In life, stressful times demand a
person to hunker down in their bunker. Okay,
this person, I need to hunker down in my bunker and ignore everything but the
task at hand. I did this when my husband
deployed to Iraq about fifteen years ago.
I cut everything (some people included) out of my life that wasn’t
essential. Hum, that sounds like the
state of affairs right now. I don’t like
that. Anyway, I think I have probably done
this at other times. I cope this way. When I don’t cut things from my life, I get
ugly. How? I will get into that on a later post.
Luckily
with the hip replacement, I knew from the beginning I needed to cut thing out
of my life. I couldn’t move. Pain flowed through my body with my RA drugs out
of my system. I cut all but the
essentials. And in some ways, the whole
process went wonderfully.
The
day of the surgery went splendid. My
medical team rocked everything. My
recovery nurse worried about my heart rate and kept me longer. He told me it went down to 40 beats per
minute and my blood pressure went down as well.
When I found out his concern, I told him I normally have low of both. At that point, I think I was up to 50, so he
sent me upstairs.
I
went for a walk the first day. What fun
that was! Really, I was so excited. I wanted to be running, well in my head. My body definitely told me to go slow. I did my stretches. The next day, I did stairs at the hospital
and at home. I was well on my way. My sister took care of me along with Jerry
and Madelle once I got home. Cookies
appeared, and I had a couple visitors.
At
about three weeks, things went bad for about five days. For some bizarre reason, my fibromyalgia and
RA went into remission, so I decided not to take my meds for a while and see
what happens. Yes, the doctor knew what
I was up to. The pain in my leg where
they must have moved muscles and reattached them and such was the worst pain I
think I have every felt. Normally, I
take a pain pill and wait eight to ten hours before taking the next instead of
just the six hours that are prescribed. With
this pain, I took my meds on the minute it was time. I felt I was taking them like candy. Finally, I realized what was probably wrong. I went back on both my RA meds. Sure enough, within about three to five days,
the pain was manageable again. Thank
goodness.
I
believe the RA is making my recovery take longer. I am going crazy to get back to 100% (RA
percentages). I am not there. Driving can still be difficult. I feel like my hip is too big for my body
when I over do it. Thus, sitting can be
uncomfortable especially when driving. Not
fun. I drove to Wheat, Montana the other
day. That was it. Jerry had to get us back home. I hate that.
I feel so trapped if I can’t drive for hours on end.
Slowly,
I am starting to get the house back in a little bit of an order and cleaner. Still not great. I work for about 20 minutes and have to stop. If I actually go for 40+ minutes, I don’t
feel so great. I miss the days of
cleaning for a couple of hours. And
don’t get me started on gardening. Yes,
I have been out doing a little bit of work.
I do a little weeding for a few minutes.
I actually did a little trimming Tuesday. My goal is for everything to look better by
the 4th of July. Fingers crossed.
I
am walking again. Not as much as I hoped
for at this point. Story of my life. On Sunday, I actually went on a hike at Fort
Rock by Three Forks. I climbed the hill,
almost stepped on a snake, and slowly made my way back down the hill. I loved it.
I also walked Monday and Tuesday.
I am finally getting more than 900 steps!!!
Today,
I skipped the walk. I needed a bit of a
rest. When my hip feels three times
larger than normal, I know resting is in order.
My gardens called for me though. Soon
babies, I will spend more time with you.
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| Missouri Headwaters |
