Tools
I have my reacher and my long shoe horn, both quite long and
awkward when they are not being used for their designed purpose. Where do I put
them??? I need the reacher all the time to ensure that I don’t break my ‘hip
precautions’ of not bending my hip more than 70 degrees from vertical. We found
a piece of the thin walled PVC pipe that we had used to plumb the house for our
central vacuum system. After cutting off a two inch / five cm section and
making a cut down one side to remove a .5 cm strip, we drilled four holes and used
a couple of nylon straps (nyties or zapstraps) to lash it to the right side of
my walker up near the top and towards the front. A little work with a half
round file and there is a notch for the shoehorn handle and the reacher fits
nicely on top of this. Everything is in easy reach and I am good to go.
We also fastened a pouch to the front of the walker so I can
carry my pill box, a cordless phone, and a water bottle with me as I move
around the house. Saw a number of patterns for sewing pouches for walkers out
in my internet search, so anyone who wants to go custom will have not lack for inspiration.
Getting out of the House
I am scheduling some sort of walking every day, starting with several laps of the floor that I am on. I now wear a pedometer and amongst the walker, crutches, and cane, I am up to almost 1000 steps a day.To get more walking in, I need to get out. The late winter rains are not making this easy, but since we shop in a variety of small stores, each time we need something for dinner, I am eager to go out. I certainly don’t feel up to the supermarket crawl yet, but a trip to the green grocer or the deli is manageable and makes me feel more social/human than endless laps around the house.
Expedition Planning
My goal is to make it around the block. I figure that I may take me another week to do this.
Physiotherapy
I attended as scheduled, 2 weeks after the initial surgery. Assessment
is that I am doing fine and am on track. New exercises to do twice a day. So
currently my life if focused on exercising, walking as much as possible, occasional outings, and
napping. This is still the punctuation to everything that I do. I am much more appreciate of the term "nap attack" than ever before.
No comments:
Post a Comment