Shelley's Spot(s)

My Screws Are Out

2009-11-09T18:44:00.002-07:00

I went in this morning to get my screws out and it wasn't as bad as I expected. I expected it to be easy, but thought I would have some muscle problems. They went in at the top of my scar and never went into my thigh so my range of motion and strength are good. I can feel the incision and a little muscle soreness in my waist area where they cut in. I think they might have had trouble getting out the left screws because the bandage is bigger and thicker, and that area is much more sore than the other side. Of course, much more sore is easy when you have no pain at all on the good side. I can lay on my side already also. The surgery took about an hour and I was home about 4 hours after going in. The funny part of this whole thing is how little it hurts and how many percocet they gave me. My friend went up to the pharmacy and picked up the prescription so I didn't see it until I got home. They sent me home with 50 which seems like a bit much considering after the pao I only took like 20 of them. Oh well, at least I know I will have them in the future when I hurt myself. After all, ski season is about to start. I am going to take a few days off of work and try to let myself heal properly. I will post again soon and add pictures of the screws. My dad was shocked at how long they were, while I was shocked at how skinny they were. If I had known how thin the screws were I might have actually tried to be more careful. My doctor did love hearing about skiing at 12 weeks (turns out he didn't know- his med assistant gave me permission and didn't tell him) and feeling like I broke a screw then going back up for another run. He just laughed and said he wishes he had more patients like me. I never thought I would hear that from a doc.

My Screws are Coming Out

2009-11-07T12:44:00.002-07:00

It has been a long time since I posted an update on here, but it has been a hectic time lately. Ripken is doing excellent after his knee surgery (he is tough like me, and heals quickly like me) and Armstrong had another bladder surgery but both are now recovered so it is time for me to finish step 3 of the 3 step hip process.

I am going in Monday to have all 8 screws on both sides taken out. Normally Dr Peters doesn't take them out, but I asked him to because I can feel them sometimes and I don't like that. I told him when I saw hime at my 2 week follow up after the first pao that I want them out so he has been prepared. He told me he wants them in for a year before they come out, but that was also negotiable. I decided to wait until now so he can do both sides at once, but it has only been 10 months for the left side. He is doing it early so I don't miss any of the ski season. I bought new skis and plan to be on the slopes in a few weeks trying them out.

I will be so happy to have this whole thing done. It seem slike I just had the first surgery,but it has been quite a while. I had both knees done after the hips so after 4 major surgeries in 17 months I plan to be done and just let myself heal. I am not nervous about this surgery at all, but I am excited because it is the end. I can't wait. I will post when I get home on Monday, and may even have pictures. Oh, and I am keeping my screws.

Ripken's a Bad Patient Also

2009-08-02T16:32:00.002-06:00

Ripken is now 4 days post tplo knee surgery and he is as bad of a patient as I am. His surgery is actually very similar to a pao, but it is in his knee. They cut the tibial bone so the angle is better then rotate it and put a plate and 6 screws in the knee. I can handle that I am a bad patient because that is my choice, but I am struggling with how bad Ripken is. For 8 weeks he can only go out on leash walks and for now I have to use either his harness or a sling under his hips to support him. The first day home, with me holding the harness and him being stoned, he tried to chase a cat. I talked to the vet and we decided he needs to feel the surgery so maybe he will self limit. I have stopped giving him the sedative and cut the pain pills in half. Really, does a 60 pound dog need 60 mg of codeine twice a day? Last night my hopes of him self limiting were dimmed a little when he jumped and put his front paws on the fence and tried to look for a cat (I think there is a cat theme here). I pulled him down and took him inside. When he is in the house he can be offleash because I have closed a bunch of doors so he doesn't have a lot of room and I put up x-pens around the furniture so he can't jump up on it. Well, last night after his cat staring he came in and when I got to my room where he was at he tried to jump over the 3 foot xpen to get onto the bed. I managed to catch him mid air and put him back down, hopefully without injury. I haven't even hit one week and he is already restless. Hopefully the rest of the time passes quicker and more safely.

Ready For Ripken's Surgery

2009-07-27T20:41:00.002-06:00

I think I am ready for Ripken's knee surgery on Wed. He is having tplo, which is actually sort of like a pao, but for dogs and knees not people and hips. They are fixing the joint by cutting so it fits better and causes less pain. I have two ramps, one for him to get up on the bed and one for the steps in the front. The harness is a great harness by Ruffwear. It was originally designed for search and rescue dogs and is really sturdy with straps in the right places for support, and padding on them. The best part is the handle on the back so when we are walking or going out I can lift him like luggage so he doesn't put too much weight on it. I have exercise pens so I can put them all over the house so he can get up and move around, but not go on any slippery floors or stairs. I have the platforms so I can raise his food and water, and non skid rugs in case he decides to go on the kitchen floor. I am actually more stressed by Ripken's surgery than I was for mine. I have even set up physical therapy for him, and I refused to go for myself. All in all, I am ready. I will take him for a walk and play quite a bit tomorrow since it will be his last day for a few months that he will be allowed to run. He has to be on a leash for everything for a few months and no running. I seriously will be sedating him. I will post again Wednesday when I know how his surgery went.

The Hits Just Keep on Coming

2009-07-23T18:07:00.002-06:00

As if two hip surgeries, and two knee surgeries for myself, now it is time for my dog Ripken to go in. He has to have the acl surgery, though his acl is not torn. The tibial angle is just too steep and is causing him problems so they are going to cut the head of the tibia down to a more manageable angle. This is going to be rough for both Ripken and me. I am lucky my vet lets me do payments instead of making me pay for all of it up front. When you are facing a $3000 surgery within a year of my 3 surgeries it is kind of hard. I am going to try to get some rest now. I just haven't been able to sleep because I have been so stressed about this whole thing. At least having a date is good, and I have his first physical therapy appointment set up for after surgery. I have non skid mats for my kitchen floor, step stools to put his food and water on so he doesn't have to bend as much (I got little fish non skid things designed for the bathtub to put on his bowls and stools so they don't slide around), a friend to come and build a ramp over the stairs because he can't do stairs for 2 months, and carpet to put on the ramp so he doesn't slide. I think I am all set, but I am sure I'm forgetting something. I will keep researching so I am ready for the surgery.

I Get To Have My Knees Drained

2009-07-16T13:39:00.002-06:00

I can't even tell you how excited I am that the swelling has not gone down so now I get to have needles stuck in my knees to have the fluid drained. I have no idea how I can have my hip sawed in half, twice, and have very little swelling or bruising, and no complications, but a little scope to the knees has left me looking like I have been beaten with big pockets of swelling on top of the knee. Yesterday I had a doctor appointment to have some medication I am on checked and she asked me if I was in a safe, non abusive environment. I thought it was a weird question and told her I was fine. When I got home I went to ice and saw how bruised I still am . The doc must have thought I was in an abusive relationship because she kept asking, but I had forgotten I was so bruised. I have a long day today then at 9:15 tomorrow I will get drained then take the rest of the day off work. Hopefully I will feel better after this is done.

Still Swollen

2009-07-14T18:23:00.002-06:00

I was hoping that after 4 days of rest and ice I would be doing much better. In a way I am as my bruising is beginning to go away. Unfortunately I still have two big pockets of swelling- one on each knee. The best way to describe it is it looks like a small breast implant on each knee. We see a lot of implants at the pool I work at and they all have one thing in common and that is the ridge where it goes from natural to implant at the top. My friends and I were laughing that I have the implant ridge at the top of each knee where the swelling is. I called the docs assistant today and she said I am going in the right direction since the swelling is going down everywhere except the "implant". She said if the pockets are not gone by Thurs afternoon or Fri morning I need to call and come in on Friday so they can drain it. I went in to work today thinking it wouldn't be bad since I had iced for 4 days, but after only 4 hours I swelled up again and it is like I never iced. My boss told me I need to either take days off or take half days because my knees and the bruises are making him nauseous, especially since he has to have the same surgery done. I guess the rest of this week I will only work a couple of hours each day and hope for the best come Friday. On the plus side, my hips feel great.

My Bruises are Spreading

2009-07-10T19:31:00.004-06:00

Today I took the day off work because I am starting to get concerned about the amount of bruising I am getting. It has been bad from the beginning after getting my knees scoped, but now not only does it look like someone took a bat to my knees, now it looks like I sprained both of my ankles. Here are two pictures I took today of my ankles.

Everything from above me knees to my feet has so much bruising I am starting to feel like Barney the dinosaur. I have committed myself to resting and icing for the next few days. Yesterday was a really bad day so I probably deserved all of the bruising, but I committed to hosting a bachelor/ bachelorette party and driving so I had to do it. After working for 7 hours I came home then went out to a bar to listen to a really good 80s hair cover band and didn't get home until 3am. I did sit the entire time (I am so glad I thought to reserve tables) but bar stools didn't feel that good on my knees. The only thing I have done today is sleep, wake up, tan for 2 hours, ice, nap, ice again, now I am in bed again. Tomorrow I have to go into work for 4 hours, but I will be able to sit for most of it, then I will come home and rest. Hopefully by Monday I will feel normal again and can start riding the bike.

5 Days post Op Knee Surgeries

2009-07-07T15:42:00.005-06:00

Today is 5 days post op for me and I am surprised I hurt as much as I do. I am so swollen and bruised, and the pressure from the swelling is what is hurting. I have been icing and resting as much as I can, but I guess it is not enough. I go see the doc tomorrow so I can at least get answers as to what he did and if my bruising is normal. Here is a pic of the left and right knee at about 2 days post op.

Isn't that pretty. Now I am getting more color and the bruising is starting to turn green and yellow. Anytime you can get multiple colors in a bruise you know it is a good one. The next pic was taken today, but you don't get the full effect of the bruise because of the angle I took it at.

Suffice it to say that my entire leg is one big bruise. It goes down into my shin and all the way around the back of the knee. The hole on the top you can see also likes to bleed on a regular basis so I really am getting it all. I am going to go rest now. I will post again tomorrow when I know what all was done to me.

1 Day Post op Knee Surgery

2009-07-03T14:42:00.002-06:00

Today is my first day at home after knee surgery yesterday. I had both knees scoped to clean everything out and had a lateral release on at least the right knee, but I think he did it on both. I will find out all of the details when I go in Wednesday for my 1 week post op visit with the doc. I will also get the video of the surgery that day. I asked about having a video and he said he would do it for me so I will be able to see the procedure from inside the knee. I am really not in pain, but very swollen and stiff. You know it is swollen when your knee is bigger than your thigh. The main issue I am having is I can't get one of the holes to stop bleeding. I am supposed to be doing range of motion exercises but every time I bend my knee it bleeds. I have been doing a lot of icing and am trying to rest. My goal is to do this recovery with no painkillers. I was given percocet but it makes me itchy so I don't really want to take it. I might take one tonight though just to help me sleep because I was up and awake a lot overnight. Anyway, that is the update. I will post again tomorrow and hopefully the bleeding will have stopped.

Just Bought a Laptop

2009-06-28T16:09:00.002-06:00

So I finally bit the bleet and bought myself a laptop. I had one for awhile from work, but someone else needed it so I had to give it back. I really like it so far, but hate windows vista. I got it on sale so that is a big bonus. It even has a webcam, but I don't know how to use it, or anyone else that has one for that matter. I am sitting in bed now trying to get used to the new computer. Armstrong had to take another therapy dog test today (for my local group) and he did superb job again. Unfortuantely, I think the stones he has left in him are really bothering him because any time someone got near his waist he tensed up. I really don't want to put him through another surgery so I am hoping they will dissolve. Well, it is time to take the boys out. Only 4 more days til I am under the knife again.

The Good and the Bad

2009-06-19T13:30:00.003-06:00

I am now 1 year post RPAO and 5 months post LPAO and all in all I feel good. Normally here in Utah we get 5 days of measurable rain in June, but this year we have had 15 days already, and it is only June 19th. The rain really makes me ache, but the ache is mostly where the screws are so I definitely want them taken out. I can do anything and everything I want to do except run, but that doesn't really count because I don't want to run, and never have. I have fallen off the exercise wagon for the past couple of weeks, but that is just being overwhelmed at work with the start of summer more than anything painful. I am going to start again on Monday to work out so we'll see how that goes.

