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THR Rockin again

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Just realized how simply happy I am! I have a project for the day...painting the front door a really nice red...white house, green trim, red door...why not! Anyway, I guess I am happy because for the first time in probably five years I can see an end to joint pain and so many possible activities that I haven't been able t o do for so long. Sure, there will be some lifetime limitations especially with the knee replacement but they all seem to be things I can adapt to, improvise with, or overcome...so, three weeks post op and life is good. I am happy. Have a great day everyone.
 
What a great perspective you have on your recovery progress nmscienceteacher... So pleased for you!! :happydance:... Yes, life IS Good! You're an inspiration :-) And Ok - be silly and go paint in the crazy desert heat hehee :heehee: show us a photo of your new red door... and the chicks!!! (I used to have a pet chicken named Phyllis)
 
SeaSiren How are you doing? Are you feeling better? I sure hope so I checked your thread and you obviously haven't posted there ; )
 
Songlady, many thanks for the reminder on the pedometer. I had tried mine when I was on the walker and it didn't work. Now that I am on the cane it works but I kept forgetting to wear it...finally remembered today and have a start place. Got just a bit over 3000 steps. Went to the grocery store for the first time today and did well. Still not driving...and am just a few days short of four weeks. Half way through my free time recovery...need to a little more than double my steps and probably double my pace too. Just have to keep working at it and it will come. Over all I am pleased with my progress so far.
Elmore oil is working well on my sore knees!
 
nmscienceteacher said:
Starting to try to taper the percosets a bit. Have been taking four a day ...about every four hours and would like to taper down to three...but I don't think today is a day to work on that!
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nmscienceteacher what a bundle of energy you are! I think I'm still trying to properly enjoy the fact of less pain matched with our son being away for a couple more months. This equals so much less stress that my BP is below "normal" and I'm not taking the honkin big BP med I was pre-op. I will have to have energy or at least pretend I do, soon enough, so will enjoy the quiet for now.
Are you taking tylenol with your percocet? I took both, making up to my personal 3000mg limit per day. My meds notes say that I went from 4 doses a day to 3 doses at 2 weeks plus one day, BUT, I wasn't nearly as active as you are! :) You'll know when it's time!

bottomshollow said:
everyday for the next week there's a 50 to 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms---and everyday we get them. Not so hot here--high 80's to low 90's, but the humidity is like having a a hot, wet blanket thrown over you when you step outside. I can't imagine what it's like to have temps in the 100's for days in a row!
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bottomshollow do you remember the summer of 1976, if you were living where you are now? In Richmond, we had at one point a string of 7 days at 100 or over. I was living in a house with no a/c, AND I was riding my bike 5 miles to and from work. I was sooooo young then....:heehee:
 
nmscienceteacher please tell me how beautiful the Sandra's are at sunrise. That is one view that a person never forgets but wants to be reminded often. My wife and I are planning to move out there when we sell our home here in Wisconsin. We have been out to ABQ three times in the last three years. We even got tickets for the balloon fiesta.
 
randy62 the Sandra's ARE awesome at sunset...however the best is in the winter when they get a snow storm and are covered with a lacy mantilla of white, or in the Summer when the altocumulus clouds that precede a thunderstorm tower over their height. In general they are beautiful. Keep your fingers crossed that they don't burn up in the terrible drought we have now. After your surgery when you are bored, or can't sleep message me and we can have a conversation about other places that are exquisitly beautiful in NM.
 
