1/8/2014 Progress, Mindfulness, Changing Mindsets...

Up at 9 after waking up abut 8:30 - actually set the alarm for the first time in weeks! - to be dressed and fed by the time Shawna arrived for my PT. 

Only one more PT session to go - and while I'm sad that she'll be gone - what a great lady! - it means that I am READY to move forward! It's all a part of the healing process. 

In fact, it's a bit like Theatre - after the production is cast, rehearsals happen, the show opens and runs and the closes - you say goodbye to the cast and crew and hope to work with the best of them again, but sometimes, it just isn't to be. 

We worked on some new standing exercises, talked a bit, but made sure to keep moving... we went for a good walk, too - and she videotaped me walking without the cane! I had her video me partially to watch form and progress, but also for posterity - all part of why I am writing this whole thing - I want to remember the victories! I would have videotaped the independent walking the very  first day it happened (just a few days ago, but time is playing such odd tricks and it feels at once as though it were ages ago, and then as a heartbeat). 

I was able to reciprocate (one step per stair, not both feet to a stair) all the way down really easily.

We walked all the way down to U Street (Most of a block) and then crossed the street and took another 1/4 block to make up a full block and then a bit - then all the way back! This was the longest "recorded"/planned PT walk so far, including with the walker, before it was gone! 

It felt really wonderful. 

By the time we were back, the right ws tired enough for me to only want to try about six of the thirteen steps up reciprocating. It's more work and a bit more pain to lift myself up on the right leg yet - 

though, yesterday after my trip to the bank, I did it all the way up! (I'd walked much less, then.) 

After Shawna left, I had to run to the bank to transfer funds from my latest Disability deposit to cover rent without bouncing the check, and some groceries to buy. I got right in the car - again, now I can just get in nad swing my legs in, no effort, no pain -  and went to the bank, and then into Safeway on my own. I chose to just get a regular cart instead of a motorized one - though, of course, I decided to buy more than the three things on my list - and THEN the standing-in-line bit was a little uncomfortable - but there it was. 

I chose to forego one more stop for the majority of the groceries needed at the Co-op - I had already over-done a bit, and those things can wait until tomorrow. 

Home again, groceries unloaded, I made lunch- a sandwich, a few chips and an orange... 

and then conked out for a long nap in the recliner! 

After a bit of internet surfing, I've been reading some wonderful poetry a friend lined for me - it is a wonderful site - one poem having to do with mindfulness each day. I have really been trying to focus on Mindfulness - it is vital to making full use of the great fortune of this surgery and getting my life back, and goes hand-in-hand with Gratitude. 

Here is the website - I hope you will bookmark it and enjoy it every day. 

"A Year of Being Here" http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/p/mindfulness-poetry.html

Now I'm back to the living room to do some serious ice packs and heat to my very sore and tired muscles. The great thing is, now if I over-do it a LITTLE (way over-doing it is NOT GOOD and I make sure not to do it) - it means I'll be a little sore and pretty much better and STRONGER by the next day! I was so used to the old version pre-surgery, where over-doign pretty much anything meant it was actually deteriorating, and I WOUDL be worse and worse. what an amazing transformation, and a mindset which I am working to completely convert! 

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Another lovely improvement I want to mention - this will come as good news to those who will have used a walker and or cane for any length of time, and are starting to feel the effects of putting your weight on your arms and hands. My left shoulder was really hurting - this was especially of concern while still trying to support myself on the walker and heavily on the cane. it is improving  - slowly, but well. Of the walker, but also doing a few stretches from my Physical Therapist - 

**Important! *** - If you have physical pain and issues that you are dealing with as you recover, even if they are not directly caused by surgery - DO ask your PT for exercises and stretches for them - AND DO THEM! You need to be as strong as possible in all areas to get your hips (Or whatever joint/s you are having surgery on) strong and able again! 
They are not bound to just the parts you have had worked on - but they are there to help your whole skeletal and muscular health and strength!

I used a walker for abut seven months, and the cane for two before that... I also used the cane between the car and stairs of my home for about four months before surgery #1, and a couple more once I was back to work between surgeries. 
The heels of the palms of my hands, which had developed rough, painful callouses much as your feet might, are clearing and softening up - a little help from a heel callous emery board and a good bit of coconut oil/cocos butter combination has done the trick. 

AND - I was developing a thing with which I wasn't even familiar  - a trigger finger! Mine was my right pinky - especially before and after surgery #1 on the left side, the cane/ walker really took a toll. It causes your finger's main tendon to inflame and swell, and it cannot glide through its "tunnel" - so that when you curl your finger, it is hard to straighten up - it catches, and you have to force it to straighten. In time, it becomes painful. 
I looked up physical therapy videos for it online (and confirmed them with my PT in the hospital) and immediately began massaging the pressure point just below the knuckle in the palm side, and stretching it. Now that the sane and walker are out of the right hand (the cane is now in my left hand for the right leg, and little pressure) - it is nearly healed! 

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One more thing - I'm finding at the end of this long day (into morning) that I am not *quite* ready to be off the 3x daily Tylenol extra-strength/extended release Arthritis formula - yet. 
Between not taking my afternoon dose, and walking all around Safeway leaning just on the cart, which was far to hig for that job, I'm really sore tonight. It won't last, but it is telling me what to do and not to for the moment.... DO get  motorized cart, even if you think you'll just be getting a few things, and you cn easily get yourself into the store now with the cane... 
and Don't cut back the Tylenol *quite* yet. 
(Also perhaps write downall of the PT exercises Shawna has given me - I may be a bit saturated with them and have forgotten one or two standing ones she gave me, and since she will be done after Friday, I need to be sure I'm maximizing her skills and help, and my own ability to carry on and get completely healthy!