Today was the big day I've been thinking about before I even had this surgery. I have to say, it was somewhat anti-climatic, but at least my PT had prepared me for the fact that it would be, so that I knew that I couldn't just jump out of bed and start walking. In fact, I feel like I've been on crutches for so long that I was sort of scared to walk without them, so I waited for PT to even try. I guess I needed some moral support.
I started PT by riding a stationary bike for six minutes, which made me realize just how out of shape I am. At first it felt awesome, and I was riding sort of fast, but after about three minutes I realized I needed to save some leg strength for the rest of the session. Next I worked on walking forward and backward with one crutch, trying not to put too much weight on the crutch, but just using it for balance as needed. Wow. My balance felt waaaaay off, although the PT told me I was doing 'great' and that I was going to 'make this easy.' This was encouraging, although it felt far from easy. To be honest, I was kind of surprised by how weird it felt to walk. But the most exciting thing is that it didn't hurt my hip at all. And I mean at all. My left hip still hurts, but held its own, and I still have pain down my right leg, but it is manageable, and to walk and not have pain in my right hip is so amazing I can't even put it in words.
After my walking exercise, I did a bunch of standing exercises - marching in place, shifting weight from one side to another, and kicking my legs around. All of this felt pretty much fine, although my legs were shaking the whole time because they are so weak it's sort of alarming. I cannot believe how much strength I've lost in my legs (both legs!) after just four weeks of 50% weight bearing. I've been able to stand ever since I could do so without pain, so I was never even totally non-weight bearing. I guess it's because in addition to the crutches, I've been lying around and sitting around a lot more than normal.
After my standing exercises, the PT asked me if I was up for more, and I said I was, so I went and did a couple of balancing exercises and then worked on conquering the stairs. Let me just say that stairs are going to be, hands down, the hardest part of this recovery. There are so. many. stairs. in my life. Even the aide working with me commented how she had noticed that the ABC College campus was soooo hilly and had so many stairs. I worked on going up and down a 4-inch stair (apparently standard stairs are 8 inches) forward and backward and sideways, and it was... work. I was holding onto the rail for dear life most of the time. LOL.
However, overall it went well and was as good as I could have realistically hoped for, even if not stellar ( = an unreasonable expectation). My PT was very pleased and kept repeating that this was really good for my first day of full weight bearing considering the type of surgery I had. I'm sure he tells everyone that no matter what, but whatever. LOL. Like I said, moral support never hurts. He told me to try walking without crutches around my house, and that I can do this as long as I am not in pain and/or limping. If I feel pain (in my right hip) or start to limp, I have to stop, because neither of these are okay at this point.
So... I've walked around a little, and I still feel no pain, which is awesome. However, it is sooooo hard to not limp. My right side is so incredibly weak it feels as if my right leg weighs 100 pounds. And I'm not allowed to drag my leg around. Needless to say, this limits my current walking radius to, oh, 3 or 4 feet. LOL. BUT, I am trying not to freak out about this. One day at a time. One day at a time. And that said, I did wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen (including sweeping! for the first time in forever!) tonight, completely without crutches. Of course our kitchen is pretty teeny and has an island in the middle of it, so you are never more than an arm's length away from something to lean on, but still. It felt good. And now, I'm off to take a shower without having to lean on the shower chair to get in. I'm just going to step right in and enjoy the warm water. :)
Monday, August 4, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Post Surgery: 3 Weeks + 6 Days
So... tomorrow is the day I've been anticipating since the day I decided to have this surgery - the day when it is okay for me to start trying to walk without crutches! I've still been feeling mild to moderate pain/discomfort in both of my hips, but I'm trying really hard to overcome that, or at least get a point where it is ignorable, because I need, need, NEED to be walking well by next Wednesday. (Okay, so it's really more like want, want, WANT, but still.) The other day at PT, my therapist was telling me not to worry, and said, 'You'll be fine. You might have to bring one crutch with you and use it as needed, but that's not a big deal.' I think I gave him A Look, which caused him to say, 'Oh. Would you rather not have to do that?' Yeah. I'd really rather not. It's sort of a big deal to me.
