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THR second time easier (so far)

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Peaches hahaha "cream those flakes" You're right, that does sound funny. Almost like a recipe or something.
And I'm ok today, thanks for asking. I'm a bit worried that this might be 'tendon impingemet', as mentioned someplace around here. And I'm still sore, still taking meds, just haven't needed any heavy meds in a few days, which is good news. I should be hopeful, as there is some improvement, however slight, it's not as severe as it was. I'll just sit tight, try to go to the pool and gently paddle around, and see what the second OS says...

And Peaches, I was really upset after my surgery, too. I was totally unprepared for how sick and debilitated I would be. Doing two hips was definately one hip too many as far as I was concerned. I thought I'd never walk normally again. Really! Thank goodness that's over now.

LeeApril26 Is your A/C on today? I find the fan to be very helpful, but not when up and about. The minute I went outside, I was sweating. My brother tells me it's going to cool down by Mon. and be nice all next week. I hope he's right! I prefer it cooler weather. It will be so nice to have a little break from the city and go to the country, where you can relax and swim. I'm sure your restriction will be lifted and you'll be able to do that. You deserve a nice break! And you'll love the pool, too.

Songlady Those old posts of yours are really interesting! And a good reminder of what not to do to cause any problems this time. Deja vu almost. And you can see your nice progress this time.:)


Well, the A/Cs are being put in as I speak - type! I hear lots of grunting and banging around, carried down from the 3rd floor attic. What a chore. I hope there are no more disabilities happening....
 
ByGosh and Peaches - It was after my first surgery that I felt completely shocked at how major the surgery obviously had been, at how very much every inch of me felt the aftermath, and at how long and arduous the recovery was. Doctors tend to give you the scientific info: you take out the bad, put in the new, and <BAM> you're as good as new! And... wow.... it's all so much more than that. So this time I kind of knew, although, as I've said elsewhere, I did tend to conveniently forget some of the negative details. :heehee: (I do that in most aspects of life, actually)
LeeApril26, I missed something... you are having a chance to go somewhere? (I read something about the swimming but I hadn't realized you might get to get away!) Nifty!!!
I think it's already cooler out than it was last evening.... I have hopes for a cooler tomorrow!:ok:
 
Peaches You are so right about recuperating in winter. I have seen people slide down subway entrances, and some platforms (34th St. Penn on the F) are dreadful in ice/snow. We are fortunate to have months of warm weather ahead of us. I am very eager to get out of Dodge for a few days. We will have the place to ourselves. It is possible that my husband will have to drag me out of the pool. I keep telling myself not to look forward to it too much.
Songlady Playing the organ is quite an accomplishment-counts as a workout, I think. Do you have to climb several flights of stairs up to the organ?
Other than crowds, I found the street fair and the 6/10 of a mile walk today comfortable, but sitting in a restaurant with friends for dinner, on my pillow, not so much.
 
ByGosh Yes, we did get the AC going today, along with the fans. It was really warm out there again, but hopefully cooler weather is coming. I don't usually mind summer heat, but walking is more of an effort and I find I am tiring more with the hotter weather.
I had read a lot about the surgery, and thought I was prepared, but this is very hard work. I used to walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan and then go to the gym. Now I am happy to walk six blocks. I know I will improve, but did not truly realize what this would entail. Still glad I had the surgery. I can't imagine all the effort a bilateral entails. You have my admiration! I'm so glad you are seeing some improvement.
Songlady We have the opportunity to be out of the city for almost a week, so if my precautions are lifted I am going to take a one week break from PT and get into a pool that won't require a subway trip. I think walking and paddling in the water will build some muscle in my legs, and some stamina as well. Hope so, as I feel like I've slowed down.
 
Songlady - I'm fine thanks! Busy with full time work now plus BoneSmart of course. You are a veteran at this now!

Peaches - not all BoneSmarties are happy. That's the beauty of this site. You can go through the good and the bad and everyone understands. It also helps to know there are others out there with even more complex issues.