Now the bad. Once my hips were realigned the knee issues I have had my entire life began to flair up. I have put way more than my 36 years on these knees. I think I have put enough wear on them for a 60 year old man, and I walk like one according to my friends. Now that the hips are fixed and the knees thought they would come out and say hi, I decided it was rime to see a doc about them. The doc came highly recommended and he knows Dr Peters, my hip doc. He is also familiar with the hip surgeries I had so that is a bonus. He checked my knees, felt the grinding under the kneecap, then felt how tight the tendons on the outside of my knee were. He told me he wasn't expecting me to be a surgery case because usually when it is a female in their 30's complaining of both knees hurting it is a pt issue, but I am not. He asked if I wanted to start with one knee or do them both at the same time and I told him I wanted both so I didn't have to go through it again. The goal is to clean up all of the damaged cartilage, fix the meniscus tear he thinks is in there, and release the tendon on the outside. He won't know until he gets in there and sees the damage if there is anything else he will need to do. The amazing thing is the timing on the whole knee issue. I called for an appointment and got in with 10 days. At that appt he told me about surgery and scheduled a date- July 2nd. That is only 15 days after I first saw him. The day after seeing him I was in my preop visit. That is a really fast office. Oh well, the sooner the better. I will post when I get more info.

Strut Your Mutt Today- Not a Good Idea

2009-05-30T16:45:00.004-06:00

Today was Strut Your Mutt and this year I thought I would be okay to do the walk. I took last year off (it was 2 weeks before my rpao) because my hip hurt too much, but I thought since they had been fixed it would be fine. Well, I was wrong. I am really stiff and sore now. I don't have internal hip pain, which would be a bad thing, it is more a general achiness in the left hip that was just fixed. The 4 or 5 mile walk was bad enough, but I had to go up and down a steep grassy hill to get to where I parked, and up and down another even bigger steep grassy hill to the place where we were having our pictures done. The dogs were good during it, though it was kind of a Freaky Friday thing where they switched personalities for the day. My perfect role model dog pulled on the leash the whole time, while my brownie stealing, delinquent, crackhead dog was a perfect gentleman. He didn't pull on the leash, he actually didn't try to get food from people (including the girl with the brownie in one hand that was petting him), and he didn't get testy with the other dogs. Somewhere on the way to the park Ripken's good twin must have changed places with him. The other therapy dog people actually asked me why Ripken doesn't ever come and do special events like Armstrong does. Well, he doesn't do it because he is normally hyper, whiny, and all over the place, but that is not the dog they saw today. My friend joked that the crackhead was in rehab for the day, and that is kind of right. Here is a picture of our Strut Your Mutt team. Unfortunately someone else took this picture and didn't tell me that you can't see Armstrong because he is behind a big newfie. That is Ripken (the dalmatian) that I am reaching down to pet, and Armstrong whose head you can kind of see in front of him.

On a side note, my skin cancer screening also went well. I have something on my cheek that I was told to watch, but that didn't need to be removed yet. I have been outside in the sun my whole life and never used sunscreen as my parents never used it. Now my dad has some minor skin cancers and I have lots of sun damaged skin and a mark to watch. All of the years of lifeguarding and now running pools will eventually catch up, but for now I am good.

Strut Your Mutt is Tomorrow

2009-05-29T17:39:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow is strut your mutt and I am so excited. I had to miss it last year because my hip hurt too much, but this year I am doing it with my spotted boys. It is a walk to raise money for No More Homeless Pets in Utah so I will be walking a lot tomorrow. I think it will end up being 4 or 5 miles I walk with my dogs. It is looking kind of overcast and my screws are starting to ache so I think rain is coming. It better clear up for tomorrow morining because I don't want to walk in the rain, and my screws hurt too much to walk much in damp weather. I can't wait to get these stupid things out. After strut your mutt I have my annual skin cancer screening then I get to come to work for 16 hours and supervise a graduation party at our recreation center until 6 am Sunday. It is going to be a busy day. I will post tomorrow about how my hip held up on the long walk.

4 Months Post Pao

2009-05-15T13:13:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was officially 4 months post pao and I couldn't be happier with the results. I celebrated the day by golfing 9 holes for the second time this week and then doing an hour on the elliptical. I have no pain anymore at all unless I do something stupid, or do something the muscles aren't used to (like golf.) After each day of golfing I had muscle pain in the groin, but by the next morning it felt fine. I noticed today that I can cross my leg to tie my shoe, which I couldn't do a few weeks ago. My right hip is coming up on a year post pao and that one I can't even tell had anything done to it. I looked in the mirror the other day and couldn't even see the scar over the waistband of my shorts so even that is fading. The big success of the whole yearlong process of reconstructing both hips is that my back pain I have had for many, many years is gone. In college in 93-94 I had to have heat, e-stim, and stretching before every softball practice or game just so I could be functional and not get spasms. Who knew it was all related to my hip issue. I don't think I have anything to try to do that I haven't already done. I have gone skiing (at 12 weeks post op), I have golfed, I am back on the elliptical, and I can walk the dogs. Maybe I am just a freak of nature at recovering, but this has been a really easy healing, even compared to my easy recovery on the first hip. I am so glad I did this, and so glad my surgeon is so great. Now, it is time to finish some work for the day then do another hour on the elliptical before going home to get caught up on all of my tivoed shows. I hate finale weeks because I have so much to catch up on.

Ripken's Agility Trial

2009-05-05T16:30:00.002-06:00

Sorry it took so long to post the remaining part of the blog about Ripken's agility trial, but I decided to wait until I had talked to Dave, our trainer, about what we were going to do with the problem child. We had our lesson yesterday and Ripken was perfect again, which makes his behavior at the trial even more annoying. Here is the breakdown of Ripken run amok at the agility trial:
Thursday event 1 (jumpers)- did one jump (out of 16) then jumped out of the ring to find me since Dave was running him.
Thursday event 2 (standard)- this time I walked Ripken inside to where I was going to be since I had to watch Dave's toy booth. I handed him off to Dave who then took him outside to run him. He did the whole course, though he did run around a little and missed the bottom contact. All in all, it was his best event of the weekend.
Thursday event 3 (fast)- on the way inside to take Ripken to Dave we passed some food that was sitting out on a chair. Ripken was so focused on it I had to drag him by the collar to get him past it. At the start line for the event, Dave let him go and he didn't even do one jump, he simply ran to the corner of the ring where the food was, jumped out of the ring and stole a guy's brownie. He would have gotten the cookie to, but the frosting was so thick on the brownie he couldn't open his mouth enough for the cookie.
Friday event 1 (standard)- Ripken started the course and was perfect. He got halfway through the course before getting to the brownie corner from the night before. At the brownie corner he jumped out of the ring looking for more brownies (luckily he didn't get any this time).
Friday event 2 (fast)- By this point Dave and I are frustrated that Ripken keeps jumping out of the ring. We were going to pull him from the show then decided since it is fast (which is where you make up your own course) we would keep let him do it. We decided to do only 4 obstacles with him, all in the front of the ring so he doesn't get near the brownie corner. After the four obstacles they were going to leave the ring and Dave would praise him and give him lots of treats. Well, Ripken did the four obstacles, but at the exit where Dave was kneeling down to praise him, Ripken dodged by him and tried to steal a woman's sandwich. When he saw he wasn't getting nay, he made a break for the building I was in, 300 yards away. Dave finally caught him by the building and we decided to pull him from the last two days of the show.

Now, out plan is to practice with plates of food on the ground, and I am practicing just walking him by food and ignoring it. It is hard for him, but eventually it should work. Also, he won't compete in agility again until after he gets an obedience or rally title. Doing obedience/ rally will make him focus more and make him be in a ring under control. Once we have that, he can go back to agility, but not before. Anyway, that was my weekend. Ripken is so hard to train, but he is a great dog. Looking back, it really is funny what he did at the show, though it was frustrating at the time. Tomorrow night is more obedience so he better start to like it.

Testing the Hip

2009-05-02T18:37:00.002-06:00

The past three days have been quite a test for me and my hip. I had a 4 day dog show to go to and only 3 days ito it I am hurting. There has been so much walking, and when i am not walking I am standing on hard cement. Add to that the chill and dampness and it is the trifecta of pain. The good news is that it doesn't hurt in the joint itself, it is the muscles and screws that are hurting so i know I am okay. I have put on my pajamas and laid in bed as soon as I got home each day because I just can't be on my feet anymore. Last night I even had to take a pain pill and I hate taking them. One more day and the show is over, and tomorrow is a short day so that will help.

The reason I was at the show was for my dog to compete in agility. I obviously was not running him, my trainer was running him. It as a complete disaster and I will post about his exploits tomorrow when I am not so tired. It was definitely an experience. More tomorrow.

Pictures from Alta Closing Day

2009-04-21T12:08:00.007-06:00

Here are some pictures from Alta Ski Area's closing day. It is where I went skiing on Sunday, 12 weeks and 3 days post pao.

I Went Skiing and Tried to Break My Hip

2009-04-20T10:06:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was my big ski day and I was so excited to go. I should have known it was going to be a weird day when part of the canyon leading up to Alta was closed because of an avalanche. There is another road that goes around the back of Snowbird that leads to Alta so I was still able to go, but it should have been an omen or something. I said i was going to do either 4 runs or one hour, whichever came first. I was on my fourth run of the day and I was going home after that run when my ski stuck and I fell. The snow was so slushy (it was 55 degrees on the mountain) and that is really hard to ski in. Sometimes the skis "stick" and other times they skid out so it takes a lot of concentration to ski in the slush. I looked up at the trail merge to see if anyone was coming down from the other trail and that was all it took for my skis to go out from under me. The ski on my right side came off, but the ski on my left side, the side that was just fixed 12 weeks ago, stayed on. As I fell the ski stuck while I twisted and I felt and heard about 8 snaps and pops in about half a second. I had to stay down on the ground for a minute or so because my hip hurt so bad. When I finally stood up it hurt so I just stood there for 5 minutes or so waiting for the pain to go away a little bit. After the 5 minutes the pain was gone so I skiied down the hill to the base. That didn't hurt so I said I was going to do one more run so I didn't end my season on a fall. The final run went well and didn't hurt so I was happy.

Unfortunately, when I got ready to go the canyon going down was closed because another avalanche had gone across the road. It was too far down the road to use the back way so I was stuck at Alta. Had I not done the last run I would have made it down before the closure, but instead I had to wait 2 hours for the road to open. At least it was a beautiful day so I sat outside the lodge in the sun with a diet pepsi just enjoying the sun. When the canyon opened, it took 90 minute dot get home when it normally only takes 20 minutes. I live 15 miles from Alta, but the traffic was so backed up and it is only one lane on a windy canyon road so it took forever.

It is now the next morning and I feel really good. I gave the dog a bath last night when I got home so we could go to the hospital today. I wasn't sure if I would feel up to it, but I wanted to bathe him just in case I felt okay. This morning my hip felt the same as it did before I went skiing so obviously I didn't break anything or do anything to the screws. I can't believe I was able to ski 12 weeks post pao, and it didn't hurt. The fall hurt, but the skiing didn't. I think that is progress. Now it is time to get ready to take Armstrong to Primary Children's.

My Surgeon is Letting Me Ski!

2009-04-16T16:51:00.002-06:00

Today is 12 weeks post pao and the weather is terrible. The weather has been killing me because it just keeps raining and snowing, then gets nice, then rains and snows again. I normally wouldn't care,but A) it hurts when the weather changes and B) I can't ski yet so it is frustrating. Today on a whim I called the doc to ask if I could ski. Snowbird has gotten 2 feet in 2 days, and another 3 feet in the 3 days before that and it is just too tempting to ski. The surgeon shocked me and said I can ski if I don't do any moguls and don't do anything too technical. I am going to go to Alta on Sunday for an hour or so and just do some blue and green runs. I am really excited. The doc did say I would definitely be sore afterwards, but structurally the hip isn't going to get hurt. The bones are grafted for the most part, and the screws are still in and solid so the hip will be fine. I will update Sunday night when I am laying in bed regretting my decision, but at least I will have fun before I regret it.

I Got Rid of My Last Surgery Concession

2009-04-12T18:21:00.004-06:00

Today was the day I finally got rid of the last concession to my surgery. I have had temporary fencing up from my back porch to my back yard so I could just open the door to let my dogs out. Normally, I have to put the boys on a leash and walk them out the 25 feet to the yard then I can let them off the leash because the yard is fenced. Before the surgery I had a friend come put up the temporary fencing so I didn't have to worry about the boys pulling me down the stairs on their leashes. Today, at 11 weeks and 3 days I took the fence down (by myself), pulled out all of the surveying stakes that were holding the fence up, rolled up the fence, then put it all under the porch steps. I feel normal again, though I do hate taking them on the leashes to the yard. Just in case all of the lifting and pulling weren't going to make me hurt enough, I also decided to mow the lawn. I haven't used my mower in 6 months so it didn't want to start. It took almost 20 minutes of trying (pulling the cord and twisting wasn't good) before it finally started. The yard looks great, but I can see all of the swelling in my thigh, and the area by my groin is purple from bruising. I don't care though because I no longer am relying on anything but myself and am back to normal in what I can do. Obviously, normal without pain will still take time, but at least I can tell myself I am normal. I still have the handicap tag for the car, which I don't use unless the weather is bad. I use it if it is raining or snowing because I can't run inside, and I can't walk fast enough to not get soaked. I will have to go back and look to see where I am at compared to my last surgery, but I think I am actually ahead of last time. My doc thought that was impossible to recover faster, but to me that was just a challenge so I have to been trying really hard. I guess my competitive spirit has helped so I highly recommend if you are going through this to set goals and compete with yourself to beat them. I will update this when I get a chance to look at my blog from the last surgery.

