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THR Left 2013 - Now the right

I had an excellent time today getting out of the house. I actually drove 25-miles. About a mile from our first destination it was obvious that was as far as I could drive. I took some ice packs with me so between stops I was applying ice. We went to a nursery and bought some plants, then went and got a burger then finished off going to a garden center.
I was tired when we got home. The swelling was minimal as was any discomfort. It was really nice to get out of the house
Since I got to drive a little, and got out of the house..., I am good for a few days.
 
Hey Doug,you sound like you are doing well. I feel well exercised reading your posts! Glad you got out of the house - fun wha?
 
Happy Sunday everyone, Day 24 started off with a walk. I had a twinge in my quad/hip after I got home so I stretched what I could and hit the couch.
I am currently iced and elevated. I took 1/2 of a tramadol, my morning aspirin and a couple of tylenol. I got up to get more coffee a few minutes ago and the twinge was gone.
I am debating whether or not to go transplant a couple of flowers. I can do it with a trowel, so I will probably do it after more coffee.
I keep thinking, OMG it's Sunday I need to do this and do those because I have to work tomorrow.
No I I don't :yes!:
 
Even though I'm on medical leave, I still have some work that must get done. So I snuck into the office this afternoon. We also went by a warehouse store and finished up stopping by a Mexican restaurant.
I had to go by work but the other two were optional.
My hip is talking to me. The roads in Oklahoma are terrible. All of the soil around here is red clay, and when it rains it expands. When it is dry, it contracts so the roads are inherently bumpy.
We took the freeway/turnpike most of the way. Even the concrete freeway is bumpy.
I am guessing the swelling got jiggled sufficiently to make it angry. We had bulk items to unload after we got home. I started on that right after I went to the medicine cabinet and took a pill.
I'm done leaving the house for a week. I am iced and elevated.
 
You've had two busy days! I'm glad you are taking the time to ice and elevate. Sounds like it's time for a book or movie. Binge watching anything good?
 
Hi @dougie0216 , Thanks for asking. I'm fine. I get exhausted from time to time: Not hip related but from getting up early. You may guess what helps me - a good cup of coffee.

It's been quite summery and warm here in Germany. I'm training for my next marathon, which is at the end of August. Must get used to the long distances again - and also running in warm weather.

I'm glad you enjoyed your long drive and hope you & your hip have recovered from it. I definitely enjoy my car. It's an Audi A3 built in 2007 and it took me to northern Germany last May. First I saw my daughter in Hamburg, then my sister another 10 km north of Hamburg. On the way there, I reached the 200,000 km - so the car has done a fair amount of milage but still runs smoothly.

Do you have an automatic car or do you change gear? I have manual gear changing - so my operated hip is the clutch leg - a good leg press during recovery - ha ha.

And do you have a Diesel or a gas engine? Both my car and my husband's Subaru Forester are Diesel cars. Germany actually banked Diesel until the Diesel skandal. This is such a pity and the managers should get taken to court. This has done a great deal of damage to the image of otherwise quality cars (Volkswagen and Audi). Diesel engines have a long life and the fuel consumption is low.

But this is digressing from the hip subject. I hope you will continue to recover so well and that your old operated hip is also ok. Have a great week! Constanze
 
@dougie0216 at only 25 days out of major surgery you are doing way too much! Please slow down and let that hip heal. You should not be lifting anything heavy at this point and certainly not traveling into work. Take the time to recover and you will have lots of time for these activities. You can only get this right once - take it easy my friend!
 
@Constanze I will live vicariously through your distance running. I have decided I'm done running.

My WRX is a manual six-speed. Sixth is actually a forward gear, not an overdrive. It is a gasoline vehicle, and the minimum recommended octane rating is 91.

Our local warehouse store has 93 octane so I use that. It will run on 89 octane but you can tell almost immediately. When you press the accelerator and it accelerates like a minivan....

Several states with rigorous emission standards don't sell 91 or 93. Owners have to supplement the gas with an octane booster.

My new hip is the accelerator/brake foot. The therapist showed be a neat resistance band exercise to facilitate pedal usage.

