4/16/2014 A New Day - Better is Good!

"I'm bringing you a new day, yes, today will be a new day..."
A lyric from one of my tricksy songs in A New Brain... and it applies well to today.

I woke up much easier,
Perhaps because, in spite of the fact that I was NOT feeling like festooning myself in ice last night before bed ("It's COLD! I'm TIRED! I'm  feeling too lazy to walk the 15 steps to the freezer and get the ice packs out..." ), I Iced anyway. (AND remembered to put the ice packs back in the freezer for tonight). Adding a pack to my lower back ( As well as my inner hip joints, moving to the outer, and my right knee) is making a difference, too.
Some days (Like yesterday) I think, "I was just walking smoothly and painlessly X days ago!! This can't be right!!!"
But then, I just now walked to and from the restroom - when I got up from my chair to walk there, I was a little tight, so I stretched my knees and hips and calves for a minute, and headed over. After just a few steps I was doing well, and the whole walk back (this is about 100 feet or so, roughly) it was totally smooth, knees close together, no pain at all. I savor and relish and hold on to these daysd, knowing that at some point, that will be the majority of the time.

My PT Anne has been really helping me focus on what could be the root of things like my calves knotting up on my if I sit for any length of time (my ever-cranky right knee - which is physically not damaged - too... it just aches a lot, residual from the whole hip-crumbling experience). And she is thinking that it's core strength and my lower back, since those muscles/nerves/tendons have never (pre-sugery) been able to flatten and stretch to the straight posture I work for now. It makes sense... and very clearly, icing my lower back gives me a lot of relief.

Maybe it's better because I got about an hour more of sleep... perhaps because I really poured on the Physical therapy (incorporation the new ab/make the ore stronger/take the swelling out of the lower back" exercises) last night and this morning. Probably a combination of the three, adding the new contact lens from my eye doctor - it makes it much easier to see my computer, hence, I don't feel frustrated trying to do my job!

It makes a huge difference when I just generally feel better. It reminds me that I am getting better. Slower than I expected... but I AM!
And sometimes I just feel sore. And the hope and great probability is that it is NOT any damage to my lovely shiny internal appliances are very real.

I just ran into a colleague at the coffee machine... she had a hip replacement just about two months before mine, and she was a great influence and a wonderful reference - she calmed my initial fears markedly. We were comparing notes a bit, and she was saying that she, too till have the occasional pains. She has had no physical therapy - I wouldn't have tried it without, but she doesn't feel the need.
I am grateful that, in my more extreme situation (two total hip replacements correcting my hip dysplasia involving some pretty extreme bone sculpting and five screws more than the usual NO screws used)

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Ended the day on a bit of a low dip - just a rough rehearsal, and a bit of stress, and I think a little of it might be a slight bit of "Getting back on the horse" anxiety... even though I've been doing theatre almost non-stop for 40 years. 
But after talking to a friend, I shook most of that off. 
Now I think I'll go have a rare before-bed treat. :) That'll polish up the SIlver Lining a tad!