Update- I just looked at my previous blog posts from the June surgery and the fence timing is actually exactly the same. The weekend of the 11th week it came down both times. What I did see that made me happy is that it was also at 11 weeks that I first could go up the stairs leading with both legs, not just the good one. This time, I was able to lead with both legs at about 8 weeks so I am ahead of schedule. That makes me happy, and usually I am not really happy around Easter. Now I am going to bed and going to watch the movie Milk. I have to see what Sean Penn did to beat Mickey Rourke for the Oscar. I saw The Wrestler and I can't believe anyone could beat Rourke so I am watching the movie to see what Penn did.

The Dog Tried to Rip My Leg Off

2009-04-10T19:22:00.002-06:00

Today i was sitting on my bed on the computer while my two dalmatians were playing tag. Unfortunately the bed is their "safe" so they run from one side of the house to the other with the bed as the turnaround. Ripken was running full speed when he jumped on the bed and snagged my leg so it got yanked a little to the side. The muscles in the groin are definitely not very happy right now. They got stretched more than they had in quite a while, and it wasn't one of the nice easy stretches. Needless to say, I put an end to their tag game and they are now quietly chewing on their bones. Hopefully the pain goes away before the morning because I have to stand for 2 hours and walk around the pool. I organize an Easter Egg Dive at the pool I run so I have to be there on deck helping out. I know I can't wait to listen to 250 screaming kids while I am hurting. Now if my knees would just stop hurting.

10.5 Weeks Post Pao- I Went Golfing

2009-04-07T20:05:00.003-06:00

I didn't want my first day allowed to golf to be on an actual course because I didn't want a screw to snap and be in the fetal position on a back fairway. I decided to start on a driving range and see ow it went. I had hit a couple of balls at 8 weeks when I bought my new clubs, but nothing like today. Me and 2 friends from work went and hit balls for almost and hour and a half and I hit a huge bucket of balls myself. The clubs were great, and my two friends liked them also. I was really worried about the hip because it has really been hurting for the past few days, but it held up really well. There were a few swings that hurt, but all in all, it was good. It feels so good to be doing something normal, and I am so glad that my doc allowed me to do it. I left a message for him when I was done so he knows how good of a job he did on me. The most surprising thing about the whole outing is that I hit the ball pretty well. I haven't golfed or hit balls in almost 10 years and it came back quick. I was hitting 200 yard drives, and they were going straight which is very unusual for me. I have now taken some advil to stop some of the swelling and inflammation that I know is inevitable, but it was well worth it. I think we are going to try to do 9 holes either next week or the following week so we will see how that goes.

Finally Figured out the Hip Pain- Back to the Elliptical

2009-03-31T18:43:00.002-06:00

I have finally figured out what has been causing the hip pain I have been having for the past two weeks or so. I started to go up stairs like a normal person two weeks ago instead of leading with the good leg for each step. The pain coincides with that and I finally realized it when I tried to go up some stairs yesterday and it bothered me. My quads are still pretty week so it is putting too much pressure on the joint. I guess that is to be expected not even 10 weeks post pao, but it surprised me. I am so used to doing what I want and apparently I can't. Today I had to suck it up and get back to the elliptical machine so I can strengthen the quads and hopefully that will ease the pain. It is a catch 22 because it hurts to do the elliptical, but it is for the greater good of the hip so I will keep it up. Now I have to go to bed because my alarm will be going off at 3:30am so I can be at work by 5am to register for all of our summer programs. April 1st is the kickoff to summer for all of our programs and all staff has to be there. I guess it is a good day when you can register 1000 kids for summer camps in 2 hours. At least it takes my mind off of the fact that tomorrow is also the 12 year anniversary of my mom dying. I never do good around this time, but the registration takes my mind off of it so that helps. Goodnight.

A Rough Hip Week- 9 Weeks Post Op

2009-03-28T19:17:00.002-06:00

It has been a really rough week for my hip this week. Thursday was 9 weeks post op, but I am hurting more this week than a few weeks ago. I think I did too much (it is like a broken record with me, I know). I went back to the hospital on Monday with Armstrong for an hour or so on my feet, kneeling, and standing then went to a bar on Thursday to watch a band I like and was on my feet for 5 hours. In between I worked a full week and bought a new car. The car is nice and I love the fun features on it. With the rain, snow, and cold lately it has been nice to have heated seats. I also have windshield wiper defrosters and side mirror defrosters. There is also a 6 disc changer which will be good for my books on cd I like to listen to. I got it preowned so I got a very good deal on the car, and dropped my car payment from what it was. I am now just trying to recover from my week and I might need to take a pain pill for it. I am really sore and my limp is pretty bad. Tomorrow I don't have anything to do so I think I will stay home and relax all day.

Armstrong was Back to Work Today

2009-03-23T17:19:00.003-06:00

Today was the first day since before my surgery that Armstrong and I went back to Primary Children's to work. He is a therapy dog in the cancer and bone marrow transplant unit and he is very well loved there. It has been about 3 months since we visited (the 8+ weeks since surgery and the weeks before surgery where I we didn't go so I didn't get sick from the kids.) He was so excited when I pulled his vest out of the closet and was prancing around. He gets so spoiled at the hospital so he just loves going. As soon as we got up to the cancer floor he pulled me to the pharmacy dept. 3 months and he still knows the pharmacy gives him treats when he comes in. After pulling him (reluctantly) away from pharmacy we went to visit the kids. It was so nice to see new faces, as that means our regular kids have gone home and are feeling better. That is at least what I tell myself, I use denial all the time to deal with these young kids dying. Our last patient of the day, after another swing through pharmacy for Armstrong, was a little 2 year old girl who saw another dog a couple of days before but was scared of it. We went in and she just couldn't resist a real dalmatian in her room so she came up and petted him. She even gave him some cheerios and wasn't afraid. That always makes me feel good when we can make a little kid's day just a little bit better. It was a good day, but I kept it short in case I started to hurt later.

I now just finished doing 10 miles in 30 minutes on the stationary bike at a level 7 so i am pretty proud of myself. The other thing I am proud of is that I went shopping because all of my shorts and pants are too big for me. I have been losing weight since last November when I originally hurt my hip. My goal was to lose weight so the joint wouldn't have to work as hard. I have been pretty successful, though this week has not been very good (stupid girl scout cookies). I have now gone down another pant size. That is 4 pant sizes, counting in two's in women's sizing. In men's sizes, yes I wear men's shorts all the time, I have gone down 6 inches in the waist size, and could go down another one but I hate clothes that actually fit. I wear everything baggy, but it is time to go down a size when I need a belt to hold the pants up. I have also had to get a new belt because the one I used in March I ran out of holes on. I am feeling pretty proud of myself today, even if my hip is hurting quite a bit. The weather is killing me. I just don't know how it can be 74 degrees on Saturday, 60 on Sunday early afternoon, and snowing at 10:00 that night. I now have 4 inches of snow in my yard and that is just not right, and it is not good for my hardware. Hopefully it warms up again soon.

8 Weeks Post Pao- Hit some Golf Balls

2009-03-19T15:09:00.002-06:00

Today is my 8 weeks post pao, and in general I am feeling good. My biggest issue is how tired I feel a lot of the time, but that may be a different problem than my surgery. I had thyroid cancer so I take a thyroid med daily and if I forget I can get tired. It could also be that I am doing too much too soon. With that said, today I hit some golf balls and felt okay. I decided that since I haven't golfed in almost 10 years, I want to take it up again. I quit because I moved to a place where it was to expensive and my back really started to hurt. Since my first pao was done my back is feeling so much better so I thought I would take up golf again. Today was the day I went to buy some clubs. I got a really good deal on a set of Top Flite XL clubs, which apparently are made by Calloway now. Before buying the clubs I had to try them out so into the indoor range I went with club in hand. All total, I hit maybe 30 balls, and felt okay until about number 25. At that point I got a little sore. It wasn't really painful, I could just feel the hip and feel that surgery was only 2 months ago. I did hit really well for not swinging a club in 10 years and just having surgery. I now have 2 weeks until I am officially allowed to golf according to my doc. I think I will try to take it easy the rest of the day, but I may do some easy biking.

Really Sore Last Two Days

2009-03-12T16:40:00.003-06:00

I have had to skip the elliptical the last two days becasue I am too sore to do it. Fortunately, it is not my hip that is sore, it is my calf muscle that I pulled. It is actually making me walk with a worse limp. People think my hip is bad, but it is just a muscle. My quad muscle is sore also, but that is normal after exercising again after a layoff. The good news of the last couple of days is that I am now able to walk up stairs like a normal person instead of always leading with my good leg. I was also able to get rid of the shower bench today. I was worried about standing on one leg while I shaved, but my hip was really strong and didn't hurt at all. I can't believe how good I am for just 7 weeks post pao. I hope by tomorrow I will be able to exercise again, and this time I will try to take it a little easier instead of pushing myself so hard that I get sore.

First Day Back to the Elliptical Machine

2009-03-09T14:50:00.002-06:00

Today I decided to go back to the elliptical machine. The doc told me on Wed that I could startusing it, but I wasn't feeling well so I put it off. Today I finally feel better so I bit the bullet and did it. I was hoping to do 10 minutes, but I felt really good so I ended up doing 30 minutes. Occasionally the muscles felt like they were freezing up, but each time it lasted only 10 or 15 seconds so I kept going. I am sure I wil be feeling iffy tonight, but it was definitely worth it to exercise again and get my muscles working. When I got home and was standing outside with the dogs my hamstrings started to quiver, but that has also gone away since then. I really do feel good, and I have one big milestone left and that is to get rid of the bench in my shower. I think by next week I should feel good enough to get rid of it. As it is, I am only using it when I wash my legs because standing on one leg is still not working so next week I should be done. I am just so thrilled with my recovery and how well I have healed.

First Full Day of Work

2009-03-07T17:21:00.002-07:00

Today was my first full day back to work. I have been going in for a few weeks now, but only for 4 or 5 hours a day. I think my longest was 6.5. hours one daqy last week and that was difficult. I didn't go in yesterday at all becasue I have been so tired. I don't know if it is from the infection I have or just from beginning to walk again but I just feel worn out. Today I did the full 8 hours and I am dying now. I just took a pain pill because my hip (the muscles around it and not the joint) feels like it is on fire. At the beginning of the day I could walk with a slight limp, but by the time I left I was barely walking. This is all part of the progess so I was expecting it,but I think I may have pushed myslef too much. Tomorrow I am going to try to go in to work for an hour or so and do the elliptical, even if it is for only 5 minutes. I just want to see how it feels. Until then, I am in bed and getting ready to fall asleep even though it is still light out.

Day 1 Off Crutches- 6 Weeks Post Pao

2009-03-05T17:21:00.002-07:00

Today is my first full day off of crutches and I am definitely feeling it. Yesterday was my 6 week post op visit with my surgeon so I was given permission to come off of crutches, but he said I should use one crutch for a week or so until I get my balance back. He said I didn't have to, and the joint will not be affected at all whether I use it or not. My hands are bruised and calloused so I have opted to not really the use the one crutch except at home. Here are the highlights of my doc visit:

my bones are healing really well, though they will not be completely healed for a few more months. The main structural bone in the hip that was cut and where the screws are has healed about 75%, and the bone in the groin that was cut is barely healed which is normal because it has to be shifted so much and barely touches the other side.
The doc said I will be one of the patients he always will remember because the way both of my hips have healed has shown him what is possible in recovering from this surgery. That made me very proud of myself and my perseverance in rehabbing and pushing myself in the healing process. I did it for myself, but if I can teach this well renowned doc something new it is a great feeling.
I have been riding the stationary bike with no resistance since week 4, but now I am allowed to ride using resistance. I am also allowed to start using the elliptical machine right now which kind of surprised me.
I can go golfing in 4 more weeks, which surprised me even more than the elliptical did. The fact my doc is letting me golf 10 weeks post op says something about his belief that being active will help the healing more than sitting around. Many others that have had this surgery are completely non weight bearing for 10-12 weeks so my doc is quite the renegade in rehabbing and healing. I have been 50% weight bearing since 2 hours after my surgery when pt came to my room, and I know that is different than most docs.
I can't play softball for 3 months because the swing is different than a golf swing. Apparently the step that comes with the softball swing is what makes it bad, but he obviously hasn't seen my golf swing because it resembles swinging at a low pitch.
My screws can't come out for a year. I could go in in June and have the right side taken out, but if I wait until January I can get both sides taken out at the same time. I am choosing the one surgery even though it means waiting for 6 extra months.
As a joke I asked him if I can spring ski and he just laughed at me and told me not to push my luck. I will be ready for a full season next year, and I might even postpoine the screw removal a little bit to get and extra month or so of skiing in.

