Week Four

Week Four

My daily routine is exercise, get up, breakfast, exercise, nap, lunch, exercise, nap, exercise, break, dinner, relax, bed time. It is an up hill push to get back to the level of fitness that I had even a year ago.

Movements as still slow and sometimes tentative but I am moving for the most part. Everything is so much better than before the surgery!

This is my last week of 70 degree hip precautions. I think I must be healing because they seem restrictive at this point. I want to move around more, but remember that I am not completely healed up each time I forget to take pain killers on time.
I am still being very careful about how I position the hip. The very last thing that I would like to be doing is trying to explain to my surgeon why I am back in the hospital. I think it would be...awkward.

Swimming

A number of people have recommended swimming as good exercise. With my long hair, a chlorinated pool leaves me walking in a cloud of chlorine for days after a swim, which is one of the reasons that I have not been swimming in years. A little searching and I found a pool nearby - Killarney Community Centre - that uses ozone instead of chlorine so off I went.

What a wonderful feeling of being un-weighted in the water. There is extra resistance to movement, but you float. I did all of my standing exercises and most of the lying down ones with ease. It won’t replace my other routines but it sure was a nice way to work out. And my hair does NOT smell of chlorine. I bought a month pass and we will see if I get my money’s worth.
I also came out of the pool feeling like I had been working hard. It is easy to overdo the exercises because they become so easy to do. I have to watch my time and count. Next week, I will start swimming laps and see where I get to.

Bicycling

What I really want to be doing is bicycling on the street, but this is not an option on my current drug program and the late winter weather, so I will try and be patient and build up my stamina so when I can get out, I will be able to actually get somewhere.

Since the pool that I am swimming in is located in a Community Centre, the Flexipass that I purchased can also be used for various Fitness Centres in other locations in Vancouver. I found another close one - Trout Lake - that has stationary bicycles. It was recommended that I use these as well to help my leg muscles get back in shape. It is tricky to get to the Community Centre for a short stint of bicycling since I am not driving yet. It will be easier when I can get myself there on my own.

Tool Upgrade

Had to buy a folding reacher so that I can put it in my swim bag. The rigid one doesn’t fit and is really awkward to care around. 

I have also repurposed a nice piece of driftwood with a crook in one end as a garden cane. With a crutch tip added, it is actually quite stable and stabilizing for me out in the back garden.

Gardening

I have been doing a small plot at a time every day that I can get outside. The creeping buttercup, ground ivy, and various other weeds are doing quite nicely since I didn't get them dug out last fall. Lots of catching up to do. Besides being necessary, the gardening is another good workout for my whole body.
Garlic is up and happy, purple sprouting broccoli is almost ready to eat, I have self sowing parsnips up and getting a head start on the season. I have potted up 12 clay pots of  wood strawberries for my planters off my back deck. There are buds on them now so blooming will happen in a couple of weeks, then little strawberry snacks after then as long as there is some sunshine.

Orange Marmalade

The time for Seville oranges is passing and I am running out of marmalade, so I located a case of oranges and sent out a message to the other members of the Canoe Creek Community Kitchen, for a get together last Saturday to make some orange marmalade. One member of the group asked "Is this on your care plan?" and I answered that as long as I keep my hip at 70 degrees or less, it is.
Five of us managed to make 25 litres of jam over about four hours. That felt good! I was able to do everything, although I needed to sit down frequently. This was my full exercise program for the day and I spent the afternoon napping on the couch.

Pain Management - V

End of the week but not an end of the opioids. I still need them on a decreasing basis. The more I move, the more muscles get involved and have something to say about the process. My lower back is protesting now as it has been mostly immobilized by the lack of hip movement and has become weak. I am adding exercises for this area as well to build it back up. A heating pad for my leg and lower back seems to help as well. 

I am back to a cup of coffee in the morning, which also seems to help with the pain and allowing me to start moving after my get out of bed exercises. Hope to be on strictly over the counter pain relief in the next week or two.