1/26/2014 Figurative Leaps and Bounds - Many Improvements and Accomplishments Today.

Sunday Morning

Slept in today - I enjoy a long lie on a Sunday, Also, knowing I'll be watching Sherlock tonight until midnight, and unlikely to get right to sleep, it's not a bad thing. 

Did a good thorough, non-rushed PT session, adding reps. I am feelign a good amount of strength in my core  - doing this twice a day, every single day without exception, even though it's not "Gym-strength" heavy duty working out, has absolutely made a different in my strength! I can now do a leg-lift - sort of a V-lift with mostly the lower body? - quite easily. That has always been a weak point for me, as my abs were just not very strong (and I didn't do much about it, until about seven years ago when hip pain began to limit me). 

It feels good to use my ab strength, even with my round body shape (Which is becoming less and less round with more and more exercise and movement!) and be able to sustain a pose without discomfort or trembling. 

A week from Wednesday I will begin outpatient physical therapy (Unless they get a cancellation that I can take) to boost that last bit of strength to my right hip, and work on this right knee - the bursitis and stress it has taken all this time are keeping it a little cranky - though it does continue to improve with PT, ice and a little heat. I'm hoping we can add maybe some more ice therapy, TENS and ultrasound to the mix and really take care of it. 

I spend more and more time off the cane now - looking for the day when I'm ready to move from the heavier quad-cane to a lighter foldable one given to me by a friend. 

I did get in about 15 minutes on the stationary bike today! Very loosening for all of those joints up and down my legs. 

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Very early Monday morning - so still sort of Sunday... 

This afternoon I listened to The Splendid Table on NPR - I do enjoy the program... 

Took a little nap, contacted some friends on Facebook, and then off to the grocery store. 

It had to happen today - groceries were getting low, especially canned cat food for Miss Electra, who is getting alarmingly thin. We are trying to get her to the vet - the friend who asked me to foster them in the first place is helping out, and I am most grateful. 

I found a disabled parking spot opening up as I arrived into the busy parking lot, walked into the store with my cane, and grabbed a motorized cart. It was a little tricky maneuvering in the crowd, but I have gotten bold - not rude - but not timid, either - of course, just about the time I will be able to retire the cane and motor cart! But - today, I was happy to have it.

I purchased a lot of high- phosphorous foods -  Mushrooms, rice bran, buckwheat cereal, sardines... lots of green leafies for Vitamin K - all very very good for bone growth. I am DETERMINED, now that I am really getting stronger, to grow in the tiny gaps between my re-sculpted acetabulum and the new artificial hip sockets. There will be no loosening, no "rocking", and especially no Revisions. I have had my share of hip surgeries, bless you and thank you very, very much.

 I got home with three bags of Groceries and - BIG accomplishment - carried three in one hand while I used the cane in the other - and then getting them up the stairs in one trip! My process, as long as I have the cane, is: Put the bags on a step or steps three stairs up, walk up to them, pick them up and put them three steps higher, repeat until I get to the top! It takes a minute, but it works! 

I made dinner - stir-friend mushrooms, zucchini, kale and shallots with black sesame seeds, and  side of tinned sardines in olive oil with lemon. It was a very tasty combination, extremely good for me  - aside from the white rise I put it over... but it was a good meal! 

Then I settled down with some pudding for dessert - ALSO high in phosporous (Not- chocolate, so I had rice pudding) - who knew?!? - and some Downton Abbey and My favorite, Sherlock! 

Unfortunately, the rich and vegetal meal had turned my guts a bit liquid, so there wer a few quick trips tp the loo. but it seems all worked out now. I watched a very moving documentary on Independent Lens, also, about a wonderful young man called Rocky Braat, who visited India, went to an orphanage for children with AIDS, fell in love with them and felt a calling to stay and care for them and provide them with consistent love, and stayed. It is beautiful, heart rending and a great story of great kindness and gratitude.  

Of course, It is now 1:55 on a work night... but it was worth it, and I was a bit too wound up from Sherlock to sleep yet. 

So, in among this evening of watching good telly - several things normalized. I sat on the couch again - only the second time since surgery - the easy chair just is so convenient - but not close enough to the tv for watching something of the quality and detail of Sherlock. I got comfy,  found myself tuck my leg up cozily (I have always been a leg-folder and tucker before the hips went south), in total comfort. I also gently tried to sit cross-legged taylor-fsahion, but my right leg wasn't *quite* fully limber enough yet. And then, when I went to get up to "skip to the loo", it was perhaps the first time that I felt no effort, anxiety, to get up from that lower surface, and I didn't have to do a big preparation - I just positioned myself naturally properly, and up I floated, and scuttled off to the bathroom. 

I was *aware* of it - but it was not a big deal. It was great. 

The skin on my legs has regained it's proper texture - it was kind of mottled, a bit scarred from a few patches of eczema which had come and gone and left temporary scars, and reddish - from inflammation, swelling and possibly from blood pressure issues, na dpretty dry - and I had been unable to apply lotion or oil to it for several years. Even cutting my toe nails was nearly impossible. 

THey are looking slim and healthy again, and only swell, and just a bit, when I walk a lot and sit a lot (As with metal restaurant chairs, or such). and it goes away quickly. I was noticing how they look normal and  my ankles look slim again - I've always been happy with my nice ankles... allow a girl a small bit of gentle vanity... and the skin is smooth and soft again. 

I feel younger every week, and I look it too. Not itn eh "Younger is Better - recapture the suppleness of your Youth, because Age is BAD" craziness of our society - but in the way that my health is restoring, and  my 55 year old body, which is very healthy aside from the congenital hip and coeliac issues, is beginning to look HEALTHY again, and more vital  - because it is - and not am unhealthy 85, which is what it ws beginning to really resemble. 

Anterior Hip Replacements all around!!! 

ALlright, then - time for PT exercises, and sleep! Up for work in the morning - at least I took a night shower and will be out of here in jig time. 

Have you any idea how WONDERFUL a thing that simple statement is?? That I can rush to get ready for work if I need to, and actually move at a faster pace?!? It is beautiful. 

And - no rehearsal tomorrow night! I may get a ticket to see an admired Fado musician at a theatre in Folsom, where I work... we will see. The price is good, but I may need the rest, too.