Happy healing everyone! :egypdance:
 
Songlady Hello there. You're right, this surgery is so much more than what is presented pre-op. I had absolutely no clue. It's only when I started to have my problems post-op that I understood my body was now different. I thought it would just be my hips for a little while. Now I know that everything is affected. I'm so grateful for BoneSmart, or I'd be alone here, wondering what is wrong with me. At least this offers not only support, but valuable information, and other hip patients who are experiencing similiar things. It is really an invaluable web site! Thank you everyone for being here for me and for everyone else. Peaches always says how lucky she is to have found us, and I feel exactly the same.

Songlady I'm so happy for you that you're able to work now playing the beautiful organ. Is it a typical large pipe organ, as in most churches? I love the sound of those- they can be very lovely but also very dramatic. You're doing well to be back to work, even if it's a little bit.

LeeApril26 Peaches We managed to get two window A/Cs installed last night without too much trauma. The kids are big and strong, and they both had a vested interest in having them working!
Lenora, how far is Brooklyn to Manhattan? That sounds really far to me. You must have to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge to get there? We did that once, the whole family. Drove into lower Manhattan, and walked across the bridge and back, just for the experience of it. It was an experience, too! Incredible views, and loaded with other pedestrians, suprising how many. It was after 911 and I felt comforted seeing a policeman or two standing guard at the entrance of it.

To me, six city blocks is a good walk. That's well over a mile, isn't it? Didn't someone, I think Songlady say each NYC block is 0.2 miles, and each suburban block is about 0.1 miles? The only walking I do is into the YMCA, then walk in the pool, and around the house, to MD appts., into a nearby park, and sit on a bench, very short distances.
I hope that improves soon, or my bones will turn into chalk with no weight bearing!
 
Songlady Meg, how are you? Was there a gauntlet to run after church?? LOL
ByGosh yay a/c!
LeeApril26 Brooklyn to Manhattan???? On foot?? Really, I too would like to know how far that is :) I really sounds to me like I'd say "well I think I'll walk through the Mid-town Tunnel and go to Norfolk!" Hey, only a mile or so but WHAT a mile LOL
Cream them flakes! "I'm gonna cream that flake right offa my leg♫♫♫":heehee: (Meg, that's your cue, an'-a one, an'-a two...)
 
ByGosh zauberflöte I don't live very far from the Bridge, so to walk to my gym is about 3.5 miles. I didn't do that every day-often took the train. But, when the weather is good it is a lovely walk, and if you live in NYC, and need to take the train for only four or five stops, it is often just as easy to walk. The Bridge itself is I think just over a mile. In Manhattan, when you walk N/S the blocks are standard sized, but if you are walking W/E each avenue block is roughly the equivalent of two N/S blocks. So ten E/W blocks would be a mile. Walking a mile or so each day is standard just to get anywhere. My daughter takes a ferry to Manhattan then walks 1.25 miles each way back and forth to work as part of her routine, every day. This is a walking city, especially Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. That's what makes it so hard if you are disabled. Peaches Between buses, subways stairs, and tunnels to and from platforms, I am sure you will be walking at least a mile every day. That's what makes getting around so hard. I do have a car, but it is a four block walk to the garage, and impossibly expensive to park it in Manhattan on a weekday.
Anyway, enough NYC walks. Today I went to both IKEA and Home Depot searching for a garden umbrella. Anyone who walks in those places is doing a lot of walking. I am sitting with ice on my hip! (found an umbrella.)
 
LeeApril26 Hi Lenora I am very impressed that you were able to walk 3 and a half miles before you even started your workout in the gym but as you said its lovely to walk when the weather is good Its being able to do those sorts of walks that I really miss. We used to walk loads when we went on city breaks We visited New York in October 2010 and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and although very crowded we loved the experience and the views were fantastic. This was the time when my hip started to play up for the first time and I remember having to look for a seat a few times on the bridge to rest which was a pain literally I would love to go back there sometime with the new hip when fully recovered

I don't know Home Depot but remember how far you have to walk in IKEA so no wonder you needed to ice your hip when you got home but well done for getting your umbrella
 
Kim22. The 3.5 walk was by no means daily, but since my gym exercise only consists of swimming and/or water aerobics, it really wasn't too bad. Sadly, I had to stop the walks when my hip got painful in April 2012, and all exercises in February. From the look of your avatar photo you have some beautiful places to walk that are much less crowded than the Brooklyn Bridge! I hope we are both able to take long walks very soon.
 