I know that my body is going to set its own schedule for recovery, and I am at the mercy of my traumatized nerves and muscles and tendons, but I have yet to read a study that showed that positive thinking ever hurt a person's recovery. So I am thinking positive, positive, and more positive thoughts. I know I can do this.
Anyway, I thought that since I'm going to start the process of saying goodbye to my crutches, I should say something nice to them, so here it is: http://39andhip.blogspot.com/p/a-tribute-to-crutches.html.
I know that my body is going to set its own schedule for recovery, and I am at the mercy of my traumatized nerves and muscles and tendons, but I have yet to read a study that showed that positive thinking ever hurt a person's recovery. So I am thinking positive, positive, and more positive thoughts. I know I can do this.
Anyway, I thought that since I'm going to start the process of saying goodbye to my crutches, I should say something nice to them, so here it is: http://39andhip.blogspot.com/p/a-tribute-to-crutches.html.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Post Surgery: 3 Weeks + 5 Days
Tonight we are going to a farewell party for my PA, who is moving for her husband's job. This is extremely upsetting to me. Due to my hangups with doctors, I've rarely had a PCP in my adult life. However, I loooooved my PA, whom I've been seeing since we moved here five years ago. She is also a neighbor (she has even made a few house calls), a fellow mother of young children, and a friend.
Other than that, due to intense, self-designed home physical therapy regimens + pain medication my my hips are doing a little better.
And this: http://dontcallmeprofessor.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-blog-is-born.html
Other than that, due to intense, self-designed home physical therapy regimens + pain medication my my hips are doing a little better.
And this: http://dontcallmeprofessor.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-blog-is-born.html
Post Surgery: 3 Weeks + 4 Days
I missed my daily update again yesterday, but there wasn't much news on the hip front. It was Thursday all over again, minus the physical therapy. I've been doing a lot of heat and ice and anything and everything, including hydrocodone. Also, my husband got back on Thursday night, so I hope my hips can get some R&R before Monday because all I can say is that I better be walking by the end of next week.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Post Surgery: 3 Weeks + 3 Days
I'm having a terrible day. Both of my hips are hurting - my left more than my right. My husband thinks this is a good thing. When I talked to him on the phone last night, I told him my hip had hurt quite a bit all day. 'Which one?!' he asked, sounding alarmed. My left one, I told him. 'Oh, phew, well that's okay,' he declared. LOL. I mean I guess I sort of get where he is coming from. If my right hip were hurting that much, it would be sort of alarming in that I'd worry I had re-torn the cartilage or something. But still, it is annoying, especially considering how great I felt very early after the surgery. It's discouraging to be feeling worse now than three weeks ago. And the thing is that the pain is constant - it doesn't matter if I'm sitting, standing, lying down, bearing weight, not bearing weight or floating around in space weightless (ha ha). It also doesn't help that it rained all day today for the second day in a row, and rain puts me in a bad mood, and then my bad mood negatively affects my ability to deal with pain and discomfort.
Super kudos to my physical therapist for dealing with me in a very compassionate and appropriate way today. I sort of love him for it. I didn't even try to hide my bad mood or act upbeat when I got to PT. The thing is that I have a teaching persona that I'm pretty good at putting on when I teach - I feel like I have to appear confident and put together and emotionally stable. (Even if I appear 'distant and hateful,' as one student described me, no one has ever figured out that I'm an emotional basket case with imposter syndrome.) When I go out in public, I tend to put on my teaching persona, because I'm very frequently running into current and former students (in liquor stores, in pet stores, in grocery stores, in restaurants, you name it), plus, like most people, I just don't want to look like a wreck in public. Putting on my teaching persona is just a habit. But today, I just didn't feel like it. Because I am not feeling confident or put together or emotionally stable. And as I was in the elevator heading up to PT trying to put on my teaching persona, it occurred to me that I don't have to do this. It is role reversal time. My PT is the one who had to wake up this morning and put on his PT persona. I, on the other hand, am on the other side of the desk so to speak. In this situation, I'm the one who is allowed to be unsure and unhappy and vulnerable. So I put myself out there and told him first thing that I had had a rough couple of days, that I was really starting to worry about my pain, and that I was freaking out. There, I said it. It just came out, just like that.