I have no problem with the pedals. The stiff rally/race suspension is the major drawback. My car is a fat/tissue jiggler. There is no "smooth" or comfort setting. I wouldn't have it any other way. I can drive it the 5k to the closest store with no issues. I am not ready to drive it any further than to the store and back.

Are you concerned at all with the wear and tear on the artificial hip that running causes? My surgeon, who is a runner, said I could run on it with no problems. One of his friends had run 13 marathons on the same hips I received.

That being said, I could only expect 10-years before a revision was necessary if I ran, as opposed to 22-25 years of I didn't run.

Yes, I like to push envelopes, but the 10yr vs. 25yr decision was easy. Running at one point was literally the most important thing in my life. Then pain showed up so I had to revise my priorities.

I have a very large yard area. I am always out doing something in the yard. I have caught myself jogging from point a to point b before. I just smile, and slow to a walk. If course, that was prior to RTHR.

Warm in Germany? Excellent, enjoy it! Have a good week!
 
@Jaycey Story of my life. I am doing nothing physical today. Day off. I can only do nothing in short bursts.

Unfortunately. I had go by work yesterday. I needed a file off my work computer. Our computer security policy and common sense prohibited me from allowing someone else to login as me.

I found out this morning, a person in our department is having surgery on July, 25. I am their backup, even though I am the supervisor. Since a large portion of their job description has to do with federal regulations, my returning to work a week early at least on a half-time basis is is now on the table.

With budget cuts, our department has no fat. We have 1-1/2 less people than five years ago, 2-1/2 less than 10-yrs ago.

When there is no one else, you have to step up. There are 10-20k people/wk that depend on our services on a weekly basis.

3-yrs ago because of a retirement and my being promoted (at the time of my LTHR) I had three job titles, simultaneously. We had a server crash on Thanksgiving morning. So, seven-days after surgery I was crawling on my belly in the engineering space diagnosing the problem, talking to the vendor's engineer on the phone and switching cables to the back-up server. There was no one else to do it. My wife was holding the flashlight, I had a phone in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. Fortunately they did not want the failed components back so I did not have to take them out at that time. Yes it was under warranty!

Everyone thinks that Universities have lots of fat to trim, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. When you are trusted to be the steward of an entire department, temporary physical or mental discomfort is just part of the job description.
 
dougie0216 said:
When you are trusted to be the steward of an entire department, temporary physical or mental discomfort is just part of the job description.
Click to expand...
I agree but they need a whole person back at the job - not one in pain from pushing too hard.

In the end you do what you must. It's really a short space of time for a lifetime of no more pain.
 
@Jaycey I know. It is a balancing act. But life happens, just like it did today when I had to go to the bank and sign a form. My wife works in a different town, and the bank would have been closed by the time she was off.
I drove her nice suv that has multiple suspension settings. I put it in comfort mode and drove the speed limit. It didn't hurt either my pride or my hip. I did have some slight swelling. I am not doing PT today either. Two days off in a row! I even had cookies. You're a bad influence on me.

So today is day 26. Very little swelling and almost no pain. I'm not going to say no pain, because the incision area is still sore, but the hip doesn't hurt. I could not be happier about the outcome. I visited with several people at work, and they all said to not comeback early, including the person who is doing some of my work in my absence. I can literally do 90% of it from home anyway.
Ciao
 
Tomorrow is Four Weeks! Wow. I'm still doing PT, icing and elevating. I did several household chores today. Boredom has officially set in. Not so much boredom, I am staying busy. It is staying around the house that I don't care for.

I did work from home from 0730-1130 this morning. My phone started blowing up early. They miss me!

I've got to get back on a normal schedule. I did not get much sleep with my phone waking me up at the early hour of 0730.
 
Finding new pains from my battle with the bathtub at 0530 this am. Evidently I tweaked something in my back as well as upsetting the right hip. I am on ice, muscle relaxers and a pain pill. All I was doing was answering the signal from my bladder and I set my recovery back a week:censored:

I'm probably good enough to make cookies. I'm making my neighbors chocolate chip cookies for being nice, and this weekend I will make white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies with cranberries and blueberries for Independence Day. They have Red, White and Blue chunks.
They are terrible.
Not really, I love them and July 4 is a convenient excuse. They are the same basic recipe as chocolate chip cookies.
 