@LeeApril26 @zauberflöte @Kim @Peaches @zauberflöte
I have a friend who will be teaching in Brooklyn in September! We just had lunch to talk about it. She is excited!
And, wow, I hope your Great Escape is wonderful! I look forward to hearing about your appointment. In answer to questions from you and ByGosh, my organ (yeah, just leave that alone) is on the ground floor of the church, over to the side. It's a "1970's modern" building. It's an electronic organ, but a good one, so sometimes people who have come in to play when I've been away have thought it was a pipe organ!
I am doing better in hitting the correct notes with my op foot! :yay:
But, wouldn't you know it!!:hairpulling: Remember those back spasms I was having? I had a DOOZEY of one this morning! (likely from my "overdoing" at the street fair yesterday!) So... I ended up taking a Percoset and sitting in my recliner for 15 minutes before going in. I was nervous about how "interesting" that would make my hymn-playing, but I did fine.
Before the service we have a mini hymn-sing, which I refer to as "paying Stump The Organist." Even that went fine. Whew! And, Lenora, yes, it IS a workout - I get really hot while playing, so it must be good exercise!:egypdance:
Then when I got home Mom called and said the rehab had lost all her clothes, and she was down to one pair of slacks! So off to the rehab......where I as directed to the laundry department and, whew! - found her stuff. (Apparently the permanent marker I'd used to write her name into everything had faded out.)
Long day!
 
Songlady Yes, I bet you're right, it was probably a little too much at the fair for your back to handle. I'm sure it'll calm back down for you. I'm glad you were able to play successfully today, with no 'loopiness' from the med. It's probably all second nature to you by now anyway, except for the 'stump the organist' part! Your op leg is getting stronger, and I bet pressing the organ pedals is helping it along, too.
Glad you got your Mom's clothes. Those Sharpies are supposed to be permanent, though. Maybe their washer is extra hot or something. TTYL
 
Songlady I'm so glad you are playing in a modern church. I had visions of Notre Dame or St. Pat's with you climbing up to the organ. Also happy it went well, with no Percocet effect, though from what I recall of the '60s, most of the musicians were out of it and played quite well. (The drugs I used for my hip pain were the first I ever took, and I really don't understand the appeal, as I felt like my head was made of Jello.) So sorry you are in pain from your activities. It is so hard to know where to draw the line. I was in a church choir for four years as a child, and I recall the choir master/organist working very hard. Tiring.
Hope your friend has a good experience in Brooklyn. It is a big place, population-wise, and the schools can be outstandingly wonderful or awful.
 
LeeApril26, I've played in some big old places, and those are glorious!
I've done this as a job more or less since I was 15 or 16. I'm very involved in the Organist's guild. It's a much bigger job than is evident by what is presented in public! (which is true of so many professions!)
ByGosh, I'd used a teal green Sharpie marker, because that's what I could find at about 10 days post-op, and it faded to lime green. When I found her clothes, I could see her name faintly in lime green, but of course the quick-working laundry folks were looking for something more obvious! lol But, what matters is that I found everything. The laundry folks there were wonderful, and lent me a black permanent marker so I could re-mark things.:)
And the street fair being "too much...?" Definitely - but I had SO much fun, it was worth it!
One thing I remember from last time is that sometimes I will go into events KNOWING that they will likely be "too much," but these events make me so happy that they are worth the discomfort! :egypdance: Other events.... ahem, not so much, and I'll pass on doing those for now.
 
Songlady. I enjoy church music written for organs. You must love it to be dedicated to it since your teens.

Have you heard of the organ that is in Brooklyn in the cafeteria at Long Island University? It was once the Brooklyn Paramount, and the organ is wonderful they occasionally have concerts there and I went a couple of times. The Paramount closed, ages ago.
 
