THR zauberflöte's Magic New Hip!

[zauberflöte]

She Is Her Father's Daughter Chapter 705
Oh I am so ingenious!! (So was Dad...) how to have the just-right kind of ice pack at 4:00 am?? Well, I've been working on that for 11 days now. The huge boughten one is too heavy, and actually causes more pain than it alleviates, not to mention getting the bedding soaking wet even through the thick sweatshirt. So I retired that one finally, and my hip thanked me. The big homemade alcohol/water one, probably too heavy, and again soaks the bedding by the end of the night, no matter how many layers of sweatshirt you wrap it up in. The little drug store one.... well, perfect for about an hour or two, and then not very cold at all.
Now I know others get up and wander the house and go to the freezer for ice and sit up and all that but if I do that, sleep will never come back. Bed is the place to wait for sleep, and in the dark is the state of lighting, and not waking the cats up is the best part. So.... last night I brought a hard-sided picnic cooler to bed with me! With lots of hard freezie things to keep the coolth, and a small alcohol ice pack and what was left of the big one, and both small drug store ones. Ta-da!!!!! last night, anyway, that worked! I had three to switch around, had cold but not wet all night, and my 4:30am pain med had a nice cold Dan-Activ waiting for it. And for whatever reason, i didn't spend time waiting for sleep. Nice night

 

[sqwerlie]

What a great idea! I hate getting up in the middle of the night and I hate even more trying to wake up the mister to get him to get me something. I am so stealing this!

 

[zauberflöte]

Josephine I really appreciated that elliptical machine progress chart you posted for Mamarey today. I'm hoping that's the first in a group of similar progress charts for other common fitness tools/machines that you might be working on for the library? And possibly adjusted for people who are at a less advanced fitness level also? Pretty please? Bribe Payment in brownies, with or without nuts and chocolate chunks....
Poppet here's that arnica question in the right location-- I am still in the "clot-warning" time period. Should I wait till I'm done with my aspirin and Celebrex and white stockings before I use arnica, or is it safe now? It is quite remarkable for pain and tightness relief in the little trial I gave it yesterday. Thanks!

 

[sandybeach]

ByGosh we always get temps below 30 degrees in the wintertime usually those cold temps will last a couple weeks in January. You know it's cold when it hurts to breath and the snow crunches as you walk on it. For our cars we have to put in winter oil and make sure the water has antifreeze in for those cold temps too. zauberflöte I didn't have rhubarb wine but I did have jelly made from rhubarb wine, it was good and you could definitely taste the alcohol in it. I have heard that rhubarb wine is very good too.

 

[zauberflöte]

ByGosh sandybeach we did have square tires on our cars when it got cold..... was that before radials? I can't remember.

 

[smrt2run]

I'm trying to follow all of this but am completely lost haha. Seems like you are doing well though.

 

[Peaches]

Clever about the ice, zauberflöte! Yes, those ice bags with the gel inside weigh a TON. I bought one that I thought would be nice and big, to cover the hip area. Well ... it's for BACK PROBLEMS, apparently ... as in, a giant's back. I will say this, though ... it stays cold for a long time. But you are a genius with your setup.
How are you doing? Wearing out more tennis balls? You seem like you are really chugging along pretty quickly. I can't even keep track. I hope you enjoyed your time alone this week and got to rest up.

 

[ByGosh]

zauberflöte The spare tires, are those snow tires you're thinking of? And they were way before radials. Way before front wheel drive. I remember people putting chains on their tires when I was a kid so that they could get around in all of the snow here in Conn. I saw it again as an adult in Vermont when visiting my Mom. Only way they could drive and not get stuck. Many Canadians had them on their vehicles. And they'd keep extra chains and tow ropes to help people get out when their cars got stuck in ditches at the side of the road - ditches that had 3 feet of snow in them. My Mom lived right near Jay Peak ski area - we could see it from her kitchen window. Only a mile or two from the Canadian border. Way, way up. Way, way cold!
Congratulations on your portable freezer, by the way! Brilliant idea. Nothing like a nice cold ic pak when you need one, like 4am.
sandybeach Do you mean temps -30 below zero? Or below 30 degress, but above zero?
smrt2run Hey! How are you? How's everything going, and the hips? Hope you're doing great and living life again.