These cookies sound excellent - with chocolate and cranberries and blueberries!

I hope you have recovered from your bathroom battle, @dougie0216, so you are fine by Independence Day and can enjoy it. I'm planning on going swimming in the lake then - hope it won't be too cold (it's got cooler here in the Rhine-Main area).
 
Hey Dougie - just checking in with you, my manic pal! See you are on the midway ride of too much followed by boredom! You are the perfect candidate for meditation. Any groups in your area? Really, the antsier the better.
It is awful here - raining and windy. Too bad as I've been doing a routine of beach walking that is so good. I go in my bare feet, roll up my jean bottoms, and head out at low tide to really work all my leg muscles on the good squishy sand. Bella comes with for encouragement.

We leave for Ontario on Monday. I am a bit nervous about all the driving. It is two thousand kilometres to Ottawa and after a week there we go to Nova Scotia so another thousand. I may fly home from Nova Scotia rather than tack on two more thousand. The road from Happy Valley to Labrador City is paved but from LC to Baie Comeau there is a lot of gravel and twisty! Ugh. It is do beautiful though and we'll stop every hour and a half for a walk. I'm really looking forward to the trip from Ottawa to Halifax as we'll wander along the St. Lawrence which is gorgeous.

I want a cookie! I've made those before with cachews. Yum!
 
So sorry you are hurting, but glad you are doing all the right things! Happy 4 weeks! Feels a lifetime ago in some ways, doesn't it! I've picked the cane back up for longer distances b/c walking w/o it flairs my pain. I'm icing and elevated and enjoying a BBC series called The Supersizers Go... where the hosts explore living in different time periods for a week. Got to love the BBC! This is one of those times I miss living in Northern Ireland. Can't stand awful tv. Hang in there and have a good day! Happy baking!
 
Good evening everyone,
Pain is much better today. I took my pocket torch/led flashlight (for those of you on this side of the pond) with me during the night. No mishaps. I had strange medical dreams overnight. Probably from the hydrocodone and flexeril...

It took several cups of coffee to get going this am. Today was more like a work day, I received my weekly batch of papers to sign, a young man from across the street came by to try and sell me a set of knives, My phone was blowing up with technical difficulties and legal matters, I repaired the broken band on the vacuum cleaner, I gave my Roomba new rollers, I installed straps locks and a thumb rest on my new electric bass. Oh yeah I fed the birds and watered the plants. Also, because I fixed the vacuum, I vacuumed the carpet.
Yeah!
My pain has pretty much vanished over the course of the day. I am pooped, so I am iced and elevated. I was going to put new strings on a guitar and play, but that was before dinner and sitting down.
Music can wait until tomorrow. Oh no, I just realized tomorrow is trash day, so much for sitting...
4-weeks today.
I'll reply to Everyone in a bit, I need to take out the trash.
 
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Hope you are okay after the bathtub debacle. Sounds like you are trying to keep yourself busy.
I was up on my legs all day today and they are pretty sore and work out. I wonder how long before the quads quit feeling like they were used for punching bag and wonder why I still have so much numb weird feelings on the muscles on the sides of my legs... Wish I paid more attention in anatomy... Whatever those side muscles are?
Do you still have feeling like your leg is asleep but coming back to life, tingly numb electrified kind of feeling??!
Here's hoping we all sleep well.
Tomorrow's gonna be a good day!
 
@Constanze I am the Cookie Monster.

@labanan Love the roads in the great white north. They were sketchy when I lived in AK too. The ground was great when it was frozen, but when it thawed the soil underneath the roads moved. My favorite feature was called a frost-heave. Suddenly you would encounter a foot tall bump in the road. Honestly, I don't know why they paved some of those roads. The pavement was terrible in places. Gravel would be smoother, you can use a grader on gravel...
I have never driven in E Canada, but drove the Alcan 3-times. You always took 2 spare tires and a full 5 gal can of gas. I only ever had one flat, but I was ready.
Good luck on your trip. We are taking an 800 mile RT at the end of August. Granddaughter is turning five, and we have to be there for that. I'll get out every hour and walk around.
 
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