1-3-2014

Up a little sluggishly this morning - up late, and I really felt the over-doing of yesterday's bank trip, as well as the last few hours of the evening spent sitting without getting up enough to stretch. 

Coffee'd and took my Tylenol, BP med and supplements, dressed and ready when Shawna arrived for PT at 11. 

She worked on my cranky knee (bursitis ) and we worked on my exercises. It's always good to have a trained eye to make sure your form is proper and all-important alignment and body mechanics are correct. it can be damaging if your form is off. 

We did have a good walk - all the way to U Street from my door and back - 3/4 block each way. It took much less time to work p to that distance with the cane than the walker! Good news! It probably helped tht it was considerably less distance than the movie trip on the 31st or the bank trip yesterday. 

Then we tried something new - getting up and down from the floor. 

I have had somewhat of a fear of being on the floor all this time (two years-ish?) because I was pretty sure I couldn't get back up by myself. too much pain, too little mobility. 

She guided me down onto the floor - next to a chair to hold onto, onto one knee, (That was a little tricky, but I accomplished it!) then both knees, then hands and knees, down on my belly and roll onto your back. 

It felt surreal to be on the floor - looking up... each of these firsts has a certain kind of bizarreness to it - probably mostly to do with how weird it has been NOT to be able to do any of these things!! 

I made it carefully back up- it was a little sore, but I did it! It is VERY likely that subsequent tries will be much easier each time. I am still not so sure about getting into and out of the bathtub on my own, but  - SOON! 

I have been craving a long, hot soaking bath for ages! I have LUSH bath products - bath bombs and bubble bars which all smell of heaven, and have been siting in a bag useless for too long! I cannot wait - I'll be it'll happen before next weekend. 

I have two more PT appointments with Shawna, and I want to make the most of them. She's great, and a really terrific person, as well. 

I haven't been out today - meant to take the rent check to the post office today, but needed to just be settled.  It will happen tomorrow when I go to the pharmacy to get my BP med refilled. 

I plan for there to only be a few more months of BP meds. now that my chronic pain is fast-improving, and I will be getting a lot of walking exercise and back in rehearsals and weight loss will be certain, no more stress hormones - My primary doc knows that this is a big target of mine, under his supervision. I hesitated to take them in the first place, but surgery doesn't happen if your BP is at all high.  He was a bit skeptical about my weaning off them at first, but we talked about it more in depth, and it will happen. It wsa clearly situational high blood pressure, in the lowest level of "high". I have no intention of being dependent on medicine for this for the rest of my life. Good old Natural Health is my speed! 

I had a fine nap in the afternoon, all comfortably on my side - It's good to have resting time, and I had to remind myself of that when I talked with my surgeon and he suggested that I take a week more than originally estimated. This time, we are going for the best possible, before I go back to work. It took a few days to convince mysef that I am indeed NOT slacking - having to get arounf the office all day start the 6th woudl have been pushing it, and I get one chance to recover from TWO hip replacement surgeries!!! 

An extra week and two additional PT visits is MORE than ok!! Sheezh. 

Made a lovely, healthy big late lunch, and have been mostly relaxing. 

I did ten minutes on my exercycle this evening - started with five last THursday. Shawna approved it, checked my form, and gave thumbs-up to increase a minute or two a day. 

Watched Carol Burnett receive the Mark wain award on PBS and knitted. That's my exciting life! 

I iced at the end of the night and have a hot pack awaiting me under my covers... it helped a lot, and I'm hoping to be back to "Less pain every day" tomorrow. 

Good night, friends!