So, he told me not to freak out, then started reformulating his plan for the day. We didn't do any standing up exercises; we went over to the table and did some lying down exercises and a little bit of stretching. Then he asked me if it was okay if he tried some massage, which honestly, was the perfect thing right about then. The sort of funny thing is that he was a little timid about it, I guess because... you know, I'm female and he's male and hips are, well, sort of a sensitive area (not like a knee or shoulder), requiring his hands in my pants to access. LOL. He actually worked on both (!) sides, and it helped a little. The muscles are just soooo tight, though, which he commented on. Also, a lot of the pain on my left side is actually in my groin area, which I did NOT tell him about, ha ha. However, he worked on my psoas and iliotibial band and that did provide some relief. He suggested that I might want to try massage therapy; he said he had just finished working with another guy who had the same surgery who had found massage therapy to be very helpful. I definitely love the idea, I just have to see if it's a doable splurge financially. He also asked if I had tried heat rather than ice, which I hadn't. After the massage, he put heat on my right side, which actually felt good, so I'm going to try it on my left side tonight, assuming I can dig out a heating pad from... somewhere.
I also reminded him that Monday would be four weeks post-op - I can't let him forget that! He asked if I was coming in on Monday. I said yes, but did not volunteer that I had made the appointment last week to be sure I could get in in the morning and get this show on the road ASAP. (So far I've only been coming in in the afternoons.) I must have had my The Crutches Have To Go look on, because he gave me an overview of how the weaning was going to work, and said that it needed to be somewhat gradual, and I would need to be somewhat patient. Then he added, 'in case you were planning on getting up on Monday morning and going for a three-mile run.' Ha!
I think I really need to stay positive despite my current pain. The semester is quickly approaching, and the clock is ticking. Physiologically, things are what they are, but I feel like a positive attitude will make a big difference in how I feel going into the school year. And I had a really bad year last year, so I need this one to be better. I asked my doctor for a refill for pain medication, and I decided that I'm going to try taking half a pill at night to see if that can at least take the edge off some of my pain. After all, this isn't a competition to see who can handle the most pain without medication, like some women view giving birth. (If you've had a baby recently, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.) I need to be ready to do some kick-ass rehab next week, and I can't have pain getting in the way of it. To do this, I have to drop the Tough Girl act and stop seeing medication as going backwards. I keep telling myself I am going forward; I am going forward. I might not be able to see it right now, but I am.
Super kudos to my physical therapist for dealing with me in a very compassionate and appropriate way today. I sort of love him for it. I didn't even try to hide my bad mood or act upbeat when I got to PT. The thing is that I have a teaching persona that I'm pretty good at putting on when I teach - I feel like I have to appear confident and put together and emotionally stable. (Even if I appear 'distant and hateful,' as one student described me, no one has ever figured out that I'm an emotional basket case with imposter syndrome.) When I go out in public, I tend to put on my teaching persona, because I'm very frequently running into current and former students (in liquor stores, in pet stores, in grocery stores, in restaurants, you name it), plus, like most people, I just don't want to look like a wreck in public. Putting on my teaching persona is just a habit. But today, I just didn't feel like it. Because I am not feeling confident or put together or emotionally stable. And as I was in the elevator heading up to PT trying to put on my teaching persona, it occurred to me that I don't have to do this. It is role reversal time. My PT is the one who had to wake up this morning and put on his PT persona. I, on the other hand, am on the other side of the desk so to speak. In this situation, I'm the one who is allowed to be unsure and unhappy and vulnerable. So I put myself out there and told him first thing that I had had a rough couple of days, that I was really starting to worry about my pain, and that I was freaking out. There, I said it. It just came out, just like that.
