Wally and Wilson

I named my walker "Wally."
A stuffed lemur rides on Wally.
I named the lemur "Wilson."




*~*
One-and-a-half weeks later....

So, when I saw the neurologist (who is not the surgery doc) on 10/03, I introduced him to my side kick, "This is my lemur, Wilson." :)

He chuckled and picked up Wilson and said, "He doesn't look like a lemur."

I said, "Really? Maybe he's not. I thought he was a lemur. I bought him at the lemur place at the Duke Primate Center. Have you ever been there?"

"I've not been there," he responded and then continued enthusiastically, "but I've been to that place in Mooresville." He pauses trying to recall the name of the place.

"Lazy 5 Ranch? I've been there a few times on field trips."

"No. Not that one. This place, we got to pet and spend time with baby lemurs who were jumping around the room. And then the folks brought in a baby lion and then a baby zebra!"

"Wow," I responded as he messed with his cell phone. "I'm gonna have to go on a field trip!"

"I found it!" He showed hubby and I his cell phone. "Zootastic, that's the name!" as he expounded more about his family's field trip. :D

Hubby and I and the neurologist were smiling ear to ear.

As I've said before, I really like my neurologist. He always makes me smile or chuckle...even the times when I'm on the verge of tears from pain and suffering and despair.

 I looked up Zootastic online a bit later. It's actually in Troutman, not too far from Mooresville.

Hubby and I are thinking of taking a field trip sometime in the next year.

*~*

Day 19...

Today is Day 19 since surgery, counting the day of surgery, (8/30).

Yesterday, with the help of my home health physical therapist, I succeeded in going down 7 stairs. I then limp-walked with my walker through the living room and dining room and kitchen, and then we tackled back up the 7 stairs.

Son is visiting this weekend. So today, Son and Hubby will help me make it all the way downstairs to the ground level. We'll do 7 stairs down to the mid-level. I'll rest. Then we'll do the 9 stairs down to ground level, where my wheelchair awaits me. I'll get to go outside today in my wheelchair!! Yay! I'm so excited!

I'll also watch some TV. I don't have any TV on the third level, where my cocoon is. It'd be kind of nice if I did, but I don't. I do have my computer, but I can't stream because we've had such terrible wifi at our house, we dropped wifi. We use a hotspot which uses data. Streaming eats data. But I can watch DVDs on my computer. And I can watch youtube videos; they don't eat data like streaming does.

My friend Joy, who moved in with us on 9/06, has the weekend off. She left last night around 6:15 and will return Sunday evening around 7:00 for another week of potty chair duty, adjusting my wedge, helping me shower, putting on my compression sock, other help when I need it, doing household chores, and keeping me fed. She's a real trooper, and I'm beyond thankful for her help. I know it's not easy being on call 24/7. 

I have eleven days until post-op and (hopefully) will be given permission (and freedom) to bear some weight on my surgery leg. There are sixteen days until neck injections when I'll get better nerve damage relief and be able to lower my daily prednisone. I'm counting down the days. I'm quite bothered about having to increase my daily prednisone, but I have to in order for my arms to be able to continue to bear my body weight. And it was expected. I'm telling myself I'll get back on track with the lower daily pred dose, but it may take a whole epidural round.

That ends today's report for now....

The Wedge

Tuesday, 9/13, was a good day. After getting my 25 staples removed, I was able to shower. My last shower had been on Wednesday, 9/07. The warm water felt good; clean hair too. And my new tub transfer bench is comfortable and efficient. I need a shelf though. We'll figure something out.

When I awoke Wednesday morning, 9/14, my arms were in pain and weakened. My heart sank.

So, I had to adapt:
Rest my arms and back.
Adjust my meds and herbs.
Less arm exercises and no weights.
Rest, rest, rest.

I'll continue those things until my neck injections on 10/03.

I was going to conquer stairs again on Wednesday with the home health physical therapist. But due to my weakened arms, we decided to wait 'til Friday. I'm resting up for the feat.

I reached a milestone on Wednesday. I was able to perform my leg lifts with my surgery leg without assistance. I can now do all my physical therapy exercises without a spotter.

During my nap this morning on Thursday, 9/15, I dreamed.
I was out riding my bike, but I can't recall where at the moment.
Then I was somewhere else, but don't know where, and I was doing all sorts of movements with my legs that I'm not supposed to do yet. I also was reclining in a recliner, which I can't do yet either.
In my dreams I'd tell myself, "You can't move that way yet."