Hi, Jaycey ... how are you doing??
I guess I feel that my "fresh out of surgery" post was a lot less grateful and joyous than most other Bone Smartonians'. I feel bad about that. I was in a very Half Empty frame of mind, so thrown by the whole experience.
If there is a "next time" (I have a feeling there will be), I hope I can be more upbeat about it.
 
Songlady ... I also envisioned an old church where you played. But not a cathedral. More like the small, old English church in "Mrs. Minniver." Now I know you don't live in England, so I don't know WHY I envisioned that. I think your pedaling sounds like wonderful exercise for your recovery. I have no doubt it IS a much bigger job than it would appear. So glad your mother's laundry was re-covered! As for street fairs,they are often irresistible, especially at the beginning of a new season. And like you, I too choose which activity I'll pay for later. Which is why I choose to not vacuum right now but instead go out for a short walk in the sun, even if it is blazing hot right now. Actually right now the thunderstorms in NYC woke me up. They are promising a cooler week coming up, thank goodness.

LeeApril26: I always thought I'd read that in Manhattan, anyway, the numbered north-south streets were 20 equals a mile; and most of the east-west avenues are 1 avenue equals two blocks. I don't know how the Greenwich Village streets are calculated! I still get lost down there sometimes. Anyway, when I walk 5 north-south blocks, I assume it's around one quarter mile. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk one now slowly with my cane, and I deliberately walk slowly, so I can pace myself. When you said you had heard from your PT that we aren't suuposed to be walking long distances at one time, did she say what she meant? I've tended to walk many five-minute "laps" in my hallway. But I saw on Josephine's activities chart something about walking 20 minutes or 30 minutes and I assumed she meant all at the same time.

Yesterday (Sat.) I walked I think almost 3/4 of a mile; slowly and with a cane. And I didn't time myself, but I assumed it was slow. I was pretty pain free and felt I could go on and on. But did not. Didn't want to pay for it in any way that would set me back.

Before my hip went bad, I would frequently walk 1.5 mile to a destination and 1.5 back fairly easily. I called it a transportation walk. It seemed so doable! I so long for those days again.

I dug up a pedometer, but am not sure I have it working correctly. I'm also never sure that I have input the correct number of paces so that it can accurately calculate what my mileage is. The instructions are simple, but I never know if I've measured my sample steps correctly.
 
Peaches. You are exactly right. The E/W avenues are approximately twice as long as the N/S streets-that's what I was trying to say, probably not well. The Village is old and twisty, and I have no idea how it works.
My PT said not to walk more than 6-7 blocks, but only because my knees were sore, and she thought if I walked stiffly for too long I'd hurt my back, which I did today. Don't think it applies generally.
I've never been clear about measuring the pace, but even if it's wrong I assumed it would show if I've increased the distance each time.
 
Songlady That was one busy day yesterday considering you are only 5 weeks but how great to be able to do these normal activities like playing the organ at church.I think it is a common problem regarding missing clothes in the rehab wards.My mother ended up in a community hospital after a fall when I was 5 weeks.She is back home now but we took her for her first visit to the Day Unit today and she loved it even though she was reluctant to go.I am so relieved as attendance will help her confidence and mobility as well as being a good socialisation opportunity. I am glad you are doing so well.
 
Peaches - I'd love to play in an old church like that! I have, from time to time, over the years. But where I am, I have a wonderful volunteer choir. They are wonderful people and they sing well, so they're a joy to work with!
Kim22, my goodness, I find I am dealing with issues I never knew existed! Sounds as though you are, too. Until she got sick in the Fall (septic arthritis in a knee) my Mom volunteered at two different agencies each week, so she enjoyed being with a lot of different people. We'll have to see how things evolve here on out!
LeeApril26, it sounds as though you got good prudent advice: "don't push the knees." In general, I feel as if I am not quite active enough, so sometimes it's good for me to have permission NOT to push. I hope the knee discomfort lessens. (Maybe the swimming....! Ah, sounds SOOO good....)
 
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