So, he told me not to freak out, then started reformulating his plan for the day. We didn't do any standing up exercises; we went over to the table and did some lying down exercises and a little bit of stretching. Then he asked me if it was okay if he tried some massage, which honestly, was the perfect thing right about then. The sort of funny thing is that he was a little timid about it, I guess because... you know, I'm female and he's male and hips are, well, sort of a sensitive area (not like a knee or shoulder), requiring his hands in my pants to access. LOL. He actually worked on both (!) sides, and it helped a little. The muscles are just soooo tight, though, which he commented on. Also, a lot of the pain on my left side is actually in my groin area, which I did NOT tell him about, ha ha. However, he worked on my psoas and iliotibial band and that did provide some relief. He suggested that I might want to try massage therapy; he said he had just finished working with another guy who had the same surgery who had found massage therapy to be very helpful. I definitely love the idea, I just have to see if it's a doable splurge financially. He also asked if I had tried heat rather than ice, which I hadn't. After the massage, he put heat on my right side, which actually felt good, so I'm going to try it on my left side tonight, assuming I can dig out a heating pad from... somewhere.
I also reminded him that Monday would be four weeks post-op - I can't let him forget that! He asked if I was coming in on Monday. I said yes, but did not volunteer that I had made the appointment last week to be sure I could get in in the morning and get this show on the road ASAP. (So far I've only been coming in in the afternoons.) I must have had my The Crutches Have To Go look on, because he gave me an overview of how the weaning was going to work, and said that it needed to be somewhat gradual, and I would need to be somewhat patient. Then he added, 'in case you were planning on getting up on Monday morning and going for a three-mile run.' Ha!
I think I really need to stay positive despite my current pain. The semester is quickly approaching, and the clock is ticking. Physiologically, things are what they are, but I feel like a positive attitude will make a big difference in how I feel going into the school year. And I had a really bad year last year, so I need this one to be better. I asked my doctor for a refill for pain medication, and I decided that I'm going to try taking half a pill at night to see if that can at least take the edge off some of my pain. After all, this isn't a competition to see who can handle the most pain without medication, like some women view giving birth. (If you've had a baby recently, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.) I need to be ready to do some kick-ass rehab next week, and I can't have pain getting in the way of it. To do this, I have to drop the Tough Girl act and stop seeing medication as going backwards. I keep telling myself I am going forward; I am going forward. I might not be able to see it right now, but I am.
Post Surgery: 3 Weeks + 2 Days
As I predicted, this week is dragging on veeeeerrrry slooooowly. I keep getting excited for PT tomorrow because I keep thinking that this is my come-off-crutches PT session, then I have to remind myself that I am still in Week 3, and it's not until the PT after my PT tomorrow that we get to have a Ditch The Crutches party.
By the way, my therapist has no idea about my party plans, and somehow I'm guessing he's not the partying type. The other day, he had me do a balancing exercise and acted sort of surprised when I could do it. I mean, not totally; hopefully he wasn't having me do an exercise he really didn't think I could do, but he told me to hold it 'for as long as I could.' Ten minutes later, I was like, DUDE, I'M STILL HERE, do I really have to hold this for as long as I can?! (Okay, so it probably wasn't ten minutes, maybe more like four or five, but still!) He made some remark about my sense of balance, so I told him that the exercise reminded me of the Bongo board my best friend had in college that we used to mess around on for fun. I mentioned that it was not normally super challenging, but that it got more difficult as the evening progressed and more drinks went down the gullet. He did not even crack a smile at the mention of the drinks.
But just to show you how dedicated I am to this blog ;-), I went through my old photos, because I was certain I had a picture of me on the Bongo board, and I think that blogs are far more interesting when they have pictures in them. I did have a picture - in fact, I'm pretty sure that the photo is the reason I even recall the Bongo board after all of these years - but unfortunately whoever took the picture had apparently imbibed a bit, so I was cut off from the feet down. I took the liberty of drawing in the rest in Photoshop. :)
Speaking of imbibing, if you are American, you are probably thinking that I am a huge alcoholic right about now. In fairness, I should warn you that it's likely that a lot of my entries will include alcohol in them, ha ha. I really don't think I'm an alcoholic, but I am part French, and my French grandmother saw wine as an essential part of meals, and alcohol as an essential part of life in general (which I'm sure was exacerbated by her life circumstances, which I would expand upon if this weren't a blog dedicated to my hip :)). I have spent a fair amount of time in France and in Europe and have found that they have a very different attitude about drinking there. This more relaxed attitude toward alcohol is one part of my French heritage that really works for me. During the summers when I was in college, I worked in a deli, and my boss had a poster in his office that said, 'Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.' That pretty much sums it up for me.
