Day 8

I talked with a fellow hip patient who told me that he felt like he turned a corner on rehab about day 8. I can officially concur with his assessment. I can lay flat on the table without feeling a pull in my hip and my range of motion is much improving. I have progressed to much more complicated range of motion exercises like standing hip rotations (internal only .. external is still forbidden as it would tear the anchors in my hip out .. . very bad!). Dr. Philippon did 4 hip surgeries yesterday so a whole new crew showed up in pt today . . . one in particular looking very worse for the wear. She could barely get on the exercise bike and looked as if she would hurl at any moment. Watching the first day after surgery patients made me realize just how far I have actually come. Everything is getting easier . . not that it's easy yet but it's not a struggle just to get out of bed. Whew! A big sigh and a moment of reflection about where I have come over the last week. I am pretty proud of my accomplishments and am eagerly looking forward to the next week when I can get rid of the continuous passive motion machine, foot pumps and anti-rotational boots. I will once again be able to sleep on either side I want and hopefully will be able to sleep more than 4 hours at a time. I will have to wear the hip brace for another 3 days past that but it's the least of my worries. I also start pool therapy next week so that will go a long way in building muscle as I start to wean off of crutches. I am assigned to two therapists -- Lauri and Lindsay. I see Lauri Tues thru Fri and then Lindsay Sat thru Monday. They actually have very different styles and techniques. Lauri is much more laid back and gentle. Lindsay will push to my absolute limit and call me names if I try to whine. :-) I discovered today that I have a humongous bruise down the back side of my left thigh. I thought my bruising was pretty minimal but I guess I wasn't looking in the right place. Incisions look really good and I get my stitches out on May 14. I can't believe it's May 1 already. The time seems to fly by because I am so busy with all of the rehab but that's a good thing. If I wasn't so busy, I would be really, really homesick. I hear that all of my flowers are blooming that I planted last year and won't get to see them until next spring.

I am officially off all pain meds now -- yippeeee!!! They typically plan for 3 weeks of pain meds so I am pleased with that. To celebrate I am having a New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale tonite. My sister is making black bean nachos and I am pretty content. I know that I may still have some bad days sprinkled in here and there but for today, all is well.

My ankle is feeling slightly better. It's certainly not 100% - it's probably 60% but I am encouraged by the slow return of feeling to the actual foot. I have surveyed the other hip patients and no one else had this issue. I guess I drew the lucky number. :-) Everything went so smoothly in pulling this whole surgery off that I guess one thing going wrong isn't the end of the world.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me encouraging comments, emails, text messages, etc. during this last week. I appreciate it more than I can tell you!!!