You're making great progress nmscienceteacher... supermarket! I went at 4-weeks too - felt like I walked a mile till we got to the checkout... took a long nappy after! Haven't gone since - but when I do, I'll wear my pedometer... let's see how many steps the market takes! :egypdance: Hope you have GREAT air conditioning :rolleyes:
 
IT IS RAINING!!!! Can't tell you how happy the sound of rain on the roof makes me feel.
Just took a walk to the end of our street and back. We are pretty sure it is about .2 of a mile each way...so I just walked .4 mile which is the farthest I have gone since surgery!
Went to my doctor two days ago and got the incision checked again...as per his request. All the steri strips are now off and the gash looks pretty good. My surgeon was a bit ticked at me that I was not still using the walker...go figure. The best my husband and I can figure out is that since the surgery took almost 4 hours it obviously didn't go very smoothly and my OS is still a bit worried about the outcome. I will ask lots of questions at the six week appointment so I understand if there are additional precautions I need to observe to get a good outcome. I am certainly curious as to why the incision is so much longer than the other hip and why it doesn't end till halfway between my hip crease and my knee. Ah well all will become clear at some point. He had also made a cryptic remark that my bones were "soft"...so I will be asking about that.
In the meantime I am trying to behave myself...and not overdo. I am driving a bit..funny how exhausting it is when you haven't driven for a while! I am starting to read in preparation for planning the first few units for the year and still working on my painting projects. The red door looks great...and I am painting two old wicker chairs on the front porch to match. It greatly improves the ambiance on the porch! Slowly getting stronger and off percoset except at night. All iN all I feel things are going well at the one month mark.
 
nmscienceteacher wonderful rain! I hope you get plenty :)
You are doing very very well, I'd say! Hope you will get copious answers at your 6 week visit. Do take care over the next two weeks and not get carried away.
I find driving exhausting specifically to the hip-- I'm not relaxing it I guess, and it gets tired of being held in place? So I practise letting the leg loll about while I drive.
Post a pic of the red door and wicker chairs when you're done! :)
Hubby knows how to get Google maps to measure distance for him-- it's something you can add when you're signed in. So we know just how far it is from our front door to the end of the street-- pretty cool. I bet you can do this too!
 
Five weeks today....haven't posted for a while cause I am too busy just living. Don't use the cane inside at all and seem to spend an inordinate amount of time looking for it! Almost left today to do an errand without it. Driving some and doing small errands. Have done a bit of grocery shopping. Using the vacuum. Down to a percoset at night and an occasional tramadol during the day. Waking up lots at night with pain...but I remember that from the knee and it is just the speed healing the body goes through. Seem to have a pattern of an energetic day or two and then a down day...today was a down day and I slept several hours in the afternoon and didn't get much done.
Hubby is going out of town for a long weekend so I will have all the watering, chickens and care of my 87 yr old father in law while he is gone...oh yes, daughter is also going on business trips the next two weeks so I will have grands at night and will be gymnastics camp taxi service...so we will see how that all goes. I figure it will be a good dry run for when school starts and I have to be more active.
Went to school the other day and attended a several hour long meeting...regretted forgetting my nice chair cushion. Got our lovely custodians to move all the big furniture in my classroom for me...will have to get friends to shove the 80 lb lab tables into place when we get back to work.
All in all I am doing well...still trying to listen to my body and not over do it. That is my excuse for not doing PT exercises and I am sticking to it...LOL!
 
[Bonesmart.org] Rockin again
and
[Bonesmart.org] Rockin again
. Be sure you give yourself rest breaks during all this upcoming activity---and say no to the grandkids when necessary.

Take care and keep us posted. We care.
 
So I am pretty sure only other hippies will understand my excitement tonight. I was able to put a sock on my left foot tonight without using the sock aid...it has been two years! Still can't reach to cut toe nails but this is definately progress and earlier than I expected too! Moooooving forward one little step at a time. Night all. Sweet dreams.
 
nmscienceteacher, You are too funny! But you are dealing with some serious issues, too. For the new dressing, I recommend Telfa pads instead of gauze. Gauze will stick to the wound, and the Telfa pads will not. You can get them (at a medical supply store) in large sizes -- I think 3" x 8", but I may be off on those numbers. Then you tape them down with that white porous tape that doesn't hurt when you remove it. I have had more experience with this kind of dressing than I care to, due to some issues my husband had to deal with, and I know it will make a huge difference for you in terms of comfort and healing.