Anyway.
It was very cold today - it rained all day and the high was 60 degrees. I had to break my 'no hip flexion past 90 degrees' restriction to put on socks. (Seriously, how do people who have this surgery during the winter do it? How do you put on socks without flexing your hip past 90 degrees or doing external rotation?!) Also, today is Wednesday, which is farmers market day. I went with my parents, as usual. I should mention that I live in place with a ridiculously short growing season, and I don't know how anyone can make an actual living growing things here, but never mind that, this is a blog about my hip. ;-) The point, however, is that the farmers market is pretty small, so it's not that hard to get to know the vendors if you frequent it.
Today, a woman who runs one of the local farms, finally asked me, 'What happened to you?!' It was sort of funny considering that this is the third week I've been to the farmers market on crutches, and last week, when it was also raining (even though I live in a place that gets no more than 15 inches of rain per year, it never fails to rain on the afternoon of the farmers market), she commented on how dedicated I was to be out in the rain on crutches, and offered to let me stand under the tent in the vendors' space, yet never inquired, 'What happened to you?!' I guess after three weeks she just couldn't stand it anymore, and had to say something, ha ha. So today, in response to her inquiry, I told her that I'd had hip surgery, which was of course met with the usual, 'But you're so young!' I've found that a lot of people think that hip surgery = hip replacement, so I told her that I just had some torn cartilage fixed, and left it at that. Then she said that her husband (a firefighter/farmer who is much older than I am) had recently had a torn labrum in his hip fixed, and I said yes (!) that's actually what I had done, too. We had a brief conversation about having the cartilage repaired as opposed to removed, and it turns out that both her husband and I had the same surgeon (which is not that surprising considering this is not a surgery that tons of orthopedists know how to do). The woman proceeded to tell me how life-changing this surgery had been for her husband, and how happy they both were that he had had it, and how great the surgeon was, and on and on and on. She did mention that the recovery was a little long and rough at times, but in the end it had been worth it. Then in the midst of the conversation, her husband actually came sauntering up with a friend, and we mentioned that we had just been talking about him, and he confirmed his happiness and said how amazing it was to be totally pain free. Plus I made a note of noticing that he was walking totally normally, so that made me feel really good. :) I don't know how long ago he had his surgery, but as I've mentioned, my surgeon is very young, so I can't imagine that his surgery was that long ago! Regardless, it was a good to have a positive, unpaid and impromptu testimonial from a living, breathing, former patient of my doctor that This Is Worth It.
Also, as my mom said, this was the most loquacious that this woman has ever been, despite the fact that my mom has been buying things from her farm for years. After my conversation with her about hip surgery, she then started talking to my mom about farm stuff and whatnot. I guess it just took me on crutches to open this whole dialogue.
The interesting thing is that every time I open Facebook, I feel like one of my friends has shared an article about 'what not to say to someone who...' Someone who recently had a divorce. Someone who is a single mom. Someone whose child has a chronic illness. Someone who has lost a child. Someone who has had a miscarriage. Someone who is adopted. Someone who is overweight. Someone who is underweight. Someone who cuts. Someone who has an undiagnosed condition. Someone whose child has an undiagnosed condition. Someone who had this happen, someone who had that happen, someone who... is alive. OMG do not offend! Just do not say anything!! Every time I read these things, I think Uh-oh, I know someone who recently had X, Y, or Z, and I recently said A, B, and C to them, they must haaaaate me!! OMG, I am a hooooorrrrible person!! I have enough trouble coming up with things to say to people, and all these rules sort of freak me out. And I'm not trying to be flippant about these situations; I always try to say the right thing, or at least the best thing I can think of. But if we all knew the right thing to say for every moment, we'd all have jobs designing cards for Hallmark, lol. To use a personal example, my daughter has a chromosomal abnormality that no one seems to know anything about. I don't know exactly what I think about this, and even the geneticist we met with who discovered the anomaly told us she wasn't sure what say. My daughter is, for the most part, fairly normal, so this isn't a topic that comes up frequently. If it does, however, the last thing I want is for people to feel like they can't say anything because they read some article about '10 things not to say to people with kids who have abnormal chromosomes.' Seriously, just bring it on. Even if you say something stupid, I know you're trying. And I'll tell you if you're being stupid.
