Second Month Recovery

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I am in the slogging stage of recovery now. My full time job is to get better and more mobile. It takes up all my time and energy, but will be worth it in the end. This covers my activities up to the end of week seven, post-surgery.

On Overdoing the Recovery

I do really want to be well again. So, I sometimes just run (walk, lurch) with the endorphins that come with exercising and then I have a tendency to do too much. This leads to a day (or more) of increased pain and decreased mobility. L

So, I am trying to count or time my movements so that I don’t do this. Still, my natural enthusiasm does whisper in my ear, “Sure you can do another 10 minutes.” And it is really hard not to agree. And when I do, I pay.

I am currently trying not to overdo it with swimming, and now with stationary bicycling. The latest step up sees me in the fitness centre on the days between swims. Again it is easy to get into a groove and keep going. The cycling is working my leg muscles, my knees and my glutes.

Garden

The weeds are being removed and the ground is being uncovered. Any extra energy after exercising has been spent here. The uneven ground is actually a very good exercise for my legs and balance, so it really is a win, win…and I get food!

Walking

This is harder than I would have ever imagined!

All the exercising that I have done just barely gets me up to the level where I can start to walk any distance at all. A single block is tough the first time, but after recovering, then it is to try two, three blocks. After a week, I can just barely do eight blocks and I am exhausted. It takes the rest of the day to recover.

Getting Ready to Drive

Off the Opioids for the last week. Can move my leg easily through the range of movements that I need. Reflexes are good.

First trip out is just a short one to pick up some more acetaminophen, It went well, and I can now get myself to swimming and the fitness centre. Nice to be independent again.

Current Pain Management

The acetaminophen is doing the job as far as pain in concerned. However, I am now taking Lyrica for the nerves that are screaming at me. This is not Pain pain, it is more like extreme irritation with lots of signals that something is not ok. The nerve meds help quiet them down at night so that I can sleep.

Getting Out and About

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.

Pain Management – III

Getting back down to only taking Over the Counter medications is now my goal. Every few hours, I ask myself about what level of pain I am experiencing and then look really hard at the medications that I have available. Early in the day, I can use less, but after working out and just before the next nap, I need a bit more. The 'hard' drugs are being consumed less often but they are still with me. Without them I do less movement and it is the movement that will get me back to normal, faster than anything else.