All in all it was a very productive day at the doc and I don't have to go back for a year to see him. Today was pretty tiring being the first day off of crutches. It didn't help that I had a 7 hour meeting for work, and it took place in a damp feeling farmhouse/ barn. We were sitting on metal folding chairs and by hour 4 I was hurting. At lunch time my boss went in search of a better chair for me, and tha helped. I got an ergonomic office chair for the final 3 hours which made it a little more tolerable, even if the meeting itself was not really tolerable. I had already scheduled a dog training class for the evening, but I was barely functioning by the end of the meeting so I pushed Ripken's class up and hour so I could come home and go to bed earlier. I am now in bed having taken a pain killer, and I will probably be asleep before 7pm. At least I am off crutches so I guess nothing else matters.

I'm in the Home Stretch

2009-03-01T13:42:00.002-07:00

I only have 3 more days til I see the surgeon to get off crutches. I am doing all of the last minute strengthening I can, and have begun to try to take a few steps on my own. Generally I will lean on something so I am not putting all of my weight on the hip, but once or twice I have just tried to walk. Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all, which wasn't good as a deterrent. I need to feel some pain so I know what I am doing is wrong, but I have been telling myself to stay on crutches and just suck it up for another 3 days and I will be done. There really isn't anything I can't do so sometimes it is hard to remember to behave. I woke up this morning, got out of bed and forgot I am still on crutches so I started to walk to the closet to put on some shoes. I did remember after a few steps so I grabbed the crutches and counted down another day. I just did 7.5 miles in 30 minutes on the stationary bike so my muscles are doing well, and it didn't hurt. Anyway, I can finally see the light at the end of this long 9 month tunnel of surgeries. Hopefully I am done with the major stuff, though I think I will be having my screws removed this summer. I will ask the doc about that this week. Until Wednesday...

One More Week on Crutches

2009-02-25T17:34:00.002-07:00

This time next week I will finallybe off my crutches and I am so excited about that. When I get off I will have been on crutches for 3 and a half of the last nine months. My hands hurt and the callouses are getting big so I am just done with crutches. I feel good and the only pain I get is in my quads. I am still convinced I have no nerve endings in my hip because I haven't really ever gotten pain in the hip itself, it has always been in the areas around the joint. I don't have a lot to say, I just wanted to point out I only have 1 week left. Now, it is off to the bike.

Good Rehab Day

2009-02-22T15:51:00.003-07:00

Today I decided to go in to work and ride the stationary bike for a little bit. I was feeling good for the first time in a couple of days and I am only 10 days away from getting off crutches so I knew I needed to do something. After the steam cleaning, it was a rough 2 days. The day after I did the carpets I never left the house. I was hurting most of the day and was really tired from the meds so I opted to stay home and rest. I went to work on Saturday for a few hours, but was beginning to ache a little so I didn't want to push my luck by riding the bike. Today, I feel good so I rode for 20 minutes and did a little over 4 miles. I am not allowed to use any resistance, but they didn't say anything about speed so I am able to pedal as fast as I want. I felt really good when I finished so I headed to the pool to do some water work. I did another 30 minutes in the pool doing deep water rehab. I felt good even after that, but didn't want to push my luck so now I am home resting and watching the NFL Scouting Combine. I don't know what it is about the combine, but I love to watch it every year. I get to see who the sleepers are so when I watch the draft (yes, I watch both days of the draft) I recognize even the late round people. The combine ends early enough for me to flip over to the Oscars so it is quite a big day of TV watching, but i have earned it. I always feel so lazy just sitting around, but I know I need it to be able to recover properly. I have xrays in 10 days so we will see if what I am doing is working.

A Setback Day- I am Stupid

2009-02-20T11:54:00.003-07:00

Today I am going to stay in bed all day and rest. I was stupid yesterday and steam cleaned my living room carpet and it really hurt. I probably could have waited, but one of the dogs was sick and threw up so there were a couple of places that needed cleaning. I put it off as long as I could, but I just can't handle looking at a stain like that without cleaning it. I bought a steam cleaner a year or so ago just for that reason. Cleaning on crutches though is not easy, and especially when I have to bend over and really push down on the cleaner to get the stain out. Just running the cleaner will clean most stuff, but to get the staining out you really have to push down on the cleaner to get the stuff deep down. The bending, pushing, and twisting at the same time was not the best thing for a recovering hip. The funny thing is that the joint is not what hurt, but the area right above the scar at the waist. I think it was the muscles where they were cut that hurt, but I don't know for sure. I took a pain pill at 6pm and another at midnight so I am staying in bed and trying to rest/ sleep off all those pills. I am really sensitive to meds and felt completely drugged this morning when I woke up so I went back to bed. It is now noon and I am still feeling sluggish. I also don't want to drive if I feel this way because it is stupid. Now, it is back to sleep.

4 Weeks Post Pao

2009-02-19T12:34:00.002-07:00

Today is the one month point of my recovery from my pao surgery. I am doing really well and can't believe how smooth the recovery has been (excet the whole blood clot scare thing). I am going to ride the stationary bike today for the first time so we will see how I feel tomorrow at this time. Only 13 more days until I am off of my crutches so I am trying to get as strong as possible going into my appointment with the surgeon so I am able to ditch them for good. Except for walking, I can't really thin of anything I can't do. I am able to lay on the operated side for a few minutes at a time which was my last real milestone. I am no longer having to lift my leg up with my hands to get into bed, or to get into the car. While I am standing, I can lift my leg up so the knee is abot at 90 degrees so the muscles are getting healed. At this point, I feel pretty well healed and am just waiting for some more strength and the ability to walk. The doc say I am his poster child for this surgery so that makes me happy and makes me feel better about what I am able to do. Now, it is just getting ready for walking.

A Blood Clot Scare

2009-02-17T17:37:00.002-07:00

I have been having pain in my calf for about a week now and yesterday it began to get worse. I asked a paramedic friend and my dad what he thought and they said I was right to be concerned and i do need to call the doc in the morning. I called this morning and told the med assistant about the pain in my calf, the fact that I have had a blood clot before, and that this pain felt sinmilar to the other clot I had. She said I was right to call an she scheduled me for an ultrasound to check the veins. I was alittle freaked out becasue they told me if I have a clot I would be admitted right away to the hospital to start the levinox (sp?) and would stay in until the levels were at a therapeutic level. The test sowed no clots so that was good. They still don't know what is going on, but the theory is that I maybe got a cramp or a charlie horse and because I am not walking it hasn't had a chance to work itself out. I am allowed to go back to rehabbing now and I will see the surgeon in 2 weeks for my 6 week follow up xrays and getting off crutches. When I went in at 2 weks I was told I could not ride a stationary bike, so today when I called with my results I asked again. Because I am now 4 weeks post op I am allowed to ride a bike with no resistance and with the seat high enough where my hip does not go more than 90 degrees. I think I will try the bike tomorrow. All things considered, I am doing well and counting down the days until no more crutches.

Feeling Too Good- This Isn't Normal

2009-02-15T17:12:00.004-07:00

Today is 3 weeks and 3 days post pao and I feel way too good. I actually tried to go up the steps today leading with the wrong foot because I forgot which hip was done. At this point, I no longer have to grab my leg to lift it into bed, I don't have to hold my leg getting out of the car, and I can put all 50% weight on my leg without any pain. I am a little freaked out because it is not normal, even for me, to feel this good less than a month after my surgery. I am having to make a concentrated effort to hold myself back so I don't do anything to hurt the hip or bend the screws. I promise I won't do anything my doc says I can't do, but I think I am going to call on Tuesday to ask again about riding a bike on the days I can't get to the pool. I think my bones are healing fairly well so maybe the biking will be allowed. If not, I will hold off until my 6 week appointment with x rays. I don't want to ruin the surgery so I will follow directions.

Pool Rehab Day 2

2009-02-13T13:45:00.002-07:00

Today was day 2 of my pool rehab program and it went much better today. I did the full 30 minutes that I wanted to do and even felt better towards the end. At first I was getting a weird pain at the base of my tailbone each time I moved my leg forward, but after about 10 minutes the pain went away and the walking felt good. I think I worked out some of the kinks that were starting to set in. Towards the end of the time I was beginning to feel stiff, but not painful. I ended up napping for about 2 hours yesterday after finishing rehab, and I think a nap is coming on today as well. It's funny at the pool to do my rehab, I am the only person under 65 years old. Apparently the time I have been going is the unofficial senior time, but they accepted me since I am rehabbing and won't splash them. The women hate getting their hair wet so they are really particular about who is in the pool. I think I am going to take the weekend off and let my hip rest for a couple of days and head back to the pool on Monday. Now it is time to let the boys out and take my nap.

Pool Rehab Day 1

2009-02-12T14:43:00.002-07:00

Today was day one of my pool rehab and I had mixed results. My goal was to do 30 minutes of water walking in the deep water. When I got in the pool it felt really good so I started my walking. Keep in mind when Isay walking, what it really is is putting my leg through the walking motion without actually trying to push hard or propel myself. All of the propelling is from my arms with my legs literally just going through the motions. After what I thought was about 15 minutes I looked at the clock and it had only been 5 minutes so I re adjusted my goal for the day. I couldn't believe how tired, stiff and sore I was after only 5 minutes. I ended up doing about 20 minutes, but it was tough. Towards the end I could feel my hip clicking a little bit, but I don't know if it was the muscles around the hip or if it was actually the bone. When I got out of the pool I was definitley stiff, but not in pain. Now, 2 hours after getting out, my quad muscles are a little sore so I know the movement helped. I am not in pain, just stiff and really tired. I am about to get in the shower and go to bed for a nice nap. I will be in the pool again tomorrow so we will see how long I am able to go. I know I am making my hip stronger and staving off the atrophy and that is what makes me keep trying to do stuff. Now, it is bedtime.

3 Weeks Post Op- Pool Rehab Tomorrow

2009-02-11T18:11:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow is 3 weeks since my left pao and I am actually ahead of schedule compared to my right hip. I have actually gone to work 2 days in a row, and 3 days total this week. All in al, I feel good and feel like I have turned the corner on my recovery. On Monday I finally started to feel like I was healing instead of feeling like my hip had just been cut in half (which it basically had). Today, the steri strips that went on last week when the staples were removed finally came off (with some help from me- I swear the nurse glued them on because they were really stuck on and hurt pulling them off). Once the strips were off I could see that the incision is completely closed so I get to start deep water walking in the pool tomorrow. I am so excited because that means I am in the home stretch of this surgery and recovery. Three weeks from today I am off crutches and I can't tell you how excited I am by that. Another exciting highlight- I finally got to ditch the ted hose today. I hate those things. I was going to do a list of what I can do at this point of my recovery, but it is easier to say what I can't do. Really I can do anything and everything I want except walking and sleeping on my operated side. I am thinking the op side sleeping will come sometime this week, but I can wait. I am finally able to put the 50% weight on my operated side. Until Monday, it hurt too much to put much weight on it, but I think the bones are healed enough so I am not getting the sharp pains when I try. I am ow relearning my walking motion, and the pool will help with that as well. Honestly, I feel really good. I think my surgeon is a god to be able to do what he did and have me recover as fast as I have. I am 3 weeks post op and the only thing I can't do is walk, and that is amazing. I have even stopped needing a painkiller at night so I am 100% off of pills, except for the aspirin for clotting. Well, that is the latest update and I am ecstatic to be where I am. Now, that may change after the pool tomorrow because I know I will be hurting. I already told work I would not be in for a couple of days until my body adjusts to rehab. Their response was I shouldn't be in now so any time I work is a bonus. My boss jokes with people that I only had surgery like 30 minutes ago and I am already back. He sent me a really nice email about my work ethic and my ability to recover. I guess I am a little strange on the recovery process, but it is better to heal quick and painless as opposed to how this recovery is supposed to go. The doc says I am an inspiration for his patients going into this. He actually tells them about me when they are discussing the surgery to show them what is possible. That makes me feel proud of myself. Well, until tomorrow...

I Slept on My Side- 18 Days Post Op

2009-02-09T11:31:00.003-07:00

I couldn't be more excited than I was when I tried to lay on my non operated side and I was able to. At first it was only for a few minutes, but last night I actually fell asleep on my side and stayed there for 2 hours. I am one who sleeps all the time on mysides- I have never really slept on my back so being able to roll over was a great thing. Also, I have been able to start putting more weight on my leg without the sharp pain behind my hip. I am allowed to put up to 50% weight on it, but I have barely been able to put anything on it without pain. Lately, I have been doing the walking motion on my crutches while putting quite a bit of weight on it. I think I am finally turning the corner into real healing. My incision looks good so I think the end of this week I will be able to start in the pool. Lets hope. Until then, I am feeling reall good.

