3 more days

I have 3 official appointments left with Lindsay before I see Dr. Philippon. It is surreal. First I was freaking out about coming out here for 6 weeks and now I am freaking out about going home. What's with me????

I talked with both Mark, the athletic trainer who coordinates care between Howard Head and Dr. Philippon and Lindsay and they are confident that he will send me packing on Monday. In fact, Lindsay is having me bring my pt protocols in this weekend to be completely re-worked since I am performing well ahead of schedule. Did you read that . . . . well ahead of schedule. . . . :-) . . . once again, my competitiveness pays off. Ok, actually what has paid off is staying here for 6 weeks and working with physical therapists who know exactly when to push, when to back off and how to fix things that go wrong during recovery. They are amazing.

I had a tearful hug with Laurie today. Her days off are Sat, Sun and Mon so I probably won't see her again before I leave. It felt really weird so I refused to say goodbye since I will be back out here the end of July. I simply told her that I would see her later. It also helped that I will still have appointments over the weekend so I could be brave today. I can't imagine what will happen when I say goodbye to Lindsay on Monday. I promise to hold it together but there will be a small moment of panic as I leave. This place has been so much a part of my life.

Lindsay amped up the exercises today and I'm pretty sure tried to see if she could get my hip to pop out of the socket (kidding!!). I was pretty shaky by the time I left but felt incredibly good at the same time. My hip is really stable and pain free. I just have to continue to work on getting it to relax a bit and I am golden! There were new hip patients (surgery yesterday) in the clinic today and I still am amazed at how far I have come in 5 weeks. Amazing!

I am hoping that I feel ready to leave come next week but I know I am going to have moments of uncertainty. I hope Laurie and Lindsay will bear with me as I email and text them until I get back out here in July. Speaking of July -- I made a 3 month post op appointment with Dr. Philippon today - July 27. I am planning to do a physical therapy session with Lindsay on July 26 and then see Philippon on July 27. If he gives me the all clear, I plan to stay a couple of days and do some hiking through this beautiful place that I have only been able to enjoy from afar. A small reward for all of this hard work. It also gives me great motivation to keep working really hard once I get back to Indy so I don't get reprimanded by Lindsay or Dr. Philippon. ;-)

So tonite, I am enjoying a really fine glass of red wine and a mountain view and thinking that I am the luckiest girl in the whole world!!