Every night I sleep with a large, wedge-shaped, firm, foam "pillow" between my legs that is held in place with Velcro straps. The wedge keeps my legs and hips and torso from moving around while I sleep at night so that I don't get into positions that I shouldn't. I'm now able to loosen and take off the wedge by myself, but can't yet put it in place and attach it. I'll have to wear the wedge until at least 9/28, when I see the surgeon for my post-op. During day naps, instead of using the wedge, I place a pillow vertically between my legs with the top portion of the pillow laying over my surgery leg, to help remind me to not move my surgery leg.

The Wedge

Squirrels in tree tops

I am keeping a handwritten journal through this recovery time. A spiral bound journal that the insurance company gave me. I wrote it in Day 1, 8/30/16, the day of the surgery.

I picked it up again on Day 12 or Day 13, and began to write. I can't recall the Day Number at the moment, and the journal is not within reach. To retrieve it right now would take some major body movement...like Beethoven's 5th, or something.

Along with that handwritten journal, I may blog my thoughts regularly -- journaling, stream of consciousness, scribbles. Blogging gives me some sort of connection with the outside world...or a sense of it. I can get to my laptop a couple times a day for limited amounts of time. Texting from my phone is difficult right now.

Monday night, 9/12, was rough emotionally. I felt myself sinking into that dark, narrow, hole of depression, as my mind replayed the upcoming worsening of my limbs. Limbs which I really need to be strong enough to support my weight until I'm given permission to bear weight on my surgery leg, which should happen on 9/28/16. Limbs which need to be strong enough until my neck injections on 10/03. And my back too. It gets weak sitting up or standing. Another nerve damage symptom which will get the needed relief with my 10/03 neck injections. And my jaws and neck too, but they aren't crucial right now. My arms and back are.

(10/03 is Post Week Eight from my last epidural. Usually I receive my neck injections at Post Week Six. And usually my arms aren't having to bear my body weight. So they are weakening even more quickly than typical. I'll simply have to manage with oral prednisone boosts to keep my arms somewhat functioning until Post Week Eight. I did my first prednisone boost on 9/08. I did my 2nd this morning, 9/14. I boost and then titrate down and then boost again, if needed. I'm sure it will be needed again. I've also upped some of my herbs to help me manage. And I'm using my heated rice socks and frozen ice packs. And I need to rest my arms and back more.)

I worked with my head Monday night as I found myself slipping into "the hole."
Carol, you can't allow your mind to go down that hole. You have to cocoon for 2 more weeks and 2 days. But you can't isolate. Somehow you have to stay connected with purpose, with life. You can do this. You've done it before. The two weeks will click by. Figure it out. What will help?

I came up with a strategy to try to help keep my spirits up. Nothing new. Same stuff I've used for the last 5+ years to manage the dark weeks living with nerve damage. Music. Journaling. Laughter. Drawing. Books. Observing the little things, like watching an acrobatic squirrel traverse the limbs in the tops of the two Bradford pear trees which I can see outside my two cocoon windows. And then there are memories.

Memories. Memories...

Specific songs bring certain memories to mind, and in an instant, I'm reliving life...

....Riding my bike on the Blue Ridge Parkway with three deer cantering beside me.
Hiking the balds of Roan, all my senses awed by the magic of the scene around me -- an ocean of mountains.
Hikers I've met. Conversations. Life stories. Openness. Wilderness. Trust. Good, good people.
My bicycle rides around Salem Lake. Deer. Geese. Rabbits. A gray fox. Groundhogs. Kudzu. Red dirt. Sweat. Muscles flex as I ascend the hills. I effortlessly glide through the wind as I descend the hills...me and Olivia. I hear the gravel under her tires. I hear my breath. Openness. Wilderness. Freedom. Relief. Life.
The feral ponies of Grayson. Snorting. Cantering. Laughing. Playing. Tussling.
Climbing the boulders of Grayson and drinking in the incredible view stretching as far as eye can see.
The time I met Rising Tide, the thru hiker who had been a quadriplegic, at Thomas Knob Shelter.
The time Olivia and I got caught in the creek on one or our approaches to Salem Lake. Maybe I'll write about that story. Quite something. It happened a few months ago.
The lock smith appearing out of nowhere right when I needed him. That happened years ago.
The old van's alternator dying on the Parkway just as I was driving down a hill and able to pull into Mabry Mill's parking area on an off-season weekday at dusk. No cell service and no cars anywhere, except for one belonging to a maintenance guy who just happened to be in the main building who made a call to AAA from a landline. Oh my, another funny story because the kids were with me. What a funny time that was.
And the lightening bugs, some 18ish years ago, in the Smokies. Hundreds and hundreds of fireflies putting on a magical light show for us.
Grandfather Fir at Grayson.
The big evergreen at Roan.
The old pine tree in our back yard.
The tall pine at the rehab center.
The deer family in our back yard. They visited last week after I got home, 5 deer. I didn't see them. But Joy and her little long-haired Dachshund (who is staying with Joy in our home) saw them. It's nice to know they visited.
Real-life happenings that remind me, I'm not alone.
A plethora of memories.....