2 Week Post Op Doc Visit

2009-02-04T16:04:00.004-07:00

Today I went to see the doc's physician assistant to have my staples removed. The PA has been with the surgeon for a long time and was in on both of my surgeries so she knows what is going on. She walked in the room and asked if I feel as good after this one as I did after my last hip. When I told her yes she just started to laugh. Apparently I am an amazing healer with a good pain tolerance. She thought this one would be worse because usually the second one is, but I feel good. Once the staples came out I feel even better than I did before. I can't tell you how uncomfortable the staples are. I can get in the pool to start rehab once the incision is healed, which will be another week or so, but now I can shower without having to cover the incision which is a huge relief. I cannot ride the recumbent bike, or any bike until my 6 week xrays so until the pool I am out of luck for doing anything.

I did get some good pics of the before and after on the hip they just fixed. The before is obviously the one without all of the hardware in it. You can see the ball quite a bit out of socket and how it just doesn't fit.

Now, on the after xray you can see how they rotated and fixed the socket so the ball fits better in it.

The little marks on the side of the xray are all of the staples that they put in the skin. Just thought I would share some pics because I think they are fascinating.

11 Days Post Op- A Busy Day

2009-02-02T18:34:00.002-07:00

So today is 11 days post op and I felt really good when I woke up this morning so I decided to go to a meeting that was scheduled for work. Originally I didn't think I would be up to going, but I did anyway. I sat through an hour of worthless meeting (I should have just stayed home), then went to the store. I needed to get milk and the person who drove me to the meeting would be able to carry it into the house for me so that was nice. Also, we made a side trip to Noodles and Company which made the entire day worthwhile. Just in case I hadn't already overdone it for the day, I got home and put the seat covers on the car seats because Ripken had agility class and he would have to be in the car. Then off we went to agility class, and Ripken did really well at not pulling me on the leash. Dave, my dog trainer, has been running Ripken since the first surgery in June so I just had to bring the dog and sit and watch. Ripken had a good listening day, and is sleeping now. To top off the day, I really needed to change my sheets and forgot to ask my friend to hep me when she was here so I did it by myslef. It was a little hard because the bed is king size and against a wall so I had top crawl across the bed. The good part of it is I realized I can roll over so maybe tonight I may be able to roll onto my side for a few minutes. Anyway, I took a painkiller 30 minutes ago and it is kicking in so it is time for bed. I know I will be sore tomorrow (and tonight) so I am allowing myself to take a pill if needed, but I did go for 15 hours today without one and felt fine. I think I will stay home and relax in the recliner tomorrow so I am ready and not in pain for the doc on Wed. Yay, my staples come out in less than 2 days! Well, off to bed.

1 Week Post PAO- My First Outing

2009-01-29T19:13:00.002-07:00

Today I got bored so I decided to go on an outing. The whole purpose was to go to walmart and get the cling wrap for use during showering. Because it is my left hip that was done I was able to drive myself and that was nice. I made a detour to work to say hi to friends. Everybody was surprised to see me, but I was feeling good. I am supposed to take about 6 weeks off work but my manager was guessing I would be back in next week. He was close. Today is alos the day I was targeting to get off pain pills. I am basically there, but still need 1 or 2 each night. Sleeping is the hardest part of the whole surgery because I can't roll over at all. I am pain pill free during the day though so I am almost at my goal. Today I had to take one, but that was because of my outing. Getting in and out of the car sent a few really sharp twinges into my hip and now I am a little more swollen than I was and I think that is why I am hurting now. Here is my one week list.

Things I can do:

Get dressed by myself and put on the ted hose on my own
Get in and out of the shower
Shave my legs
Drive on my own (which requires no pain pills taken)
Get in and out of bed
Pick stuff up off the floor that I have dropped

Things I can't do:

Sleep through the night
Roll over on either side to sleep
No rehab yet

I still have pain, but in general it is not enough to need pain pills. I am doing better than most people after this surgery so I guess I can't complain about the little annoying things I can't do. I wish I could roll over, and can get onto my non op side, bu tonly for a minute or two at a time. Rolling over to sleep on my side is the mecca of this surgery, and by far the day I am looking forward to the most (next to pool rehab start). I will update again soon.

5 Days Post Op

2009-01-27T17:43:00.002-07:00

Well, today is 5 days post op and I am doing well. Last night was a rough night, but today has gonemuch better. I went 12 hours without needing painkillers yesterday so that is definitely a good thing. I took a pill at about 4pm becasue I was getting a little sore. After a nap (the pills knock me out) I watched some tv and relaxed. I was ready for bed around 8 and took a pill. Well, around midnight I woke up in so much pain. It wasn't pain in the hip, just a pain from having to lay in the same position. My heels are bruised from being in the same position for so long so I have to put a pillow under my leg to keep the heel off the bed. Well, the pillow I was using was too big and that wasn't helping. I took a pill and tried moving to the couch, then the recliner, then a new position in bed. By 1am I was still hurting and couldn't get comfy so I had to take another pill. I don't know if it helped the pain or not, but it knocked me out cold so at least I was able to sleep. I woke up at about 10 am and felt so much better. I hate that I had to take so many pills, but I guess if I am only taking about 4 pills a day, as opposed to the 1-3 pills every 3-6 hours that was prescribed(I can't even imagine taking 2 pills a day) it is not so bad. After my 1 am pill, I didn't take another one until about 3 this afteroon so I am proud of myself. I have had friends coming to check on me today so that has been nice. I showered today then changed the dressing on the incision. The incision looks really good, and the dressing will stay on until I get my staples out next week. I may change it again a couple of times, but the dressing actually feels good to have on becasue it covers the staples so they don't snag on each other or on my clothes. That was really apinful last time so this time fels better.

The dogs came home today and they are wiped out. I love the Dog Lodge where they were kenneled since Wednesday. The boys played with about 20 dogs 12 hours a day for the last 6 days so they are tired. They also seem to know that I am hurting so they are modifying how they act around me. Armstrong, who normally lays on me, is laying next to my bad leg, but about 6 inches from it so he isn't touching it. Ripken, who I didn't think would know or understand, came up to me and sniffed the incision and is now staying away. He normally jumps up and down to be fed, and jumps on me in bed to go outside. Today after my nap he stood by the bed and didn't jump up at all, even when I started to get up myself. Maybe he is growing up. We'll see if that nesfound good behavior will last or is just the product or being exhausted.

Home from the Hospital

2009-01-25T11:53:00.002-07:00

I just got home from the hospital and I feel pretty good. I am relly tired because the woman that shared my room had her oxygen alarm going off all night, mixed in with crying and a ton of nurse calls. Since yesterday morning I have only been on pan pills since the epidural came out. I have been taking 1 pill every 4-6 hours of the oxycodone. They wrote a script for oxyconting when they released me, but I want no part of that med. I think right now I am going to take a shower and go to bed. I will update when i feel better.

8 Hours Until I am in for Surgery

2009-01-21T22:06:00.003-07:00

I have to be at the hospital at 6 am, and my alarm is goingoff at 3:30 so I can get up, shower, and prepare myself for surgery. The actual surgery time is 8 am so I should be in my room by 1 or so. I have just finished cleaning anything and everything in the house, including scrubbing the walls, steam cleaning the carpets, and washing all of my towels and sheets that weren't already in the closet. All in all, I am ready. I managed to get salmonella from some peanut butter crackers over the weekend, but I am feeling well enough to have the surgery. The good part of the salmonella is that I lost 5 pounds in one day so I have exceeded my goal of losing 30 pounds between surgeries. The last 5 were tough, but the food poisoning took me over the top. I think 30 pounds is not bad in about 7 months. Well, my alarm is going off in 5 hours so it is off to bed now. I will update again when I feel up to it.

Surgery is Back On

2009-01-16T21:16:00.002-07:00

Today I got word that all the insurance papers have been signed and my pre authorization is approved for surgery on Thursday. I talked to the contracts department yesterday (that is the dept that I was told had the insurance form that needed to be signed) and they said they didn't have the form. The guy I talked to was really helpful and gave me the number of a person in the other contracts dept. Apparently the contracts dept for the docs is different than the contracts dept for the hospital. well, the person was gone for the day yesterday when i tried to call so I tried again first thing this morning. The guy at the new dept also couldn't find the form and nobody knew where it was. Getting an insurance form signed is much easier when the form is not lost. The guy this morning asked me for the name and phone number of the insurance woman so he could call her and get a new form sent as well as talk to her about the claim itself. I called him back around 1:00 because I hadn't heard anything yet and he told me his coworker was dealing wiht it so he would ask her and callme back. Not even 5 minutes later he called and said that the form was at the docs and they had given permission for the doc to sign it and Jodi at the docs office was taking care of it now. I called Jodi and she said that she had the form and the doc was going to sign it today. With Monday being a holiday the form would get faxed in no later than Tues morning, but that it was done and finalized so my surgery ison and finalized. I told Jodi about the runaround at the hospital and all of the people in contracts I talked to and she said it was pretty impressive getting the form done and signed so quick. All in all, I am proud of myself for getting this done, even if it means I had to make a pain of myself to the hospital and insurance. I am happy at least that I can relax and know my surgery is on instead of stressing about it.

I Have Been Postponed

2009-01-14T15:31:00.004-07:00

I am not a happy camper today- my surgery has been postponed a week. I am now scheduled for Jan 22nd. The insurance company and docs office are blaming each other for the issue, but what it boils down to is the surgery is not a listed surgery so the ins co had to get a better idea of the surgery and the billing. The docs office sent a request for what they want reimbursed and the ins co agreed to it, but they need to get the forme signed agreeing that the hospital and surgeon will take the requested and agreed upon amount. The ins isn't fighting how much it is or anything, they just need the agreement signed. Because the hospital is the University of Utah which is state run, the docs office can't sign the form and it has to go to the contracts dept. The ins was waiting to get the signed form back and said once it is signed they will have the approval in 10 minutes and I could go into surgery the next day. Well, the contracts people were not answering the phone so the med assistant had to cancel me because she didn't know if and when it would be signed and she needed to fill the surgery spot. I am not happy, but I will try again tomorrow with the ins and the contracts so I don't get postponed again. I will post again when I get my final approval.

My Last Day of Work

2009-01-13T16:47:00.003-07:00

Today is my last day of work before I go in for my surgery on Thursday. I have been trying to remember everything I need to do before I go, but I am sure I have forgotten something. The flu I was fighting is gone so health wise I am ready, which has been a big relief. I have been on the phone all day with my doc's office and the insurance company trying to get my pre-auth done for my surgery. The doc submitted the stuff last week ( I don't know why they waited so long) but the insurance didn't tell them until this week they need more info. I found out today that the insurance is saying they don't know what the surgery is and needs more details about the surgery itself even though they approved and paid for the same surgery in June. The nurse in my doc's office called them this afternoon and explained it is the same surgery so I think the pre-auth is done now. When I called the insurance said they just took all of my records for the surgery in June and copied them for the description of this surgery. That is the downside of having a new surgery- the insurance doesn't ever see it and the surgery doesn't show up in their system. Well, unless I hear differently I am planning on mysurgery on Thursday. I will update again before I go in.

Still have the flu

2009-01-07T19:30:00.002-07:00

I still have the last remnants of the flu, but I am starting to feel better. I haven't gone to work in the last few days so i could try to rest and feel better and it seems to be working. The cough is still here and I am still congested, but everything else is better. On a positive note, my home internet is finally set up along with the wireless router so I am sitting in bed typing this which is great. I also got my home phone service set up through the internet. It has been a hassle to try to get everything hooked and I don't feel good enough to try to figure out the voice mail and all of the other little things. Maybe I can do it tomorrow. Now, it is back to bed for more rest and fluids.

11 Days to go- The Flu

2009-01-04T13:31:00.003-07:00

So I have 11 days left until my surgery and I am getting the flu. I woke up this morning with a sore throat, the sniffles, and am really achy. I am supposed to have my pre-surgery appointment in the morning, but I don't know if they will do it if I am sick. Because I am less than 2 weeks from surgery I can't take any meds so I am just going to stay in bed all day and rest. Now, if I can just get the dogs to rest with me it will be a good day. Unfortunately, they feel like playing today so they won't leave me alone. I am going back to bed now.

