Out and About

Wooot!  I got out of the house today!!!  You have no idea how exciting this is after spending the last ten days in the same three or four rooms.  I felt like dancin'!  Well, almost.  :)

The reason for my excursion beyond the front door was my post-op follow-up appointment.  It's been 12 days since my surgery and they wanted to make sure everything was going well.  OR, they may know how weirded out people can get two weeks after surgery and schedule the appointment strictly to make the patient feel better.  Either way, it worked for me.

I got to see an xray of my new hip!  It was pretty cool.  Apparently I have odd bones.  Typically, bones have a thin-ish, hard white layer on the outside, and a very porous center that makes marrow.  Mine of course have these components; but the hard white layer of my bones is really thick, and the marrow part a little more narrow.  This meant that I had to get a rather newish prosthesis for my femur.  In comparisons to typical prosthesis which have a long narrow part that goes down the middle of your thigh bone, my prosthesis is shorter and wider.  As my doc said, it's a part "made especially for me."  :)

I always knew I was special.

Shut up.

I also got a prescription for new meds so I can STOP ITCHING.  Halle-friggin-lujah!

Another thing we discussed was the lop-sided feeling, like my new hip added an inch or so onto my leg.  She said that this is pretty normal but we looked at the xray anyway.  It is possible that it added 5mm or so.  This is usually a welcome thing in people who have bad arthritis because it usually means that part of the bone and definitely most of the cartilage has worn away and made the leg shorter.  I never had this feeling.  But with time and physical therapy, it should feel completely normal within about three months.

I will not be starting physical therapy right away.  This surgeon feels that for hip replacements, P.T. is not necessary right away.  Though other joint work -- like knee, elbow and shoulder -- should have physical therapy immediately so as to make sure recovery happens in the right way, the hip is different. They also feel that P.T. right away would end up stressing the recovering muscles.  Their preference would be for me to wait for 4-6 weeks before I start.  But I asked for my prescription anyway so that I could definitely start at around four weeks.

Lastly, she thinks I should take it easy for at least one more week.  They would prefer four weeks before work, but I think I can do some work at least from home.  I should at least hold off trying to drive for another week.  So I'm getting set up to do some sales and marketing work from home next week.  It would be good to feel useful and involved again!

After my appointment, we went to Fred Meyer to get my prescription filled and grab a few groceries.  You know, nothing says "vibrant and attractive" like a walker.  At least the Gateway Fred Meyer had their floors done recently, so I was able to "glide" around the place really well.  I think I walked more today than I have for the last two weeks!  Quite sure I'll be paying for this later, heh.  But still, it was good to move around and be among the living ... or at least mostly living (considering some of the people at the Gatway Fred Meyer).

Thanks again for the lovely people who take care of me -- E, John H, Sharon, Cathy N, Deanna, and anybody else I may have missed.  I love you!