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THR April 12 - Second THR

Da*n, it feels good to be a gangster! :heehee: I can walk without a cane and without limping! Tried it last night and did it. Tried again this morning to reassure myself I can and, yup, I can do it. But I am slow, and I will continue using my cane because I live in constant fear of setting that knee off again. I’m scarred from that first week knee pain. That was the pits.

Feels like I’m healing much faster this time. I think my right hip (first surgery) was worse. I also stayed off my feet more during the first week this time due to that knee pain, which makes me wonder if I healed up better/faster with less activity. What’s really blowing my mind is how fast my swelling resolved. Swelling was a huge issue for me last time, but I am almost back to normal now.

Aiming for a relaxing Sunday. We may take a short drive and walk somewhere today, but mostly take it easy. Tomorrow I am going to try to cut down to Tramadol before bed only (ibuprofen otherwise) and start getting back into old routines. Save any unforeseen setbacks, I plan to work from home half days starting May 8.

ETA: Fatigue continues to be an issue. I don’t have my old energy back yet. But I am improving. I am down to one nap per day.
 
Hello MissFanny and all,

I laughed when i read that you're down to one nap a day because I would have to say that I drift off at least 25 times a day! I can be writing in my journal (on computer), playing solitaire or some other game (on computer) or watching a TV show (I know it's bad when I wake up and realize I fell asleep during "Dateline.") My man looks over at me and if I've been asleep for more than three minutes, he figures I'm out for the count and changes the channel to something HE likes. Pretty soon I wake up to the sound of a golf announcer or shooting/blasting from an "FBI" show, and I'm wide awake again. We both laugh and he usually turns my show back on.

Sometimes all we can do is laugh about life! :rotfl:
 
@sunnyphoenix I slept soooo much in the first week. This is an exhausting surgery!

My foot and ankle are swollen again now, too. I got excited about that prematurely. :) I have been on my feet quite a bit, though.
 
I gained 7 pounds since surgery. Finally got on the scale this morning. I guess my diet of mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream coupled with barely moving is not working out for me. Going to try to be more mindful about what I eat starting today.
 
I just made myself an everything but the kitchen sink smoothie. :heehee: I threw in a protein shake, cup of almond milk, berries, spinach, cinnamon, flaxseed, and MCT oil (Idk if I should be eating this stuff—I have borderline high cholesterol—but I guess I will finish the bottle I bought). Anything I could think of that is nutritionally dense, has a lot of fiber, and anti-inflammatory properties. I also logged back onto my long neglected WW app.

I am going to help a blind friend with his mail and technology this morning, so I will get out of the house and back into the world for a couple hours. Dip my toes in those waters. Lol.
 
My sleep is improving considerably. For about a week, I was alternating sleeping 6 then 7 hours per night. Better than in the beginning, but I was still exhausted.

Last night I slept 8 hours 21 minutes (my post-op record!) and the night before I slept 7 hours 36 minutes. One of my goals for this week is to build energy before returning to work half time next week. I am off to a good start.

I still wake up around 1 am needing ibuprofen. I look forward to having that stage of recovery behind me. Laying and sitting have always been more painful for me even since before recovery. During the day, I am either too busy to notice or I don’t get as sore since I move around more.

Sitting has been giving me lower back pain, which I don’t usually have. I can’t sit through a movie without asking hubby to pause it so I can get up and move around. Sometimes I stand for a few minutes and watch TV. I have been going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 pm because I can’t stand to sit any more.

On the better news side, I helped my blind friend yesterday morning. Then I went to the grocery store, picked up my own groceries, and carried them in the house myself! It took a lot of back and forth since I could only carry one bag at a time, but I did it! I prepped all my veggies and berries. I purchased three containers of pre-cut fruit to make it a little easier on myself. I may continue to buy pre-cut fruit. It seems worth the additional cost to have good healthful food all ready to eat! I ate really well yesterday—I even put strawberries on my carefully measured 2/3 C of Halo Top ice cream. :) Hopefully, it won’t take long to drop that post-surgery weight. My son says he thinks it’s bloat and water retention. I hope he’s right! I am still a little swollen so who knows what it is.

All in all, things are falling into place. Life is slowly returning to normal. We moved rugs and furniture out of the way so I could have good clearance for my walker. Now that I don’t need it, I am going to ask hubby to move the house back to normal. I am also going to have the hospital bed picked up early I think. I am still debating that one. It’s in my home office. I could keep it the full month and plop into it after I work for a break. I have to give that some thought. I really like the idea of restoring the house back to normal, especially my work space.
 
Don't rush it, you can get all that "back to normal" stuff done. I'm a cleaning freak so to sit back and not do too much was a lesson in patience I had to learn. I could make coffee, wash morning coffee pot and cups and had no trouble standing at the stove to prepare a meal. Had to sit every once in awhile but got it done.
I'd keep the bed for now. I even kept my walker next to my bed for bathroom runs.
Sounds like you are making great strides, you are in that time period where you are feeling a lot better and want to do more, just be careful, doesn't take much to head into ODIC.
I wish you a sunny day.
 
