2/21/2014 Addendum - Sitting on A Stool, Not So Great - Who Knew?

This evening I had another rehearsal for Cannery Row. I am the singer in the band for this show - we just sit and play transitional music between scenes and underscoring for some...

The idea was that this is a perfect transition for me to get back onstage after my surgeries - very simple music, most of which I already knew pretty well, and the only physical thing I'd have to do is get on stage and then back off again - perfect!

So, the band met to rehearse separately from the cast, since the cast doesn't sing anything the show, and we were in the dressing room/class room, on nice comfy chairs... I had to remember to stand up and stretch, but it was good!

Then we started rehearsing with the cast on the set last week. The band is charmingly located on the set, on a small stair landing - really, too small for four people with music stands and four instruments, including a Standing Bass.
So we're sitting on stools. because bands sit on stools. lifted high enough to see over the raillng nad watch the action for our cues, because most of the time, we can't hear the dialogue over our singing and playing.
But sitting on a stool -  it HURTS. and the first couple of nights, I was thinking, "Ok - I'll ice after the show, and rehearsals are longer than performances....
It was pretty bad last night - it almost harkened back to the spring (not in nearly as high pain levels, but an echo) when I was dreading the last week of performances, worried how I would get through. Today I have a 10 hour tech rehearsal - our Bassist, Luther, who heads the drama dept., got us chairs for the long, long day today, and I am hoping that will help... my feet are also swelling fairly dramatically with this, and the swelling had stopped entirely. Of some concern...

Last night when I got up, it felt pretty bad. I am concerned. If I am screwing up these hip replacements and their need for filling in bone growth before the have really solidified and stabilized, I will be do far beyond upset... I am hoping beyond hope that it's just a muscle issue - it probably is - it takes a whole different set of muscles to sit and balance on a stool for over an hour at a time than, say an office chair or easy chair, etc. my hips and calves and REALLY painful, and it has flared my right knee a little (It's been getting better with PT and ultrasound), and my bum - HATES it. I duct taped a pillow to the top of my stool last night - marginally better. At least it isn't quite so apparent thatI am siting on metal sitzbones, now!!

Fortunately, I see my surgeon, Dr. Smith, for a follow up appointment with X-Rays on Tuesday. I dearly hope the X-rays will show great news - that my small gaps between Acetabulum and metal hip sockets are filling in with good bone growth. I eat supplements and foods that are high in things which promote bone growth, such as Vitamin K, phosphorus, calcium, etc. I have been doing my PT like a champ, so I have high hopes that Dr. SMIth will say they look great, keep it up.
And after I tell him what is happening with the stool sitting thing, he doesn't say, "Well, that has to stop RIGHT NOW."
because - I am leading the band, I have committed to this show, learned the music, am learning the cues - it would be nearly impossible for someone ot take over for me at this point, a week before opening.

Fingers firmly crossed for a great outcome on TUesday.

Now, I gotta go bake cookies for the potluck and get breakfast and shower and off to rehearsal in an hour and a half. the time flies in the mornings... and a friend called me this morning FAR too early on a Saturday morning. :/

OK!! Fortitude - and forward, march!