Week Three

End of Week Three

There were a couple of days where it seemed like a step forward and then a step backward. Still, I am staying optimistic as nothing is as bad as before the surgery.

Physiotherapy – III

On my second trip to physio, I am checked out for walking with a cane. Good, I get a pass and encouragement to do more. New exercises to do as well, and they all seem to flow nicely from how I am moving now. Need to keep the muscles around the incision massaged to stop them from cramping on me.

Upping the Movement

More, but not too much was the idea. Unfortunately for me, I need to really watch out for overdoing it. I have taken to timing myself so that I stay within a reasonable amount.

I exercise in the morning before getting up and again before going to bed at night. I have morning and afternoon sets of standing exercises and then I slip in a stretch every now and then as I am doing tasks around the house.

Counting my Steps

My pedometer is my friend. It lets me know, before I overdo it, how much I have moved my body and my new hip.

I have been edging up every day and am now at 3000 steps. That was the number I had fallen down to before the surgery. I figure that if I can do 500 extra each day, I will be doing well over the next month.

Gardening

The Garden has been screaming at me for months. The creeping buttercup in starting to overwhelm parts of it and there are many plants that need moving or at least repotting. My current activity is to go out and do no more than 15 minutes of gardening. So I am clearing very small patches but I know they will add up over time.

Getting Out and About

Every day, I plan a trip somewhere. Doesn’t matter where as long as it is a short trip with about a block length of walking. This has been working well and I can monitor it with my pedometer. With the weather being later winter rains, I need to step carefully so that I don't slip. As long as I take it slow, I am doing fine.

Tools of the Trade

Continue to use all the mobility tools at my disposal. The walker is my second floor companion now and makes sure I don’t fall over in the dark when I get up in the middle of the night.

I now spend a lot of thought on what movements I make and what tools I should use instead. It has made me hyper-aware of where my body is located in time and space.

Pain Management – IV

More Tylenol, less opioids. I have a new plan that I adjust daily so I can monitor my intake. I am showing small decreases in my need for painkillers and this is good news.

Still, I take them as needed because otherwise I would stop moving.

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.

Staples Be Gone

Staple Removal!

I’ve been home for a week and it is now 10 days after surgery; my leg is getting seriously itchy under the dressings. I have an appointment to get the staples out in the afternoon. A simple procedure, really. It took very little time and pain as Dr. Lee removed the 30+ staples that have been holding my incision wound together. She pronounced that it should leave very little scar by the time everything is healed. A few applications of Polysporin for good luck and I am on the way to being whole again.

Pain Management – II

Large holes in your leg really do require more drugs than I had imagined. When you can’t sleep at night and can’t find a comfortable spot during the day, it is finally drilling into my thick skull that I still need the some pain relief. Over the counter Tylenol is not quite enough and I am cut off the Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs due to the danger of internal bleeding, blood clots and the attendant consequences if they move around in my body. When I had the staples out I also got a new prescription so that I can start stepping down from the opioids when I need them less. That will be a welcome relief. I do not like the clouding and physical side effects that they bring. It will still be awhile before I can get back to ‘normal’.

Crutches

I am slow but steady when it comes to going up and down stairs. I need to do this a couple times a day to get from my bedroom to the living room and kitchen. Each trip is easier, but I still need my walker to get around on the floor that I am inhabiting. I am concentrating on walking as straight as possible, speed be damned at this point.

Using a cane

I am taking a few steps now, indoors only, on the side opposite the new hip. The cane has a history as it was owned and used by my Father in Law (gone now). It is a marvelous piece of natural wood that has been steamed and bent. It is very light and strong. Quite suitable as an assistant.

More Naps

My sleep patterns have changed a bit with the surgery. I never get into a really deep sleep as I am always a bit uncomfortable. Still, I seem to be getting what I need for the time being. Lots o catnaps seems to smooth my resting out.

First Shopping Trip

A sunny Saturday and I really want to get outside. With the dogs loaded in the vehicle, it is off grocery shopping. I concentrate on a parking spot and one is waiting for us right in front of our regular green grocer (Norman’s) on The Drive. It feels good to be leaning over the produce and discussing what will go well for this week’s menu. Vegetable bought, and I am ready to be sitting again. In fact, by the time I make it up the back steps at home, I am ready for another nap.

The Diagnosis

The Diagnosis

I knew it wasn’t going to be good news but it still arrives with a jarring thud.