@myglasshalffull, you are absolutely right! I am in that transitional stage where I want to do more . . . but whether I should is questionable. :heehee: Lowkey, I worry quite a bit about having a setback especially with that knee pain. That keeps me in check.
 
Omg, I was supposed to get a haircut today and the stylist just texted me and told me she tested positive for Covid. I'm so glad that happened before she saw me. Throwing Covid on top of recovery would be brutal. This is making me rethink my footloose and fancy free approach to galavanting around as of the past few days. I have had 4 sticks and I had Covid last July, but I know I could still get it.
 
There’s lots of COVID out there still. We are definitely still in the pandemic despite the business world and govts insisting otherwise. I still mask in public. Don’t need that on top of this. I just heard we can now get a second bivalent booster so that’s something to consider.
 
Masking right now is a smart move, @LaKarune! I just got the first bivalent booster at my pre-op physical.

I am posting way more than reasonable today, but guess who tied her own shoes this morning? I bet you can tell which side is the surgery side based on the bow. :)

[Bonesmart.org] April 12 - Second THR
 
@MissFanny Thank goodness your hair stylist let you know she was ill! Yes, COVID plus recovery would be awful!

I refuse to give up wearing a mask when out and about no matter what the media might say about the number of COVID cases dwindling. I get odd looks from some folks but that's their problem not mine.

Sounds like you are doing well! And that is wonderful to hear!! :yes:
 
I understand completely what you mean about the desire to gets things "back to normal." I had the same thoughts after my tkr last year and journaled each bit of progress which included getting the massage table folded up and out of the living room, leaving my walker in the car for use only to PT (long story why), cleaning and stashing away the toilet seat riser, completing my medications, and sleeping in bed after six weeks of recliner snoozing. That last was the biggie and I expect it will happen sooner this time. This time around I rejected the idea of the massage table as I'm not doing exercises which need it. The other issues remain the same but again, I expect the timeframe of use will be shorter.

Just wanted to let you know that your comment struck a chord with me. :heehee:
 
Three weeks ago today I was checking in at the surgery center. What a difference three weeks makes!

I cannot complain—I am feeling well and recovering faster than I expected. I don’t know for sure why, but this recovery has been easier than the first—and I thank my lucky stars it wasn’t the other way around. I think this hip wasn’t as bad as the first and, strange as this sounds, I think the awful knee and thigh pain kept me off my feet and resting more the first week this time. Finally, I think I just knew more going into this. I wasn’t expecting miracles. I knew exactly what I needed to do to feel my best—and sometimes I still felt like a train hit me.

I am walking more and more. Monday, I accumulated nearly 6,000 steps over the day. Yesterday, I hit 7,500. That, I quickly learned, was a little bit too much! We went to check out the tulips in that neighboring Dutch village I talk about in a previous post. The walking wasn’t bad, but we stood in line at a popular Dutch bakery for more than 30 minutes waiting to get our hands on some of their coveted treats. Standing that long is probably what resulted in me having a little extra thigh pain today. I feel well overall, but that thigh is letting me know I need to take it easy today! Thanks for the reminder, thigh! Appreciate you letting me know what’s up!

I have to brag on myself a little. One of my neighbors said I am like a rubber ball—I bounce back quickly. “And you know why?” he asked, “Because you work hard at it!” The groundskeeper at the neighboring track asked me what happened to me, why was I walking with a cane. I told him I had a hip replaced nearly 3 weeks ago and he was astounded. He commented several times on how well I was doing and how he couldn’t believe I was 3 weeks out from surgery. Those interactions really lifted my spirits. I know I am doing well but it was nice that others could see it, too.

Also cool, I have lived in this house 30 years. I walked my babies around that track. I jogged around it as a young woman. These days, I have walked my grandson around it and used it to rehabilitate from surgery. It is a breathtakingly beautiful property full of flowers, trees, and birds maintained by a local dairy. It beautifies our neighborhood so much. I got to tell the groundskeeper how much I enjoy and appreciate his work! He asked, “30 years you have been coming here? I have been caring for this property for 31!” We wave at each other often, but I am so glad I got to talk to him yesterday and let him know how much I appreciate his work.

Here are a couple photos from yesterday. The yellow and pink tulips (“blushing beauties”) were among my favorites.



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Thank-you Miss Fanny, for the photos. Coming from Upstate New York, I grew up with tulips, and planted a fair share of them myself. I would never consider leaving Arizona but there are a few things I miss, and tulips and daffodils are among them.

And congrats on being a "rubber ball." :tennis:
 
@sunnyphoenix, my son and DIL moved to Phoenix about 15 months ago. I spent a month there from late December through late January and absolutely fell in love with Arizona (in the winter)! We went all over including Saguaro NP in Tucson, climbed the many mountains and hiked the preserves surrounding Phoenix, and—perhaps my favorite—spent a long weekend in Sedona hiking and climbing. I was doing it all on one good (recently replaced) hip and one increasingly bad (now replaced with my latest surgery) hip. I can’t wait to come back with two good hips!

I hate hot and love four seasons so I probably couldn’t do Arizona year round unless it was at higher elevations, but I definitely have my sights set on it as future snowbird potential. I love the outdoors and the Sonoran desert was beautiful beyond my imagining!
 
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