OK, being a cripple gets old pretty fast.
I am definitely moving at a break-neck 2 hops per second, into the "so over this" phase of my recovery. Still need some help on the stairs and can't cook my own food (which is making this foodie a little grumpy) but otherwise I am able to get from room to room on my granny walker at Special Olympic speed and take long showers all by myself. OK, its still really nice to be surrounded by people who clean my house, do my laundry and shuttle my kids around. Don't get me wrong, that part will be VERY missed when it's gone.
The pain is barely perceivable -- it's really only on my radar around bedtime or first thing in the morning. The rest of the time it's just various bouts of "fall over right now" sleepiness, which sneaks up on me out of nowhere. I'm beginning to think that this must be from the medications so this weekend I'm dropping half of my pain medications, and hope to taper off the other half within the next week so that I can be med-free by Week 4 post-op.
Pain medications also tend to mess with the digestive tract, so there's another motivation. Once I'm off this stuff I can start challenging my driving restrictions like a really obnoxious patient! Ohhh they're gonna love that :)
This week my mother arrives from California for a 10-day visit and I've already begun to line up outings and playtime for us because the walls are closing in quickly...
The "flower and candy phase" is coming to an end, but this really is something to celebrate. Hoo-ah!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My Support Crew
Jim, Nick, Madie & Liana
The Countdown Begins...
First blog, first major hip surgery, first chance to lay on the couch for weeks on end (well, in about 25 years, anyway...). Here we go!
Jim and I have spent the better part of the past week "laying down the runway" as we prepare for takeoff on Wednesday at the Hospital for Joint Disease at NYU in NYC where we will be greeted at dawn (it's always dawn for these things, is that so you too tired to change your mind?) by our rock star surgeon, Dr. David Feldman.
While Liana, Madie and Nick head off for school ( and hopefully just a little oblivion) I will get fully acquainted with the blue-ribbon anesthesia team who will set me up with an epidural and hopefully knock me out so well that I won't notice the piles of surgery tools (Home Depot sale, anyone?).
Three or four hours later I will wake up with a completely re-aligned hip socket (if you really want to know more, I have included links here in another box about osteotomy) and hopefully pain-oblivious through the wonders of epidural support. The last 3 times I ever had an epidural, they handed me a baby within about an hour. That would be a little unnerving here, but would make for a great story, right?
By the time I really figure out where I am, hopefully it will be in the new pediatric unit at HJD which is all-single rooms. Ahhhh... to be a kid again! This piece of good news is side perk of being cut up by the guy that runs the whole place. He mostly works on kids, and since I basically have the full-grown version of a kid birth defect, he is now cleared to use his power tools on me.
Then the makeup and styling team arrives.... or maybe just Jim, my wonderful Head Nurse who has seen me through 3 babies pretty darn well (he does a great post-op puppet show, just ask him!). He and I will get cozy and hopefully enjoy at least a day of epidural bliss (um, that would be just me).
Then there will be a few days of training and workshops -- How to be a One-Legged Mom for a whole bunch of weeks. Hopefully this will include lessons in How to Obey the Laws of Bedrest, because that is the class I could seriously fail in. Pretty sure these workshop days will include a bunch of narcotics, so this would be a good time to ask me for money.
So that's what's on my calendar this week.
Check back for more updates, and if there aren't any after surgery day (can you believe these hospitals without wi-fi! the nerve!), you can text Jim on his cell, because I am guessing he will be watching a lot of Oprah for a few days.
If you've read this far then please know that I can laugh a lot more than cry about this next big step because of friends and family like you -- who walk with me each step of the way, and who know that this is not a fatal illness, far from it, and that having love, laughter and support will mean that we can do jumping jacks together at Christmas. Because I have never done that, have you?
No comments:
Post a Comment