 

[beckylou]

zauberflöte & Poppet - I will be interested to hear about the arnica/clot connection. I have been taking arnica since day 1 and haven't given it a second thought. I am not on any thinning drugs but do have stockings. Not sure why my OS doesn't subscribe to prophalactic blood thinners? Would this be uncommon.

While we are on the herbal thing anyone know when it would be ok to take milk thistle? I don't want it to interfere with the meds I am on - panadol and ibuprofen.

 

[cabbageandbacon]

zauberflöte Hey there stranger, how are you getting on post op?

 

[special lady]

Good idea on the cooler. I use use marine waterproof bags that we use to keep anything we need to keep dry while on the boat, they come in all different sizes so they work perfectly for ice packs to keep moisture from leaking onto bedding. The bags are similar to what they call marine dry boxes, they're bags with an amazing plastic zipper closure. I've never purchased them online, but I would think they're available on one of the boaters/marine sites that sell all the accessories for boaters.

 

[zauberflöte]

I'm trying to follow all of this but am completely lost haha.

C'mon smrt2run get with the program here. You have to show up every day to have even half a chance of following; that could be your problem..... heh heh. How are you and yours and life and everything?
Peaches yeah... I bought the huge one b/c I thought that was the one BarbaraR was swearing by. And it was good for a while, except at night when side-lying (I've been able to do that since day 2, feels good on the back, sorry everybody who is not allowed. I DO think of you all every time I roll over--

The spare tires,

um......ByGosh that was "square" Thank you for the informative essay tho, I remember well stopping for my Daddy to put on the chains....and I remember the hum of studded tires which were allowed in Vermont something like October thru April at that time in the late 60's-early 70's.
beckylou I don't know, I'm going to wait You are a good bit younger than me! Also, maybe the anti-clot things are just US vs NZ?? Or an age thing? Hey smrt2run did you take aspirin or coumadin or anything?
cabbageandbacon HEYYYYY!!! So good to see you here-- I'm glad you stopped by. I'm quite well-- how have you been doing? All better I'll bet I have been remiss in checking up on your thread...

so they work perfectly for ice packs to keep moisture from leaking onto​

Great idea! But what I have is condensate from the cold inside vs the warm air outside, no leakage at all. I would surmise that I'd have to put so many layers of barrier on a cold pack to stop the condensate, that it wouldn't be cold.... but it worked for you, so there is a flaw in my surmising! My new system is keeping condensate to a minimum tho-- I'm not using any one ice pack long enough for it to get really drippy.

 

[zauberflöte]

Well crapola and goshdang and crudballs! I "overdid it" without breaking any rules at all, in fact staying well under recommended limits! Yesterday I did two new things-- I have two PT exercises that involve drawing the knee upwards. One standing "marching in place" and the other with legs extended sideways on couch in front of me. yesterday I drew my knees a little further than previous days. Since i can't see PT any more, I have to guess at progression. The other thing was, I decided to take a 10-minute walk, which is longer than I've done yet by 3-4 min. So hubby and i went out in the street, up on the top of the crown, and walked by chance exactly 10 minutes by the timer.
My leg hurt after that. A long pain down the outside, the inside, and/or the interior, top of joint to ankle. DANG. It feels like maybe I-T band when it's on the outside-- the knee is involved, and another PT defined that pain for me as I-T band. So, no more walking outside for me.
I don't know if it is the different surface (but I had been driveway and curb walking for short spurts for days) different gait (walking outside is looser and more relaxed-- I can walk more than 15 feet without a direction change and being tense waiting for someone to leap out of a doorway at me) but i've been walking outside before, or different distance. Also late yesterday evening the knee was more swollen than previously and touchier.
Today stiffer all round, although as usual even a very brief walk oils things up nicely. Please don't say ice more and elevate more-- standard operating procedure for me is, every time I am not standing up, I am elevating the legs straight out in front of me with ice on. Hours and hours a day, more than half my out-of-bed time. And the ice is on all night, too.
I think I have the ice-and-elevate down pat I will maybe not do those 2 PT exercises today, and I won't walk outside.
Ah-- one more new thing. I put away dishes from the dishwasher for about 5 minutes, while feeding a cat. Cat not new activity.
So I join the rag-tag band of walking wounded. hey guys!!