Not a Good Pain Day, 19 days until Surgery

2008-12-27T18:59:00.002-07:00

So, today has not been a good day. We have had a lot of snow in the last week so I had to snowblow the driveway. I am not sure I should be doing it only 6 months post op and not quite 3 weeks pre op but it had to be done. I think another storm is rolling in so that may be where the pain is coming from. I was planning on going to Alta to ski tomorrow, but I may skip it if my hip doesn't feel better. I just did an hour on the elliptical and that actually seemed to help my hip feel better. I ams till 5 pounds from my goal weight leading into surgery so I have been working hard. Unfortunately, I have also been eating more to try to get my blood up so I can give blood again on mOnday. I don't want to be rejected and have to reschedule. Becasue of the working out, the eating hasn't had much effect except to make my weight hold steady. I have been at the same weight for almost 2 weeks now so it is frustrating. After Monday I can go back to my dieting and try to lose the last five pounds. Other than that, there is not much going on. I just counted and I only have 10 more days of work until I am out, and two of those are half days for the new year holiday. Also, one of those days I will be at Snowbird skiing so I don't know if that counts. I can't believe how fast this is all coming up.

Feeling Better and Armstrong at Barnes and Noble

2008-12-20T18:50:00.002-07:00

Well, I am now less than 4 weeks from surgery and feeling a little better. I have hit the 25 pound lost mark since my June surgery and am trying for another 5 before I go back in. The down side to losing weight like Ihave been is my iron coubnt is dropping. I was supposed to give blood this Monday, but I was told I have to wait until next Monday becasue I am too low to recover in a week. I gave blood this past Monday and was so wiped out I couldn't even function. I felt well enough from my virus to give blood, but the recovery has been rough.

Today I went to Barnes and Noble with Armstrong for 2 hours to lure people to our therapy dog table for gift wrapping. Wherever Armstrong goes he has a crowd all over him. I know he is a stunning dog, but even I was surprised how everyone complemented me on him. At this point, I think he thinks his name is beautiful because when he hears that he turns around to the person who said it. There was an 11 week old baby there that the dad knelt down with and Armstrong loved him. The baby just smiled and pointed at him, then reached out to pet Armstrong. I am now exhausted (I just finished 40 minutes on the elliptical) so I am heading home. I am sure Armstrong is still sleeping off his mass groping so if I can just get Ripken calm it may be an early night for all of us. I can at least hope.

Setback with 5 weeks left

2008-12-12T12:55:00.004-07:00

Yesterday I went to my general doc because the night before I had really bad vertigo. It woke me up and made me nauseous every time I changed positions in bed. Even when I was awake the dizziness was out of control and I couldn't see straight. When I wake up at night I watch tv, but Wed when I woke up and tried to read the guide on the tv I couldn't read it. I was seeing triple of everything. Now, some of my friends that are drinkers have always said aim for the middle oblect when you see double so I tried that. Apparently the aim for the middle is only in getting your key in the door and not for reading because it didn't work. Here is a link to what I was diagnosed with
http://www.vestibular.org/vestibular-disorders/specific-disorders/labyrinthitisvest-neuritis.php
It is a viral infection of the inner part of the ear. Unfortunately it takes weeks to go away and the meds to control it conflict with some of the meds post surgery so I am not sure if I can donate blood to myself now. I may just deal with the vertigo so i can donate blood, but I don't kow. I am supposed to call the doc today so I will ask about the drug interactions then.
Other than my ears, I am ready for surgery. I picked up my recliner yesterday, I have a mini fridge for my bedroom coming, and my supply storage is done. I do my pre-op visit on Jan. 5th so I am getting so close to getting this done. Well, that is all of the news. I will post again if I hear something about what I can and can't do on these meds.

Less than 7 weeks left

2008-11-29T13:18:00.003-07:00

Well, I am down to less than 7 weeks left before the next surgery. I have made my appointments to donate blood to myself. I go in Dec 15 and 22 for donating. I haven't heard yet when my pre-op visit will be, but I think it is going to be the day before my actual surgery. Because I just had surgery and all of the pre op stuff less than 6 months ago they are much more relaxed about when I go in because they already know I am healthy enough for the surgery. I have a few more skiing days before I go in, but I am stopping skiing with 2 weeks before surgery so I don't get sick. I am also going to stop visiting the children's hospital at the same time, also for the sickness factor. Winter in a kids hospital is not the best place to be if styaing healthy is your goal. Until then, I am still going each week to visit the kids in the cancer and bone marrow transplant unit with Armstrong. Most of my regular kids I have been visitng have gone home and are doing well so I am starting to get a bunch of new kids. We visited this little 4 year old girl 2 weeks ago on the day she was diagnosed. She was put inpatient to start getting her chemo so Armstrong helped to make her less scared. Sometimes it is depressing visiting the kids, especially when you know they are not going to survive, but the good stuff outweighs the bad and that is what makes us keep going back. I was at a funeral a few weeks ago for an 8 year old boy that we visited with almost every week for 15 months. It was so sad because it was the first child I was really close to that passed away. I just thought I would do a quick update on how things are going. The weather has been overcast for a few days so my hip is a little stiff, but all in all I am doing well. I will update again soon.

I Went Skiing- 5 Months Post Op

2008-11-18T07:44:00.002-07:00

On Sunday, 5 months and 4 days post pao surgery, I went skiing. My surgeon told me at my 9 week check up that I could ski this winter and I loved that, however everybody around me thought the doc was crazy or drunk when he said that. I just saw him last week for my 5 month post op so I asked hinm again if I could ski and he said yes. Apparently my bones are completely healed so there is nothing, including falling, could hurt my hip. So off I went on Sunday to Alta. They do a ski free after 3 program, which is perfect for me because I didn't want to pay for a lift pass only to learn it hurt too much to ski. I started with a nice, easy green run and when that didn't hurt at all, I did all blues and blacks the rest of the afternoon. I did bout 8 runs total and was surprised when i didn't hurt afterwards. I took some advil when i got home as a precaution and dreaded the next morning and the pain I was sure would come. Well, Monday morning comes and still no pain. I felt normal for the first time in almost a year since all of my hip issues started. Now I just have the left hip to look forward to, and more skiing until then.

5 Month Post Op Visit

2008-11-12T18:12:00.003-07:00

Today was my 5 month check in with my surgeon and it went really well. My bones show they are completely healed so at this point I can do no more damage so I have no restrictions. I asked him about skiing again since nobody believed he said I can ski and he said I am fine and skiing is allowed. I asked him if I can ski this weekend and he said yes because the bones are good. He still doesn't want any pounding on the joint so I am still limited in running (which is good because I hate running), but I can do the elliptical all I want. He then got xrays of my left hip and we talked about the next surgery. The left hip (the one coming up) is a little worse, angle wise than the right hip and the socket is a little shallower, but he said he expects the same results. He said the way the joint is positioned I definitely would be looking at a replacement in 5-7 years if I don't fix this soon. By doing the surgery now I may be able to prevent any replacement in the future and actually save the joint so it is worth going through this again. All in all, I am doing exceptionally well and just have to get ready for the next surgery in January. In about a month I will begin donating blood to myself for the surgery so that is the real kickoff of pre-surgery. Now, it is time to hit the slopes.

The Good "C" Word

2008-10-29T13:04:00.002-06:00

Well, I saw my endocrinologist (thyroid doctor)last week and she gave me some great news. I am now considered "cured" from the thyroid cancer I had. It has been 10 years since my last treatment, and all of my bloodwork and scans since then have been negative so I am cured. Dec. 15th will be 13 years from diagnosis so this has been a long time coming. I still have to take my medication for the rest of my life since I have no actual thyroid, but now I only have to see the doc and get bloodwork once a year instead of every three months (which is awful by the way getting bloodwork every three months.) I am so happy, now all focus is on to my surgery in January and stockpiling stuff so I don't have to go to the store for a few weeks after surgery.

My Tour of Camden Yards in Baltimore

2008-10-21T13:41:00.002-06:00

The tour of Baltimore Ravens Stadium

2008-10-21T13:33:00.002-06:00

I Have a Date

2008-10-15T16:37:00.002-06:00

So, I now have a date for my next hip to be done. I will have a left PAO surgery on Jan 15th, just about 7 months after my right hip was done. The right hip actually feels really good, but is very stiff right now and my thigh hurts a lot. I have been at a conference for the past week so I have been walking around DC for a couple of days, and Baltimore since then so my hip is feeling the extra work. The good news is that the hip itself feels great, just the thigh where the blood is pooling hurts. Anyway, now I have a countdown to start for my next surgery and all of the preparations to make. At least I know what to expect this time around.

The Thigh Pain is Getting Better

2008-10-04T10:37:00.003-06:00

I went to the doc on Wednesday to try to figure out what the oain is that I have been getting. I saw his PA and she said that it is probably blood from the surgery that had pooled in the muscle starting to try to form scar tissue and stick between the muscle layers. She sent me to PT to try to break up the stuff that is forming and it is starting to feel a little better. I like the PT because it only involves heat, massage, ultrasound and stretching so i don't have to do any of the exercises that I could do at home. I have gone twice so far and I will go twice next week then I should be done. During the massage I can feel the knot like area when they go over it which is a little weird. I have a lot of walking to do next week so I have to be better by then.
Now, on to Armstrong. He has to have yet another bladder surgery on Tuesday. He had stone surgery in October, replumbing in Feb, and now this. This should eb the last one though because the replumbing is working, the stone in him is just left over from before the last surgery. They don't go into the bladder in the replumbing so they didn't know the stone was there. I now have to get a different dog sitting schedule becasue he can't go to the Dog Lodge right after surgery, he needs a week or so to heal before he goes. I think I have it worked out now, but I am still worried. At least it is Armstrong and he is an easy dog to take care of. I will post again before I leave for Balt.

I See The Doc On Wednesday

2008-09-28T14:55:00.002-06:00

So, I have an appointment with the surgeons PA on Wednesday at 10:20 to figure out the leg thing. I am still having a lot of pain in my quad muscle and it is making me limp which I don't like. Hopefully the PA will know what it is and is not a big deal. Maybe it is a muscular issue and completely unrelated to my hip. I have been exercising a lot lately so maybe that is it, though my other leg doesn't hurt at all. I just did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes and the muscle doesn't hurt at all when i am doing it. It seems like it only hurts when I get the jarring involved inputting my foot on the ground to step. Anyway, I will know more on Wed.
Now, about Armstrong. The urinary issues are not an infection so it is more than likely another stone. He is going to finish the antibiotics this week then we will decide what we are doing next. The vet wants to know exactly what is going on before he goes into his bladder again so he will more than likely have at least one more test before surgery is decided on. I am supposed to call the vet agin on Thurs or Friday so we will see what is up then. Well, I am exhausted so i am going home to nap. I will post agin on Wed after the doctor visit.

Still Having Pain and Armstrong Health Update

2008-09-24T17:38:00.002-06:00

Well, the whole baseball bat to the leg thing is still going on. I am going to call on Monday if the pain is still happening to try to get in to the doc before I leave for Baltimore on Oct 9th. I have a lot of walking to do while I am gone so I have to be feeling better by then. The area where the pain is happening in the thigh is discolored so I don't know if that still a nerve thing or if this is different.
On a separate topic, Armstrong went to the vet today for more urinary issues. It has been 7 months since he was "replumbed", which makes this the longest he has gone without the vet in 3 years. He has been showing signs of either a stone or an infection for a week or so so it was time to take him in. The ultrasound showed what looks like a stone, but when the ultrasound was on him while standing it didn't show as well so maybe it isn't a stone. The catheter also didn't feel gritty according to the vet so that is good. He is on antibiotics for 10 days as a precaution since his urine test results aren't in yet. Hopefully the straining and the blood are just an infection. The replumbing is definitely doing its job- even if it is stones he is still able to go to the bathroom which was the whole goal of the surgery. Well, that is all of the exciting news for the day. I will post on Monday when I hear from the doc.

New Pains and a Milestone

2008-09-18T13:26:00.003-06:00

Well, I am now 3 and a half months post surgery and all in all I am doing great. I am able to use the elliptical machine and that has helped rebuild some of the muscle I lost. I have no pain at all in my hip, but the muscles are another story. My quad muscles feel like someone has pounded on them with a bat. They fell bruised to the touch and every step I take I feel them. I think it is the muscles rebuilding and the damaged nerves regenerating that is causing the pain, but I am not sure. My friends all tell me my limp is gone most iof the time. Sometimes, like yesterday, I get a little sore so my limp comes back slightly, but in general it is gone. I did reach a milestone in my recovery, and I think it is thanks to the elliptical machine. I can now go up stairs leading with my repaired leg. I was finally able to do that about 10 days ago and now I do it all the time. If I am carrying anything I still have to lead with my good leg the whole time because I am not strong enough yet with any extra weight. Also, since surgery I have lost almost 20 pounds so that is helping a lot with the recovery. I hope to lose anohter 20 before I have the next hip done in Feb (or sometime close to Feb). I will find out the exact date when I see the surgeon again in November fo rmy follow up. Anyway, that is all that is new. I leave for Baltimore 3 weeks from today so I am excited to see everyone. I will be going to a conference while I am there, but it should be a fun trip anyway.

