I am smiling reading
@Kim22 and
@Legin 's posts. It's always fun to discover a 'small world' connection randomly online.
Thank you for the kind post, friends.
@CricketHip, thank you for checking on me.
It's just a fact of life right now that my other hip is going to hurt. It is doing the lion's share of work. This too shall pass. It's generally not too horrible, but yesterday was a grumpy day for me for some reason and that made dealing with the pain another shade of doable.
That's part of why I was quiet. I felt like I needed to deal with the grumpies and then let it pass.
Part of why I was so grumpy was because of PT guy. I will
definitely not be working with him after I have my next THR and am seriously considering calling the case manager and asking her to not send him out any more this go around. We have six sessions left and after yesterday I'm not sure I want to be around him any more. Not sure if this is the grumpies talking or what. Give me your opinions, please.
He told me on Monday that he would be switching me to be his last visit from now on. It seems that he has another client who lives just across the road from me and he himself lives just a couple of blocks away. This made sense in the grand scheme of things.
Because of this, I was expecting him anywhere from 2:00 to 4:00 yesterday afternoon. I had gotten up with my son at 5:45, enjoyed his company until he left for the bus at 6:30, then went into the kitchen and did my standing exercises and washed the few dishes that were in the sink. I then did my morning hygiene routine and decided to lay down and rest. It was about 7:15 at this point.
A little bit after 9:00 the doorbell rang, but I just let it go. I wasn't expecting anyone and figured it was UPS or FedEx, as they generally ring the bell to alert me that there is a package on the front stoop.
Fast forward to 1:45 when the bell rings again. It's PT guy. I answer the door and his greeting is, "Oh, you're up...good." I thought this was an odd thing to say and said somewhat hesitantly, "Yeeesss...?" He said, "I came by at this morning, but nobody answered." I said, "Oh, was that you? No, I wasn't expecting you until this afternoon per your comment on Monday." He gives me this raised eyebrow, 'caught the kid with his hand in the cookie jar' look and just shook his head.
To my great irritation with myself, I hear myself actually trying to
defend my being in bed. I just stopped talking suddenly and we went on with the session.
The sessions themselves aren't bad. He doesn't push me, just has me run through my very reasonable exercise routine and he gives me tips and sometimes gives me other exercise ideas.
I think he is frustrated because he seems to have a 'Goal Checklist' he keeps referring to in his paperwork. The thing is, and he mentioned this yesterday, is that I won't even be fully weight bearing until after my allotted PT allowance is done. I think this puts a serious dent in his company mandated goal requirements.
I can do the rudimentary things; observing toe touch, the general exercises, getting up from the bed and chair with ease, going up and down stairs pretty well, but as far as forward movement in the overall, it just isn't the time yet.
I'm feeling frustrated with being a name on a list that isn't able to be satisfactorily checked off.
I am seriously annoyed with him seemingly appointing himself my 'lifestyle coach' and pulling the 'Are you up yet?' thing. He has my phone number. He has used it a couple of times before for slight changes to our schedule. If he really needed to change our time he could have called. Yesterday's stunt was clearly just him wanting me to know that
he knew I was laying down when he doesn't think I should be.
I'm 48 years old. I'm pretty sure I should be able to govern myself by this point. It's his job to give me exercises to do to help me recover, see that I can do them properly, and check in three times a week to see if I am doing this. I
do all of that. I go through the exercises I am able to do 3 times a day, along with doing extremely light housework. I feel like I'm right on par with where I should be at this stage of the game. Am I as active as I'd like to be? No. But there is the matter of a healing cracked femur and my other hip being in pain to deal with. It's a step-by-step process and if I can understand and adapt, why can't he?
Okay, that was just a really long rant and if you've gotten this far: KUDOS. Sorry for unloading. I don't like confrontation and I know that I
must confront him about his behavior and that makes me cranky. The little girl part of me is saying, "I'm dealing with enough...I don't need to deal with guy's issues as well", but I know I need to pull up my big girl underpants and do just that.
Anyway, today is a better day and I feel better for having typed that out.
Thank you, hippie friends...for your kindness, your patience, and your always spot on advice.
United Kingdom
