Well... things are getting moving around here. The car is moving, my kids are moving, and we are moving in it TOGETHER with mom at the wheel! That's right, this gal is a legal driver again, and this hip, with 6 pins and all, is connected to a foot that makes the minivan go! Hoo-ah!
No more hearing Nick (5) saying, "so, when you're a mom again, you'll take me to karate class, right?" or "when you're a mom again you'll come to my school performance..." He's actually genuinely excited for me, and brags to strangers at the supermarket about my newly-restored driving privileges.
This week of Thanksgiving I am especially grateful to be able to attend all 3 of my kids' school plays/ Harvest Fests/ sliced turkey parties. I am cooking side dishes and pies for my NY family's gathering. In fact, there is much cooking going on, since this was my most-missed skill these last weeks outside of driving. There were some wonderful helpers around here, but all of them could barely operate a microwave, much less whip me up something to ease my Pad Thai cravings.
I have made about 8 trips (as driver, of course) to our new Trader Joe's in the last week, using their lovely little electric wheelchair with attached basket. That is some serious fun! By the time I work up the nerve to ask them to put my name on the back of it, I'll have to surrender it to someone much more worthy -- but I'l miss the scooter days!
Yes, there is soreness - usually after I've whipped up some pureed roasted veggie soup (like this morning at 7:30 am) and I need to sit down. But even at it's worst, these last 2 weeks at least have seen none of the pain levels I had in my pre-op months. It's time to begin to exhale...
Dr. Feldman and I joked that we'll have to split the "Rock Star" credits at my 6-week check-up on Nov. 19. He gave me a few side leg-lifts to do, as well as permission to start swimming (slowly) again, but no physical therapy until 12 WEEKS (6 to go!), which sure seems like a long time ahead. Scar is healed beautifully, and I am getting around the house cane-free (with a limp). Nick is still awed by this -- "look, Mommy is doing her magic trick again!".
Sometimes it does feel like a magic trick.
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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?
Hi there! Remember me (Annick Hollins from Wibbly Wobbly's Blog)! Sounds like things are going well for you. Just thought I would check up and see how you were doing. Apologies for it being so long, but I was rather stuck down in the depths of my boots for a few months post-op second PAO. Turned out to be a stress fracture on my Inferior Ramus, which was only discovered 3.5 months post-op after I INSISTED on another x-ray! But at least I now know what was causing the pain, and everything else that went with it. Glad to say that all is settling down well now, still have discomfort but so much better. Email me, if you like at annickhollins@hotmail.com to catch up. Take care fellow hippy. xx
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