Of course, due to my recent circumstances, I've been reading a lot about being on crutches, and inevitably, I stumbled across a site about things you should not say to people on crutches (http://www.livinglifeoncrutches.com/crutch-talk-etiquette/). While I don't mean to belittle the plight of people who are permanent crutch users, and I understand how annoying it must be to be constantly answer questions about their situation, I think it's natural for people to be curious and inquire. I guess what I think is that you should never assume the worst of someone who is trying to make a conversation with you. S/he may be annoying, but that doesn't mean s/he doesn't have good intentions. And this really isn't just about crutch conversations, it's about a lot more than that. For instance, my brother and his wife lost their baby at 25 weeks in utero, which was awful, awful, awful. My sister-in-law had to go in and be induced and deliver a dead baby in a place with a bunch of happy new moms; I seriously can't imagine what that was like. What do you say in a situation like that? There are no words. But ultimately, I think saying nothing is worse that saying something, even if that something violates someone's '10 things you should never say' list. Because ever since my brother's tragedy, everyone has been too afraid to say anything, lest they say the wrong thing, and now we barely talk.
But whatever, why would you take the advice of a total stranger who, for all you know, is the weirdest, most socially awkward person ever, and who has a really weird relationship with her family? And never mind all that; this is a blog about my hip. :)
By the way, my therapist has no idea about my party plans, and somehow I'm guessing he's not the partying type. The other day, he had me do a balancing exercise and acted sort of surprised when I could do it. I mean, not totally; hopefully he wasn't having me do an exercise he really didn't think I could do, but he told me to hold it 'for as long as I could.' Ten minutes later, I was like, DUDE, I'M STILL HERE, do I really have to hold this for as long as I can?! (Okay, so it probably wasn't ten minutes, maybe more like four or five, but still!) He made some remark about my sense of balance, so I told him that the exercise reminded me of the Bongo board my best friend had in college that we used to mess around on for fun. I mentioned that it was not normally super challenging, but that it got more difficult as the evening progressed and more drinks went down the gullet. He did not even crack a smile at the mention of the drinks.
Speaking of imbibing, if you are American, you are probably thinking that I am a huge alcoholic right about now. In fairness, I should warn you that it's likely that a lot of my entries will include alcohol in them, ha ha. I really don't think I'm an alcoholic, but I am part French, and my French grandmother saw wine as an essential part of meals, and alcohol as an essential part of life in general (which I'm sure was exacerbated by her life circumstances, which I would expand upon if this weren't a blog dedicated to my hip :)). I have spent a fair amount of time in France and in Europe and have found that they have a very different attitude about drinking there. This more relaxed attitude toward alcohol is one part of my French heritage that really works for me. During the summers when I was in college, I worked in a deli, and my boss had a poster in his office that said, 'Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.' That pretty much sums it up for me.
Anyway.
It was very cold today - it rained all day and the high was 60 degrees. I had to break my 'no hip flexion past 90 degrees' restriction to put on socks. (Seriously, how do people who have this surgery during the winter do it? How do you put on socks without flexing your hip past 90 degrees or doing external rotation?!) Also, today is Wednesday, which is farmers market day. I went with my parents, as usual. I should mention that I live in place with a ridiculously short growing season, and I don't know how anyone can make an actual living growing things here, but never mind that, this is a blog about my hip. ;-) The point, however, is that the farmers market is pretty small, so it's not that hard to get to know the vendors if you frequent it.