A successful Doggie Day

2008-09-07T15:16:00.005-06:00

Well, yesterday was my 4th annual Walk, Wag, and Swim that I put on. It is a walk and swim at our outdoor pool to celebrate the end of summer and raise money for No More Homless Pets. We had about 280 dogs come this year, which is almost double what I had last year. You know you have a big pool when 280 dogs is not overcrowded in the pool area. I think next year we will split the swim into two different times so we can have even more dogs. The news was there, as well as one of the newspapers. Here are the links to the stories they did.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700256944,00.html
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4197557
On the deseret news article, make sure you click on the link for the video becasue it is really cute. I always feel so good when this event is done because people come from all over the area for it. When I hear that people drove an hour or so just to come to something I put on, it makes me feel so good. That is also the reason I have been pushing myself so hard lately carrying things and just being on my feet so much. I have been hurting pretty bad the past couple of days, but after the event yesterday I took a painkiller and went to bed. Between the nap yesterday afternoon and sleeping until noon today, I have almost recovered. I knew it would be hard to put on an event like this only 3 months after my surgery, but I am very happy with how it turned out. Now, I can rest, relax, and let me hip calm down a little before it is time to start working on the halloween party. At least with the halloween party it is not all me. I am just the helper not the head of the event like with doggie day. Now, it is time to go back and take a nap. My boys are both completely exhausted from yesterday so they have been sleeping more than I have, which is nice because I can sleep easier when they are not up playing.

A Bad Day

2008-08-30T11:12:00.003-06:00

Well, today is not a good day for me and my pain. I am only 11 weeks post surgery, but I feel so good that I think I can do anything. Yesterday I decided to take down the temporary fence that a friend installed. It was put up to make it easier for me to take the dogs out after my surgery. My back door does not go into the back yard so the fence was installed from my back porsc to the yard so I could jusdt open the door and let the boys out instead of taking them up and down the porch stairs on a leash. I thought I was ready, but I am not so sure now. I took all of the chain link fencing down, rolled it up and put it under my porch (to be used again soon), then had to pull out all of the metal construction/ surveying stakes that were used as the posts. I don't klnow if it was the bending over to roll the fence, lifting it into place, or trying to yank the posts out, but I am hurting now. Last night I could barely walk it hurt so bad, but at least I have a bunch of the painkillers left over that I was sent home with so I took one. Today I am feeling better, but I am definitely hurting more than I have in several weeks. Of course, it didn't help that the first time I took the boys out on their leashes they tried to drag me down the stairs then pulled me into the backyard. When they did that I was getting sharp pains in the muscles around my hip. Now, they are going out on their short leashes so they can't pull with as much power as they do with the flexi leashes. I guess I can't always have good days and it is good that I was reminded that I do still have things I shouldn't be doing. I forget that sometimes. Well, I have to go and do some more last minute stuff to get ready for my big doggie day at the pool next weekend.

Update on the boys and the hip

2008-08-23T14:28:00.003-06:00

Well, today we went to a lure coursing place to try it out. Lure coursing is where a course is set up with jumps and tunnels for the dogs to go through. It is different than agility (which Ripken competes in) because in lure coursing a raccoon tail (or something like that) is on a string and pulled through the course that the dogs have to run. The system is electronic so it can go pretty fast. The course record for this weekend was 11.18 seconds. Ripken, who has never done this before did 11.65, 12.57, and 12.98 seconds in his runs. Most of the other dogs were in the 15-25 second range so Ripken did great. I thought he would be a natural with his high prey drive and I was right. Unfortunately, I was on my feet too much today so my hip is really hurting. I was standing for 90 minutes getting peoples times in the 5k our rec center hosted, then walking back and forth with Ripken at lure coursing for another 2 hours. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but at least I know I can't hurt the joint at this point so being sore is okay.
Also, both of my boys are finalists for the AKC Therapy Dog of the Year and are on the AKC website. Here is a link to the page: http://www.akc.org/news/ace/2008/nominees.cfm
The names are in alphabetical order, but Armstrong and Ripken (yes they mis-spelled his name) are both on there. I didn't know there were so many finalists, but hopefully one of them will win. They are both so good at the work they do for kids. On that note, I am finally healed enough for Armstrong and I to go back to Primary Children's Hospital. I didn't want to go when I wasn't getting around well. Now, I am walking with only a slight limp so we are going back. I talked tp the guy in charge of child life in the cancer unit and he said the kids have all missed Armstrong and are excited to have him come back. I think Armstrong may be almost as excited to be with a bunch of kids petting him again. Well, that is all of the latest. I will post again soon.

9 Week Post Op- No More Restrictions!

2008-08-15T14:10:00.003-06:00

Well, except for running. I saw the surgeon on Wednesday and he was really happy with where I am at recovery-wise. The xray showed the bone is completely healed where they cut and put the screws in. You can't even see the line anymore where it was cut, just screws going across the bone. He said my walking looks great, though with a very slight limp (I was really concentrating on not limping while I was there). I actually do have a limp that is obvious if I am not concentrating, or if I have done too much. He wasn't even mad that I took myself off the crutches- he said the way the bone looks I could have come off at 5 weeks and not done any damage, but I waited until 7 because I didn't know. I asked if I can ski this winter and he said yes. I can't even believe he is going to let me ski. He said if I asked to go skiing next week he would say no, but in November when the season starts I can ski.
Now the bad news. My left hip is beginning to bother me, he said probably from the added pressure from the crutches and the new walking pattern. I go in for my 6 month xray in Nov (actually 5 months) so we can see how strong the operated side is and schedule the left hip for the same surgery. It will be probably be done around Feb. so I won't have to pay anything. I have met my out of pocket expenses for the year, and my plan year starts over April 1st. If I get it done in Feb it will save me close to $2500 so that is the plan. Well, all in all, I am doing as good as any patient he has ever had. He was surprised how well I am doing for being only 9 weeks, then his resident reminded him that I was the one crutching around the nurses station the day after surgery (apparently that is just not ever done). He said he remebers hearing that and now my walking and wanting to ski made sense to him. Hopefully the next hip goes just as well.

8 weeks- I am walking now

2008-08-08T11:09:00.002-06:00

So, it is my 8 week point and I am walking most of the time now. I still keep the crutches close by just in case I get tired or sore, but I am walking everywhere now. I will see the surgeon on Wed. so i hope he doesn't mind that I am not on crutches anymore. The hip feels good, though the muscles start to hurt if I do too much. Last night I did a friends water aerobics class and it went okay. There were a lot of things I couldn't do so I just did a walking motion with the upper body stuff in the class. I couldn't be happier with where I am at in this recovery. I know that I am lucky that it has gone as well as it has. If I keep progressing as well as I am now, I may be able to have Armstrong back visiting the kids at the hospital in the next few weeks. I have missed that so much, and Armstrong has missed it. Well, Wednesday is the big day so I am going to go do some more rehab so I can try to be mostly rid of the limp when I see the doc.

7 weeks post op- I am doing well

2008-08-02T16:27:00.000-06:00

So, I hit the 7 week mark and am doing really well. I am still using 2 crutches to walk anywhere except in the house, but I am using only 1 crutch in the house. I am surprised that my hip doesn't hurt more when I am on 1 crutch. If I am only going 4 or 5 steps I will do it without any crutches. If I walk slowly and take small steps, walking without crutches doesn't hurt too much. At night it begins to ache a little, but it doesn't feel like the joint that is aching as much as the muscles around it. The water therapy is still going well, and I have begun to walk in chest deep water in the pool, as well as doing the deep water jogging. My goal is to see the surgeon on Aug. 13th and be strong enough that he tells me I can completely ditch the crutches. All in all, I am doing well. Except the slight ache in the evening and after therapy, there are times I forget that I had this surgery done. I actually tried to sit cross legged last night because I forgot that I couldn't do it. I guess it is a good sign that I am doing so well that I think I can do anything.

6 weeks post op

2008-07-23T15:51:00.004-06:00

Well, tomorrow is the 6 week point and I am still on crutches. I am having trouble getting an appointment for an x ray, but I think I may be able to get one next week. If not, I think I am going to try to use one crutch in the house and in my office, but stay on 2 crutches the rest of the time. I am actually supposed to be able to go to one crutch tomorrow so I think it will be okay. The whole issue is if my bone density is good enough to allow me to heal properly, but 18 months ago it was 102% so I think I am still okay. I won't push it, but it sure would be nice to be able to carry food into another room instead of having to stand and eat at the counter (which is what I do now). I guess I should be happy that I am not hurting and I can do anything I want, but I am so impatient.
Tonight Ripken and I have our agility class and he is really doing well with my trainer working with him. He is starting to pay attention and is not constantly trying to run over to me anymore. I hope in the next few months he will be ready to compete again because he has so much fun doing it. Well, that is all for now. I will try to post again if I get any news from the doc.

A Small Setback

2008-07-15T16:29:00.002-06:00

Well, yesterday I learned that I probably will not be going to one crutch on the 24th like I thought. Originally the surgeons PA told me that at 6 weeks I could go to one crutch, then when I see the surgeon on Aug 13th (1 day shy of 9 weeks) he would decide if I can go off crutches completely. What I forgot to ask when I saw her is about my thyroid meds, and the fact that my endocrinologist keeps me hyperthyroid, which tends to cause bone density issues. I called and asked the med assistant yesterday about that (my endo reminded me) she said because of the thyroid stuff I can't go off crutches until I see the surgeon or his pa and have an xray done to see how the healing is coming. The surgeon, by the way, is out of town until the 13th of Aug when my appointment is so he is out for the xray. I am supposed to call on Mon or Tues of next week to see if I can get in with the pa at the end of next week or early the following week. I am so disappointed, but it could be much worse, I could actually have pain or othr complications. On a positive note, the med assistant said I am her superstar patient, and they are using my recovery as an example for all of his new patients. She said they haven't had anybody do as well, or do as much post surgery as I have so I am doing well. Now, it is on to the pool for more rehab.

The day after- water therapy

2008-07-09T12:07:00.003-06:00

Well, I did about 250 yards of jogging in the pool yesterday with a floatation belt on and it felt so good. I couldn't believe how much it felt like my hip and knee were loosened up after doing the jogging. I purposely kept it short so I wouldn't have a lot of pain, and I think I did a good job of it. I have some new bruising around the incision, but other than that I feel good. I didn't even need to take any painkillers last night so that is a plus. I am going to get in the pool again today so hopefully it feels good after that also. I have to keep it short because tonight Ripken goes back to agility training class so I can't be too sore. My trainer is going to run him, but I have to be able to drive there and back and I can't let myself be sore before I drive. Well, all in all, I am still moving forward really well. I am glad I am finally able to do something to start the rehab process, and only 2 more weeks on crutches.

Starting rehab today

2008-07-08T16:57:00.002-06:00

Well, today I finally get to start my rehab. I am not going to pt, but I will start in the pool doing some jogging (with a floatation belt). My incision is 100% healed now so i can finally get started. I have no idea how I will feel after, but I am going to try to go easy today. I may have to break down and take a percocet tonight, but I am going to try not to. I can't even describe how excited I am to be able to get in the pool and get somw range of motion. My hip and my knee are so stiff that the pool should feel good (though after the pool not so much). Anyway, that is where I am at. Thursday is 4 weeks post surgery and I am still way ahead of schedule, and have gone back to work part time. I will post again tomorrow to let you all know how I am feeling.

3 weeks and a milestone

2008-07-05T15:04:00.002-06:00

Hi all. Well, I had a milestone last night- I finally managed to lay on my side and sleep. I can still feel the hip pulling, and I can feel one of my screws going into my skin, but I still slept. I can't even tell you how excited I am about that because sleeping on my back every night was really starting to hurt. On a side note, I am doing well. The hip itself is starting to hurt a little inside the joint, but I think it is because it is healing. It kind of feels like when you sprain an ankle, then try to walk. It is stiff at first when you stand up, then you can just feel it pulling and stretching everything. That is what my hip feels like- it is really stiff when I stand up so I have to stand in one place for a second to try to stretch everything. Then when I walk I can feel how stiff it is. I guess as far as pain goes I have been lucky. I am just tired of being on crutches and annoyed by the stiffness. Oh well, I am still doing better than most.

Doing well, but have a question

2008-07-01T17:20:00.003-06:00

Well, I went in to work for a few hours today and felt pretty good. I am sure I will be tired later, but right now I am okay. I cleaned my house yesterday and that definitely tired me out. It is amazing how things can be done on crutches though. I managed to vacuum and sweep and mop the floors all without putting weight on my leg. My one question is how to roll over onto my side. I am getting a lot of pain in my sciatic nerve area from sleeping on my back for 3 weeks so i would like to try to sleep on my side. Putting regualr pillows between my knees worked, but only for a few minutes. Is there any type of special pillow that will work? I just though I would try. Well, it is time to gom home so I will try to post again soon.