I've lined up some of my former students to come in and help me set up my room during the teacher work days before school starts. We can even give them "community service" hours in Florida, which they need once they are in high school (which these kids will be this fall). Do they have that in New Mexico, too? The kids love coming in to help you. I bring in some treats and it is like a party for them, but they also do a ton of work.

You should also be able to get some accommodations from your school. If you are there doing what only you can do -- the teaching -- they should be able to have someone help you in terms of moving large things. One thing I bought many years ago that has saved my life many time over is one of those flatbed wheely carts -- like dollies. You can get them at Ace Hardware or places like that, and they are really cheap. I've moved my whole room using that. (Although it wasn't really me who moved it -- figure of speech!)

Stay strong and stay sane. If you can't work full-time when school starts, and need to take some days off, you can't compromise your recovery. It's more than being able to walk...it's having the stamina and energy to go the distance on a whole school day. Few people realize how much that entails. And you have to let the kids help you with the physical stuff. They will rise to the challenge, and they love to do it.

Cheers!
 
Hubby is out of town for a few days and I am responsible for FIL who is cognitively about four, chickens, pets, outside watering of 20+ raised beds, meals and trying to get rooms ready for grands who will be spending nights parts of next two weeks while mom is on business trips...yesterday I walked 6000+ steps and never left my yard. Much of it was dragging a 100 foot hose around. Our watering isn't automated...sigh. Today I am sore, sore, sore and have to do it all over again. Thank God Bob will be back Monday night. This is sure pushing my abilities. Last night I had to rest to gather enough energy to take a shower LOL!
On the plus side I view this, and the grandma shuttle care and feeding of two lively grands as training for the return to school which is coming all too quickly. I clearly still have energy drain issues and need to plan really easy meals and no demands on me after school and on the weekends for the first month. Thank God I have a very supportive hubby. He is getting a much needed long weekend of recharge seeing our daughter in Venice, California and will be back bounding with energy in a couple of days.
Down to only a Percoset at night and I am somewhat tempted to give it up except I have a good hour and a half every night of restless wakefulness and deep ache/pain(?) that is a current steady companion. I think the percoset keeps it in check enough so it is simply annoying and not really disruptive. Today I took a tramadol though cause I simply have to make it through the day and I was too sore this morning. Will build in a couple of short sit on ice sessions today too. Don't ice all that much anymore but I think my achiness today is due to slight overuse swelling. THANK GOD FOR ELMORE OIL...love that stuff and it is keeping my knees semi happy! I have decided it is my new perfume! LOL at least it smells better than BenGay! Off to drag the hose.
Have a great day everyone. Pray for rain in Albuquerque...we are dry, dry, dry.
 
[Bonesmart.org] Rockin again
Sure wish I could send you some good rain storms! Here in North Carolina it is wet, wet, wet, and even wetter! Had around 8 inches of rain in the last 4 weeks.
 
Holy Cow nmscienceteacher!! I am 2 1/2 weeks out and I can't imagine doing what you are doing at 4 weeks. We also have a large yard/gardens to water and I am not sure I will be dragging a hose around the uneven ground at 4 weeks!! How old are the grandkids? I have three under 5 and can't imagine chasing them around right now.
 
Shadow09 the grands are both girls and are seven and nine so they are big enough to help And do lots for themselves. Their dad has to be at work at 6 so it is easier all around to have them spend the night. Fortunately they will both be at an all day gymnastics camp so I just have to pack lunches and schlep them there in the morning. We actually got rain tonight so the morning watering will be easier tomorrow. The biggest problem has been all the extra walking...I have had to jump from 4000+ to 6000+ but I need to start working towards that so I will be ready for school at the beginning of August. I am actually on week five now and my recovery has been pretty event less so it is all good. I am ready to lie down in the evening that is for sure!
 
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