (It took a lot of $40 an hour private swim lessons to get to this point.) I normally try to leave my family out of my blogs, but this was a huge deal for my daughter and I was so proud of her!
All in all, it was a good way to end the summer.
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