“Bone on bone with the joint collapsing.” Dr. Dive delivers this in a very neutral but kindly tone of voice. No doubt he has had to say this many times, as he is a prominent complex joint surgeon with the experience to know exactly what he is talking about. People ask who my surgeon is and when I tell them, they all say things like, “Lucky You! He’s the best.” My GP was very impressed. A quick Google finds that he is a well-respected academic in addition to his creds as a great surgeon. This has been quite reassuring.

I smile, a bit blankly, “Any options with injections?” I was hoping that the lab made synovial fluid injections might buy me some pain relief and time before surgery.

“I’m afraid that you are well beyond that.” Was his answer in the same tone of voice.

Sigh and a nod on my part.

“We are looking at four to six months to get a surgery date.”

I nod again, with some relief, as this means there actually is an end in sight. I have been in limbo for the past year as I have been on waiting lists and increasing painkillers to deal with my decreasing mobility.

Dr. Dive is gentle and efficient. He recites the diagnosis into a digital audio recorder and I get to hear it again in medical language as he spells out just what is happening to my hip and what needs to be done.

Afterwards, I make sure to let his office know that I am interested in any cancellations that might come out and would be very flexible with my schedule. I am pleasant and accommodating with the very efficient assistant, while silently hoping for that slim chance that an opening that I could slip into would appear.

How Did This Happen?

“You are too young to need joint replacements yet!” My GP, Dr Lee (a wonderful woman) was surprised when it became increasingly clear that I was losing mobility. I was less surprised, coming from a family with a long history of osteoarthritis. My knees had been deteriorating for years and I am one of the fortunately ones that benefit from the lab made synovial fluid injections. But, this was different. I had been gardening one Sunday afternoon in April and when I got up, something catastrophic happened. I had tear-inducing pain all throughout my right side, running from back to toes.

“Sciatica is a possibility, but we need to take a look at that hip.” (It had been feeling ‘funny’ over the past month) she said, and sent me off for x-rays.

The Radiologist decides that there is nothing evidently wrong with the hip, and there is some disc bulging  in the lower back. Initial diagnosis of sciatica, and I go onto my first waiting lists. One for an CT Scan of the lower back and the other for the Spine Clinic with its attendant surgeons.

The Wait – I

Time Passes. Dr. Lee ups my pain killers and now nerve medications as I wait. I continue to go to work because not working would be boring as well as painful. There is always lots of work to be done.

My CT Scan happens at the end of May. Nothing exciting to report except that there is no bone to nerve impingement in my lower back. This is very good news, but I am still in severe pain.

I take my vacation in July and spend part of that time with a massage therapist who eases the tensions in my leg muscles. This balances out my walking, but I cannot lift my right leg and all I can do is mark time by observing the slow loss of mobility. I went from walking at least 12,000 steps a day, down a couple hundred each week until it was no more than 5000 in a day.

I continued with my Community Kitchen Activities and everyone is very good about letting me organize the activities. I spend a lot of time sitting on the side watching the action as we can up 500 pounds of tomatoes, 150 jars of salsa, litres and litres of pickles, and two sessions of the famous “Apple Pie in a Jar” canning at the Copley Community Orchard.

Then a phone call in October! I have an appointment with the spine specialist at the end of November. Having a location, date, and time on the calendar brightens up

First Specialist Visit

I am finally in at the Spine Clinic for my consultation. I’m also down to 4000 steps a day before I hit serious discomfort and disability.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Hunter. What seems to be the problem?” I explain how I ended up in his office; give him a quick rundown of symptoms and actions. He asks a few questions, has me walk back and forth across the room, and examines my spine…and hip.

“I may be wrong, but I don’t think that your spine is your biggest problem. You have almost no mobility in your right hip. Let’s get a new set of x-rays right now.” The Lab is right there around the corner in the building. New x-rays are taken and I wait for a few minutes before being called back in.

My hip x-ray flashes on the screen. “See this side?” pointing to the left hip “This is fine. Now, the other side...” And it becomes completely obvious that the right hip is not fine at all!

“I am referring you to the Complex Joint Clinic. You should expect to get in within four to six weeks.” I thank him for a clear picture about what is happening and leave in a bit of a daze.

Okay, another round of hurry up and wait.

The Wait – II

I won’t say too much, except that I am very good at waiting now. I keep busy. I work at controlling my pain and that includes breathing techniques along with medications. By the end of January, it was taking two days’ worth of energy to do one day’s work. I am grateful that I could do half of my work remotely and/or online.

With Christmas in the offing, I guess (correctly) that it would be more like six to eight weeks and was not surprised to get an appointment with Dr. Dive, a noted hip surgeon, for the 25^th of January.

The visit with Dr. Dive was informative, concise, and direct. I now just needed to wait…again.