2/8/2014 A great Day - Rain, and walking Baths - and LL ABOUT the Magic of Physical Therapy!

What a wonderful Saturday!!! 

7:00 pm

I slept until NOON!!! Glorious! Then up and about slowly, and my friend Mariam came to go shopping otgether at Trader Joe's - not because I need it - but because she's my friend, and it's more fun to shop with a friend! 

We shopped all around the store, and I pushed the basket for a little support - but I coudl walk over and pick up anything I needed without bothering with my cane - i LOVE this. A little pain, still - but less allll the time! 

And then I took Mariam home, and came home and brought up four bags of groceries by myself - easily! 

I still put them on the stairs and walk up a few steps, move the bags and repeat - but actually, I did carry one of them in one hand all the way! I LOVE progress! 

Then I relaxed, watched a wonderful PBS program on travel potography, made a delicious late brunch. 

Then I read ,my niece's blog post about taking her delightful 18 month-old Avery out for a walk in the rain, even though in LA during a recent drought time they were not well-prepared with rain gear. SO in a hoodie and fuzzy boots, knowing they'd get nice and drenched ,they went out on a rainy adventure and had a BLAST! Of course, science is proving that playing in the rain does NOT cause illness, and she pointed out that it probably puts hours ONTO your life! I agree! 

So-inspired, I put on a hoodie and my shoes and headed out in the early evening for a wonderful drenching walk myself! I am so stable on the lightweight cane now and I went a bit over FIVE blocks in the lovely, even pour - it was FANTASTIC! 

I have *ALWAYS* loved walking in the rain - it gives me an exhilaration and joy different from anything else. ANd it has been so, so VERY long since I could do it - and tonight was the NIGHT! It was GLORIOUS! I took some wonderful photos, and came home soaked and DELIGHTED!! 

I plan to take a bubble bath, too, though now it will have to wait until after dinner, but it has been SO long since I could get in and out of a tub safely and without terrible pain, I cannot wait! :) 

 11:28 pm

After come writing, preparing a song or two for an audition tomorrow, a lovely dinner of broiled lamb chop with mint, and brussels sprouts sauteed with a little minced pork belly and shallots) and watching some Olympic ice skating, 

I braved it. Did some stretches and exercises, and filled the tub. Tossed in a LUSH bath melt and let it get nice and full... and though I was a *little* stiff getting over the edge of the bathtub (very active day!)  - in I went, and gingerly lowered myself in. The tub grab bar is still very useful! 

I had a lovely, fragrant, long soaking back, and the only things that got be out was the water cooling down. So - I got myself sitting up right ,turn a bit to the side, got me left knee easily, painlessly under me - and for good safety measure, I put a hand towel in the bottom of the tub - 

and promptly got up onto my feet - not needing the towel (I have good non-skid strips on the bottom of the tub), and just got on up, easy as you please! Paying careful attention to everything all the way, of course. Out of the tub, dried off and smelling delicious, of vanilla and sandalwood notes. Glorious! 

Walking in the rain and a hot bath - two more wonders I have BACK in my life! 

Here is a Very Important Thing for you to consider and to know - and it may help a LOT if you are worried about this hip replacement thing. 

I reported to my friend what a good day it had been and the latest new abilities. 

he said, "See? Learn, do the work, raise the bar, improvement is inevitable."

My response: "I love it so! After years of believing what I was doing would help, and it would help- a little- and then it would recede and worsen, and it was so frustrating?? This- though of course I know why I wasn't actively improving, before - this feels like magic, as it works, because it DOES, indeed work! (When you're not walkin' around on bone stumps!!!) I tell you, because doing the work, even though I'm doing it correctly and not skipping pt, etc. -(ie, not slacking or being lazy) feels so comparatively easy - "suddenly" regaining an ability to the repertoire really is like magic! I really love the 'magic'. "

For SO many years I tried so many things to improve the increasing pain and stiffness of my hips - all of the helped *some* - Pilates physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, exercise bike, etc.

But they would help a little and then I would just get worse eventually. Because of course I had undiagnosed hip dysplasia and arthritis and NO cartilage left - and a goodly bit of bone was gone, too. 

Pain just increased, I gained weight for the inactivity, the pain hormones kept me from getting any weight off if I DID diet or find any way at all that I could move (THough at the end there was nothing I could do).

So - BEFORE your surgery, look up the Physical Therapy exercises you will have to do after surgery. Start doing them NOW to increase your strength! They are done prone on your bed, and you shoudl be able to do them. I was able to, as disabled as I was by then - only able to "walk with a walker, barely able to stand at all, and never for more than a few seconds at a time. SO start them NOW - at least twice a day! They take, maybe 10 minutes! 

You will have a wonderful head start on your recovery, with your stronger muscles - and your physical therapist will be impressed ;) and will really be able to work with you to get you moving immediately. Don't be afraid of that. It really is true, that when your wake up from surgery and they get you to your room, and then the PT comes in the afternoon to get you on your feet, you will be a little scared, but when youDO get up that first time, you'll think, "Hey - that surgery smarts!" and then. "Oh - my god... the PAIN IS GONE." And the stronger you can get those muscles, using those gentle bed physical therapy exercises, the better it will be! 

It will require some patience, particularly on days when it feels that you have *not* iproved. But then, do *another* set of the exercises! 

When you are done with surgery, you will see that magical thing - that doing your exercises, faithfully, without fail (and we are lucky, because this surgery carries SO much less post-op pain that many others do!) will show you improvement = almost every, single day. And the pain you might feel is going to be the muscles getting stronger and improving - it no longer means you are getting damaged, the way it was before surgery!! 

The daily improvements I experience - sometimes several in a day! - really do feel like magic, It realllly truly does work! 

After surgery, as time goes by, your physical therapist will give you more and more exercises as you are more and more able to do them. Add them to your routine, and do them, Write them down if you are having trouble remembering all of them - I have to! 

So, go - look up and start doing those exercises right now! If your medical group or doctor doesn't have videos available online, go look them up on youtube! "Anterior Hip Replacement physical Therapy exercises" 

Or, if you are not having the anterior approach, just "Hip Replacement physical Therapy exercises"

You are MOST welcome!