Today, a woman who runs one of the local farms, finally asked me, 'What happened to you?!' It was sort of funny considering that this is the third week I've been to the farmers market on crutches, and last week, when it was also raining (even though I live in a place that gets no more than 15 inches of rain per year, it never fails to rain on the afternoon of the farmers market), she commented on how dedicated I was to be out in the rain on crutches, and offered to let me stand under the tent in the vendors' space, yet never inquired, 'What happened to you?!' I guess after three weeks she just couldn't stand it anymore, and had to say something, ha ha. So today, in response to her inquiry, I told her that I'd had hip surgery, which was of course met with the usual, 'But you're so young!' I've found that a lot of people think that hip surgery = hip replacement, so I told her that I just had some torn cartilage fixed, and left it at that. Then she said that her husband (a firefighter/farmer who is much older than I am) had recently had a torn labrum in his hip fixed, and I said yes (!) that's actually what I had done, too. We had a brief conversation about having the cartilage repaired as opposed to removed, and it turns out that both her husband and I had the same surgeon (which is not that surprising considering this is not a surgery that tons of orthopedists know how to do). The woman proceeded to tell me how life-changing this surgery had been for her husband, and how happy they both were that he had had it, and how great the surgeon was, and on and on and on. She did mention that the recovery was a little long and rough at times, but in the end it had been worth it. Then in the midst of the conversation, her husband actually came sauntering up with a friend, and we mentioned that we had just been talking about him, and he confirmed his happiness and said how amazing it was to be totally pain free. Plus I made a note of noticing that he was walking totally normally, so that made me feel really good. :) I don't know how long ago he had his surgery, but as I've mentioned, my surgeon is very young, so I can't imagine that his surgery was that long ago! Regardless, it was a good to have a positive, unpaid and impromptu testimonial from a living, breathing, former patient of my doctor that This Is Worth It.
Also, as my mom said, this was the most loquacious that this woman has ever been, despite the fact that my mom has been buying things from her farm for years. After my conversation with her about hip surgery, she then started talking to my mom about farm stuff and whatnot. I guess it just took me on crutches to open this whole dialogue.
The interesting thing is that every time I open Facebook, I feel like one of my friends has shared an article about 'what not to say to someone who...' Someone who recently had a divorce. Someone who is a single mom. Someone whose child has a chronic illness. Someone who has lost a child. Someone who has had a miscarriage. Someone who is adopted. Someone who is overweight. Someone who is underweight. Someone who cuts. Someone who has an undiagnosed condition. Someone whose child has an undiagnosed condition. Someone who had this happen, someone who had that happen, someone who... is alive. OMG do not offend! Just do not say anything!! Every time I read these things, I think Uh-oh, I know someone who recently had X, Y, or Z, and I recently said A, B, and C to them, they must haaaaate me!! OMG, I am a hooooorrrrible person!! I have enough trouble coming up with things to say to people, and all these rules sort of freak me out. And I'm not trying to be flippant about these situations; I always try to say the right thing, or at least the best thing I can think of. But if we all knew the right thing to say for every moment, we'd all have jobs designing cards for Hallmark, lol. To use a personal example, my daughter has a chromosomal abnormality that no one seems to know anything about. I don't know exactly what I think about this, and even the geneticist we met with who discovered the anomaly told us she wasn't sure what say. My daughter is, for the most part, fairly normal, so this isn't a topic that comes up frequently. If it does, however, the last thing I want is for people to feel like they can't say anything because they read some article about '10 things not to say to people with kids who have abnormal chromosomes.' Seriously, just bring it on. Even if you say something stupid, I know you're trying. And I'll tell you if you're being stupid.
Of course, due to my recent circumstances, I've been reading a lot about being on crutches, and inevitably, I stumbled across a site about things you should not say to people on crutches (http://www.livinglifeoncrutches.com/crutch-talk-etiquette/). While I don't mean to belittle the plight of people who are permanent crutch users, and I understand how annoying it must be to be constantly answer questions about their situation, I think it's natural for people to be curious and inquire. I guess what I think is that you should never assume the worst of someone who is trying to make a conversation with you. S/he may be annoying, but that doesn't mean s/he doesn't have good intentions. And this really isn't just about crutch conversations, it's about a lot more than that. For instance, my brother and his wife lost their baby at 25 weeks in utero, which was awful, awful, awful. My sister-in-law had to go in and be induced and deliver a dead baby in a place with a bunch of happy new moms; I seriously can't imagine what that was like. What do you say in a situation like that? There are no words. But ultimately, I think saying nothing is worse that saying something, even if that something violates someone's '10 things you should never say' list. Because ever since my brother's tragedy, everyone has been too afraid to say anything, lest they say the wrong thing, and now we barely talk.