My uncle Dave

2008-06-28T15:11:00.004-06:00

Well, it is with sadness that today is the memorial service for my uncle Dave. He passed away last Saturday after a long battle with cancer. He beat it for longer than anybody expected, but cancer always wins eventually. Dave was such a great uncle and I will miss him terribly. We didn't see each other very much because the family is all spread out, but I always enjoyed when we did get to visit. He loved animals almost as much as I do, and his dog Ruffie (who passed away quite a few years ago) is still one of the best dogs I ever knew. Please give positive thoughts to my aunt Sylvia who lost her mom only about 3 weeks before losing her husband. I know she is really hurting right now, but also that she knows both passings were for the best and relieved a lot of suffering. I am honored to know that Dave will be interred at Arlington National Cemetary, as my dad will when he passes. I wish I could be out in DC with the rest of the family, but it is too soon after surgery to go. I just wanted to post a farewell to Dave and tell him I will miss him.

2 week post op visit

2008-06-25T15:52:00.003-06:00

Well, today was my first check up post surgery and it went well. The PA for the doc was the one who saw me and removed my staples. We then talked about what restrictions I have and the fact that pain can't be my guide for what I can do. I have no pain at all right now, except my butt from sitting around so much. The pa just looked at me like I was crazy and didn't know what to say to me. She said she has never had anybody not have pain so she didn't know what to do. She said I need to use common sense, and that bending the screws is the one thing that will ruin the surgery so I need to be careful.
I am on crutches until 6 weeks, then one crutch or a cane until 8 weeks when I see the surgeon for an xray for bone healing. My only restrictions are no more than 50% weight on my leg until 6 weeks, no driving for 4 weeks, and no jacking my leg around in weird directions. I am allowed to bend down to pick stuff up, bend over to shower and shave my legs (though I do that on a shower seat for balance), and I don't have to wear the hose anymore. All in all, I am happy with how I am doing. It was just so funny seeing the pa's face when she heard I have no pain, and my only complaint was a heat rash from the hose. I will add pics of the post op x rays somewhere on this blog, and will update again soon.

Another outing

2008-06-22T17:04:00.002-06:00

So, yesterday I went on another outing- this time to a dog agility trial. I was there for about 2 hours and felt good. I was sitting the whole time so it put no strain on my hip. I am beginning to worry that I am too far ahead of schedule. I go see the doc on Wed. to get my staples taken out (there are 25 of them, I was bored and counted) and willl ask about restrictions then. I don't think they gave me any restricitions because they thought that I would still be laid up in bed the whole time. I don't think they were counting on someone who is as independent and self sufficient as I am. I don't feel any pain most of the time, but I still get tired realy easily, and if I am up to long (like the dog show yesterday) I begin to feel nauseous and light headed. All in all, I am still on a good track for healing.

A new pain- 1 week post surgery

2008-06-19T09:37:00.004-06:00

Well, I am getting some new pains, but I think that they have probably been there the whole time, but with some of the muscular pain going away I can feel the new pains. This new pain runs down the middle of the butt cheek on the surgical side. I think it may be related to the fact that I can only sit and lay down in one position so that area is flaring up. Also, when I get in and out of bed my leg has to dangle a little so I can feel the stretching inside the joint and it feels weird. It doesn't feel like it is doing anything bad, but I can feel it. I am also still dealing with a lot of swelling. I am icing several times a day and that seems to help, but after icing the swelling comes back. As far as the pain goes, I am doing really well. It hasn't been unbearable, and I am on schedule to be off of them completely by the end of today. The worst pain I get is when I get up from sleeping and my leg and hip are really stiff. Also, my arms are getting sore from the crutches, and my palms are getting blisters from them. That is about all that is new. All in all, this has still been much better than I was expecting.

Day of rest

2008-06-17T19:00:00.002-06:00

Well, today was my big rest day. I started to ice every 2 hours or so on the thigh area, and have only gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom and take the dog out. I am actually feeling okay now so I think most of the pain from yesterday was overuse. Now I know that I have to take it easy so I don't set myself back on healing. I thought if I pushed myself it would get stronger fatser, but all it did was make me hurt worse. I go see the doc and ave my staples removed on the 25th, bt I don't know if they will xray me then or not to check progress. If not then, I go see the doc 4 weeks after that and I know they will do x rays then. The hardest part for me has been asking for help, but I know I need to do it. Armstrong gets confused because nobody ever comes to visit, then in the last few days a bunch of people have come to check in and do stuff for me. Oh, and my reservations are made so I will be in Baltimore at least from Oct 13-19, but I can go early or stay longer, my job just will not pay for the hotel for that time. They will pay for the flight for whenever I want to travel so that is good. Well, the Celtics are on so I better go. I will update again tomorrow.

trying to do too much

2008-06-16T17:42:00.002-06:00

Well, today is my first full day home from the hospital and it has gone okay. I did way too much yesterday and was feeling it this morning. My hip is really sore and stiff so I have been taking it easy today. I did shower for the first time today and that felt really good. It is amazing how much a good hot shower can make you feel. I managed to keep the incision relatively dry, but if anyone has any suggestions for me I will try it. I get my staples out on the 25th so it needs to stay dry until then. Well, back to bed for me and back to healing. I will update again tomorrow.

home from hospital

2008-06-15T15:40:00.002-06:00

Well, I am home from the hospital from the surgery. I was in for 3 nights and it wasn't too bad. I had an epidural in until Sat. morning so that took care of all of my pain. I never used my morphine drip, and only started taking prcocet Sat after the epidural was removed. The incision is much larger that I was expecting. It is 10-1r inches long and runs from my lower waist down into my thigh 6 inches or so below the panty line. I am feeling so much better than I could ever have expected. I knew I have a good pain tolerance, but the nurses, pt's and nurses aids kept saying are you sure you had pao. Apparently most pao surgeries do not get up and walk around, and I was out walking around the nurses station Friday afternoon. I am able to get in and out of bed by myself and carry some stuff. I even unpacked my hospital bag all by myself. The dogs have been great and know to stay away from my leg. My friends that brought me home and the friend that watched the dogs thought they would jump on me, but Armstrong came up to me in bad, sniffed my leg and just laid next to me. We didn't want to take any chances with Ripken though soi he got a strong sedative to keep him calm. He will go stay at with the dog trainer tomorrow until Saturday so that will be nice. Well, I just thought I would update everyone. I just can't believe how good I am feeling and how much I am able to do already. I will keep you posted.

Ready for surgery

2008-06-08T20:31:00.003-06:00

Well, I am just about done getting ready for surgery. I picked up my crutches and reacher on Friday, and got the shower seat and the raised toilet seat last week. Also, my surgeon filled out my form for a handicap parking tag on Friday so i will go to the dmv on Monday to pick up the tag. I feel like I am stocking up for the apocolypse the way my spare room looks. I have 6 weks worth of dog food, about 25 2 liters of diet pepsi, as well as 3 cases of cans of diet pepsi. I also have a box of macaroni (I have no idea how many boxes are in that) and all kinds of packs of ready to make mashed potatoes. Everybody asks me what I eat so they can bring me food while I am laid up, but nobody seems to believe how little of an array of foods I eat. All in all, I am done. I will do a massive house cleaning on Wednesday because I won't be able to do it for awhile.
One of my friends will bring me to the hospital on Thursday and will stay there until i am in the recovery room. She will have my dads phone number so she can call him when I am out of surgery, so if you want an update he should know what is going on.
On a non surgery note, Ripken had his agility trial this weekend and he did okay. He was so close to winning one of his events on Saturday- he missed it by one point. Unfortunately, he also learned a fun game- run and jump out of the ring, then run around visiting people until someone catches him. My trainer will have to break that habit since he will be running him for the next 9-12 months. Well, that is all for now. I will update again on Wed. when I know my surgery time for Thurs. Bye for now.

1 week left

2008-06-05T17:04:00.000-06:00

So I am in the home stretch of getting ready for surgery. I go in next week and am so relieved it is finally here. I am still working on having someone watch the dogs for me, but I think that may be taken care of. I have to go to the store this weekend to stock up on stuff I will need in my non-driving time so nobody has to do it for me. I have been told differing things on how long the surgery takes, but it should be between 90 minutes and 4.5 hours depending on what they find when they get in the joint.This weekend Ripken and I will do our last agility competition before I go in and he has to take some time off. I hope he does well, but with him you never know. Once I am able to drive again Ripken will be able to go back to class and compete with my trainer. Ripken needs the structure of the classes and agility so the trainer has agreed to work with him and enter him in events. On a side note, the therapists at the residential treatment facility where Ripken works are nominating him for the AKC therapy dog of the year. What he does is so different so I am glad that is being recognized. I am nominating Armstrong myself because we see so many different staff people it would be hard for one of them to be able to sum up what Armstrong does. Hopefully one of my boys will win. Well, I will post again after this weekend to let you all know how Ripken did and how I am feeling that close to surgery.

Friend is back from Iraq

2008-05-28T17:56:00.002-06:00

I know this post has nothing to do with my blog, but I am so excited. One of my friends is home from Iraq after his second tour. He si a medic, and was working at one of the prisons over there. He said it was horrible, and I am sure I will get some awful stories from there. On the same topic, because of our wonderful president being in Salt Lake overnight, his troop cannot fly in to come home until tomorrow night at midnight. He is sitting at a base in Texas waiting to come home, and signed all of his papers yesterday. Now, the families and kids of all of the troops coming home won't be able to get the welcome they deserve because it is so late at night. Many of their families will have a tough time being there also because of how far away thet live and their small kids. Sorry for the rant, but it is yet another thing our esteemed leader has done to not be supportive of our troops. You would think he would at least get them here early so he can use them as a phto op. Anyway, at least my friend is home safe and sound, and is done with the guard.

2 and a half weeks left

2008-05-24T20:17:00.002-06:00

Well, I am down to 2 and a half weeks left to go and I am ready to get this surgery done. I am at home on the laptop my work gave me to use so I obviously have wireless here. That is a good first step because now I know I can blog while I am stuck at home for 4-6 weeks post, as well as get some work done post- surgery. I also found out that the boyfriend of one of my co-workers will be working on the floor of the hospital I will be at so I can have my own personal nurse. All in all, things are shaping up for surgery day. Now if I can just get rid of the bruises from the vampires that took blood from me last week I will be all set.

Pre- surgery screening and CT scan today

2008-05-20T15:37:00.001-06:00

Well, today has been a busy day. I have 3 new needle holes, and a pint less blood, but I am now done with everything until surgery. This morning was the pre-surgical screening and that went quick. The nurse just asked a lot of questions about medical history and stuff like that, then I had 4 vials of blood taken (though I don't know what all they are testing for.)
The screening went so fast I had time to go in and donate another pint of blood for myself. That was hard because the girl had no idea what she was doing and had to keep calling someone else over to help when the blood would stop coming out. It sounded like when she rotated the needle she went to far and pushed through the other side of the vein. I did get the full pint so I am at least done with that.
After giving blood it was on to the ortho hospital to meet the Dr. that would take me to the motion study and the CT scan. The motion test was fun. They put electrodes all over me and had me walk back and forth. Apparently I hit all of the spots I was supposed to even though they didn't tell me about that beforehand. They showed me my walking pattern and it was fascinating. My hips are crooked with one higher than the other, and my pelvis is very narrow so it took a while to get started. They couldn't figure out how to make it work so they used different markers. It showed that when I walk, I swing my right leg and foot to step, whereas my left I place it. From the front my gait is all out of wack, but from the side it looked good. Anyway, i finished that and it was on to the CT scan arthrogram.
The arthrogram hurt a little because there was so much dye that went in. Also, they pulled on my leg to open the joint so the dye could disperse better. The doctor asked if I had ever dislocated my hip because when they pulled there was a lot of space and it was really loose. On to the CT scan where they put me in a traction thing to pull on my leg for the scan. They want to get the joint space wide open to get a good reading on the damage. After that was done, I got to see the scan. I have very little cartilage in the front of the joint, but my labrum is really thick (to compensate?) There is a small, incomplete tear in the posterior labrum that will be fixed during surgery. Also, they saw an osteophyte (which google tells me is a bone spur) on the front of the acetabulum that they will remove at surgery.
Well, that has been my day. I am getting a disk of the motion study, and pictures from the scan, but not until next week. When I get them, I will post it on here. Also, we are working on getting the doctor to agree to video the surgery so I can watch it (and send Dad a copy). I will post again when I hear anything new.

How to comment

2008-05-17T12:15:00.001-06:00

Apparently, to leave a reply or comment, you have to be registered with google. It is free, and most people are already registered. If you are not, you will have to sign up with google. Under the username and password boxes, there is something that you can click on that says not registered, or not a user or something like that. Follow those directions to get yourself signed up so you can reply.

My blog is up and running

2008-05-17T10:44:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone. This is just a test to see if my blog is up and running correctly. Save the address so you can check in on me after my surgery and during my recovery.