It is funny, the first week after surgery seemed interminable, but this
one has flown by. I'm almost halfway to walking again! At least I hope
so. My hip still feels great. It is the other parts of me that are
hurting. For example:
- The pain in my right leg returned last night, although it wasn't nearly as bad as it was on Tuesday.
- My left hip continues to be sore, which sort of worries me, but I'm trying not to think about it.
- Another thing I have noticed is that the way I have to sit now really
hurts my knee,
specifically the inside of my knee. I have sat with my
legs crossed for as long as I can remember - see photo to the right. (This is me and my son on the airplane on the way back from vacation; who would have guessed that such a mundane photo would serve such a great purpose?) I know that sitting this way is not recommended, but obviously the recommended way of sitting (e.g.: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/files/wh6_uploads/wp_import/posture21.gif) doesn't work with my anatomy. Unfortunately, I can't sit in my usual way because of the
no-flexion-past-90-degrees and no-external-rotation restrictions, so I'm stuck sitting
normally. For once Dr. Google has absolutely no insight into why sitting with your legs uncrossed as opposed to crossed would cause pain.
- My back still hurts. I think this is due to the fact
that I cannot stretch like I normally do. In fact, I think a lot of my
pain is due to not stretching. Constant stretching is what
normally keeps me in motion, and I can't do a lot of the stretches with all the
limitations on my movement.
In other news:
- I was doing some PT exercises at home this evening. A lot of these involve putting full weight on my left side while exercising the right. In the interest of mild adventure and trying to not become too unbalanced, I decided to try exercising my left side while using my crutches so that
not all my weight went onto my right hip. Um, epic fail. LOL. I very briefly had too much weight on my right side and I was sort of surprised by how much it hurt. This makes me worry a little bit about how the transition back to
full weight bearing will go, but I'm trying not to think about it right
now. Moral: Don't get too overzealous.
- I went upstairs and took a shower. It's getting a lot
easier. I even came down the stairs standing up - albeit veeerrrrry
sloooooowly. I had failure #3 as far as keeping my incisions dry, so
I've pretty much given up on that. A little water in a wound isn't going to kill
me. And anyway, I get my stitches out on Tuesday!
I went
downtown this afternoon and met my mom for lunch. After lunch, we did a
little shopping, and it felt good to get out. It's also getting much
easier and less tiring for me to get around. The crutch pads I got are
awesome and my armpits don't hurt at all. The only thing that hurts a
little are the bases of my hands, but it's not too bad. I was
SUPER TIRED when I got home, but I think a lot of it is because I was a lot more active today than I have been. Also, I had a glass of wine with lunch, and I swear it
was the hugest three ounce glass of wine I've ever had before, which I'm
sure didn't help my fatigue. But it's okay, it definitely helps keep my
nerves and negative attitude in check. :)
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