But whatever, why would you take the advice of a total stranger who, for all you know, is the weirdest, most socially awkward person ever, and who has a really weird relationship with her family? And never mind all that; this is a blog about my hip. :)
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Post Surgery: 3 Weeks + 1 Day
Today is not the best hip day. My left hip (supposedly my good one) is really hurting, and my right hip has been aching on and off as well. I think a lot of it is because with my husband being gone + my brother visiting, I've been doing a lot more standing, cooking, trying to change diapers, and walking around on one crutch so I can carry things. Needless to say, considering my level of discomfort, I'm starting to feel slightly panicked about August 13th, which is when I have to start teaching again - from 8-5 for five days. I guess I was hoping this would be the week where I felt totally awesome and totally ready to Ditch The Crutches and be one of the folks who could basically just go cold turkey off crutches (like when the 'binky fairy' comes and takes away all of a kid's pacifiers). I'm not feeling like that is in the cards.
On the other hand, maybe I'm just having a bad day. The other contributing factor is that my niece spent the night with us last night. The good news is that the sleepover went great. The down side, for me, is that I let the girls sleep in my bed and I slept in my daughter's bed. Since my husband is out of town, this seemed to make more sense than trying to drag the futon mattress up from the basement or set up the futon in the family room (which, of course, I just recently folded back up after sleeping on it for two weeks). These are the types of things that you never even think twice about normally, but that become a huge burden on crutches. Unfortunately, my daughter's bed was soooo uncomfortable! (Note to self: she needs a new mattress!)
I also think cooking exacerbates things, as it can involve some awkward angles, heavy pots and pans, and sometimes pushing the limits of the '50% weight bearing' when there is something you just reeeeaaaalllly need and need quickly that is three steps away, and you don't feel like fetching your crutch just to get it. Last night, I made stuffed zucchini and pumpkin blossoms, which were at least quite tasty, so perhaps worth my pain. (My mom had to pick all the blossoms for me.) By the way, if you are into eating flowers, I put garlic, goat cheese, basil, olive oil, and quinoa into a blossom, tie them up with a chive, and fry them for two minutes per side. Tasty. :)
Tonight we are going out for dinner, and my brother is leaving tomorrow, so perhaps my hips can catch some R&R later this week. Back to the drive-thrus!
On the other hand, maybe I'm just having a bad day. The other contributing factor is that my niece spent the night with us last night. The good news is that the sleepover went great. The down side, for me, is that I let the girls sleep in my bed and I slept in my daughter's bed. Since my husband is out of town, this seemed to make more sense than trying to drag the futon mattress up from the basement or set up the futon in the family room (which, of course, I just recently folded back up after sleeping on it for two weeks). These are the types of things that you never even think twice about normally, but that become a huge burden on crutches. Unfortunately, my daughter's bed was soooo uncomfortable! (Note to self: she needs a new mattress!)
I also think cooking exacerbates things, as it can involve some awkward angles, heavy pots and pans, and sometimes pushing the limits of the '50% weight bearing' when there is something you just reeeeaaaalllly need and need quickly that is three steps away, and you don't feel like fetching your crutch just to get it. Last night, I made stuffed zucchini and pumpkin blossoms, which were at least quite tasty, so perhaps worth my pain. (My mom had to pick all the blossoms for me.) By the way, if you are into eating flowers, I put garlic, goat cheese, basil, olive oil, and quinoa into a blossom, tie them up with a chive, and fry them for two minutes per side. Tasty. :)Tonight we are going out for dinner, and my brother is leaving tomorrow, so perhaps my hips can catch some R&R later this week. Back to the drive-thrus!
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