5/9/2014 Things I Can Do Again

Things which I have recently noticed I can do again: 

I no longer use a cane, ever. 

I only use handicapped parking when I need it - and I still do legitimately need it sometimes. Some people don't quite understand that sometimes, because I am doing so well. After a drive of more than about 20 minutes, my hips and especially my right knee still stiffen up, and if there is not a regular space within a reasonable  to the door of my destination, I will sometimes use the handicapped space. This is still legit, and I'm not being lazy.

Get through the day with minimal pain medication (Extra strength Tylenol only), in fact the current issue I need Tylenol for is the Shin Divot. once or twice a day it just throbs to about a level 8 pain for a while. But the hips and knee ,which they get stiff and sore, don't need medication most of the time. 

Stand and balance on my left foot for up to 30 seconds, and the right for about 15. 

I can walk (mindfully - always mindfully) across a multi-terrained area which I know (For instance from my porch down one step, across the sidewalk, strip of lawn with occasional small pinecones in it, over the curb to the asphalt street and around my car ) without looking down at the ground, in a flowing motion, just naturally using my peripheral vision. I usually make a quick scan of the lawn bit to ensure I don't step on one of those little pinecones, though - a smart thing to do. 

I tend to walk straight up, shoulders back and rear tucked under more naturally and without having to concentrate on it, as my muscles and tendons get used to being stretched that way for the first time in my life (After correcting the hip dysplasia with the hip replacements). 

I can roll on my side - GENTLY - and turn my upper body in the opposite direction of my bent legs to gently pop my lower back if it is stiff - I could do this easily, years ago before everything stiffened up. it's a move done by good chiropractors, and here was a long time when my love back just wasn't participating in that release. Now is it again - and it feels amazing. 

Often when  i get up from sitting for more than half an hour ( like from my desk at work), if I stop, lift my knees up 5 or 6 times each, then gently kick my foot up toward my rear 5 or 6 times, it stretches everything and makes thoese first steps infinitely more comfortable to walk. Otherwise, it can take 20 paces or so or it to loosen up and not hurt enough to limp. 

Otherwise, if I am a little bit warmed up, I can walk with no limp at all most of the time. I enter the stage, walk across and around it, up a few stairs and back down, and it's all smooth as silk. It feels just like a little miracle. 

It is a little weird that, for this show when all of my friends are seeing me walk for the first time since surgeries on stage, they all tell me, "I was scared to see you head for those stairs, but you just popped right up and down them!!!" It's only two stairs, but there it is. 

This is when they actually understand that a hip replacement is actually a FIX. 

No matter how much I share my successes with them, they don't quite understand how well-repaired I actually am! Conversely, there is that odd thing where they think I am 100 percent better and capable of everything all the time now (see above, re: disabled parking spots). 

I still have a little way to go - and in fact, sometimes I have to remind myself of that. 

But all in all., ^ that's all some pretty cool stuff! :)