Some memory-movies come back to mind as I reread journal and blog entries. That helps too. They remind me I will recover. I will be riding Olivia again. Of course then, the worst-case-scenario part of my brain chimes in. And I tell it, "Go away!"

I recall the times I've been alone on adventures and a need would arise and someone was always there, out of the blue, to provide the assistance needed. They were just...there. I tell myself that one day, they will not be there. Perhaps that is the day it all ends. And that will be that.

I recently thought that once a person is at peace with death, they are at peace with life.

Yesterday, Tuesday, 9/13, my spirits were up. It was a good day. My staples were removed by the home health nurse. I had 25 staples! Oh my. Glad they are out!

On the other side....

I made it through surgery on Tuesday, 8/30.

It went well. The surgeon said there was no bone necrosis. There was only slight metallosis around the hip joint. So it's good we got it out now instead of waiting.

On Friday, 9/02, I was transferred from the hospital to a nursing home rehab facility. The facility was dated, but the staff was great. I felt kind of like I was in a MASH unit. :D

On Thursday, 9/08, I came home to our ground level.

On Saturday, 9/10, I made it upstairs to the third level where our bathrooms and bedrooms are. I will pretty much hibernate up here until I see the surgeon on 9/28.

I can manage the nerve damage much better at home than at a medical facility.

Recovery from lateral revision hip replacement surgery has quite a few movement restrictions. From my understanding all these restrictions are to give the new joint time to "set." We don't want it to jostle out of place.

One of my restrictions is that I can put no weight on my surgery leg until after I see the surgeon on 9/28. I can use my toes and ball-of-foot for balance only; it's called "touch down weight bearing," which means I can only touch, but not bear weight. So my nerve-damaged arms support my weight when I use my walker. I can bear weight on my good leg, of course.

Maneuvering stairs is quite a feat. It takes one person strong enough to bear my body weight for me to maneuver up and down stairs.

I have to ascend stairs backwards. With the walker on the ground level and my backside facing the stairs, I put all my weight on my arms on the walker and hop backwards with my good leg up to the first step. I then put the back legs of the walker on that step and bring up my surgery leg. My helper then holds the front of my walker which is in thin air, while the back legs of the walker are on the step. With the helper braced and holding the front of the walker bearing my weight, I repeat the process. I put all my weight on the walker and hop up backwards with my good leg to the next step. We repeat the process with each step. It's hard work and a session on trust.

To come down is similar, except I descend face forward as my helper bears my weight as I come down. When I descend I start with my surgery leg first, instead of my good leg.

We have a tri-level home, which means we have a ground level, nine stairs to the mid level, and then seven stairs to the upper level.

There is no way, no way, I could have done this in 2013 or 2014 or 2015. My arms and legs simply would have not had the strength to do all this. Hubby and I have just looked at each other and shaken our heads in amazement. It has been since I added the Charlotte's Web hemp extract that I've gotten stronger. It was adding the Charlotte's Web that has enabled my body to be strong enough to bike that has allowed my legs to get some muscle mass back. Also, getting my vitamin B6 down to normal range and getting my iron levels closer to normal range have also helped.

I have a barrel of stories, of course, from the hospital and rehab and since I've been home. I don't know if I'll ever get them recorded.

On a different subject, I really don't like election years.

*~*

A photo of my recovery cocoon at home. Thanks to my friend Joy for cleaning it and getting it ready. The room is my daughter's old room. She moved out in 2007ish(?), and it had become the catch-all room. Now it has caught me..until my release when I have my wings...