 

[Nannyannie]

zauberflöte - have you been able to cut down on the pain meds with your ready-to-use ice packs? Love the idea! We finally have some sunshine here but still have a chilly breeze coming in off the North Sea that keeps the temperature down to about 62deg F. Everything is weeks behind in the garden, even the weeds are slow! Spent too long this morning sweeping our parking area out front, not done since it had to be covered in rock salt/grit during the snow and ice earlier this year (Hubbie was paranoid about me slipping) and now I am having to rest, elevate, etc, etc,......
Still, we can't complain, we only have to see the pictures from Oklahoma these last few weeks to see what real bad weather looks like.
My sister is a great believer in arnica cream, I don't think it would interfere with the blood thinners as long as you only use it on unbroken skin. I'm sure Josephine will soon put me right if it does!
After nearly 10 years I still miss the rhubarb patch we had in last garden (and the raspberries, apple trees, pear tree and so on - it was big!) but our local farm shop has been selling some. Stewed rhubarb, crumble, pies - yummy! And it keeps you going if you know what I mean.
Look after yourself!
Anne

 

[glynis]

ZF: Are you remembering to strut The Funky Penguin? Shouders back, and swing those wings, babe!

Sounds simple, but it transformed me overnight from Plodding Plonker mode, to the Catwalk Queen.

You'll be amazed at the head of steam you can build up. Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it's Glynis, out for her constitutional. Catch her if you can!

 

[zauberflöte]

Nannyannie all sorts of wonderful stuff in your post-- thanks for stopping by The weather is reallllly weird this spring all over. Climate change by whatever causes, anyone? I miss your old garden too, and I never came near it. Did you have to go into quite such mouthwatering detail??? LOL I had a sour cherry tree at our old house, and if I got to it before the birds and squirrels, would have yummies.
I haven't cut back on pain meds due to ice-- I think the ice is just additional layer of protection. I don't understand-- at night is when it hurts worse if I move. Many parts of my leg that I don't even notice during the day just flare up. It all goes away when I walk a bit-- what is this phenomenon, anyway??
glynis enlighten me further? no wait, you went into perfect instructional detail, scratch the request. No, I don't quite feel ready for that yet-- I'm only 12 days today. Is that time to start strutting? Do i have to go fast? I do stand upright, and try to pull abs up, but hard to swing wings with cane dangling from left hand...just in case some piece of lowlife wildlife attacks me or a car roars past and I need to lean out of the way. What I'm really afraid of is that the paved surface is too hard, even with athletic soles on the shoes... I'll wait till next weekend maybe, and give it another try. By then I should be able to give the Catwalk Queen a folooer er? f o l l o w e r, there!

Two-week visit to OS phys butt't Wednesday! maybe get rid of this pesky tape over the incision, maybe even the nasty white hosen that get black on the bottoms of the feet in one day from the house not having been cleaned since May 17.....

 

[ByGosh]

it transformed me overnight from Plodding Plonker mode, to the Catwalk Queen.

Ah, there's glynis again with her unique and fetching humor. No Catwalk Queens here, unless maybe my teenage daughters? No scratch that - best they don't do any strutting, they get too much attention as it is just being young!
zauberflöte Too bad your lovely 10 min walk turned into 24 hrs of regret. I bet it's just those muscles waking up cranky and letting you know they've been disturbed. You sound like you're doing just what's right - the ice, resting, elevating, babying the leg. It should quiet down by tomorrow.
Me, on the other hand, Miss Pain in the Groins, tried paddling around in the pool for the past three days, and here I go again....Jeez, will this ever end? I wish some wise one would tell me what's too much, and what's good for me. Isn't there some great THR spirit in the sky who can give us a signal before it starts to hurt?

 

[glynis]

Oh dear, ZF, I am so sorry. Of course, you are such a beginner. I forgot. You are not so much a juvenile penguin, as hardly out of the egg. Waving your stick around at the "lowlife wildlife" is a good, Chaplinesque, idea. Can't be too careful.

On hols last week I communicated, in his own language, with strange foreign taxi driver. "Er, er, er!" says Glynis, pointing at wildlife about to cross the road, and attempting to communicate to driver, in strange, unknown language. (Shouting helps, I find, with these foreign types.) Taxi screeches to a halt. Driver has not seen wildlife. Dreadful, intense pause.

Hedgehog emerges from other side of taxi. Five people sigh: "So sweet!" Driver expresses his appreciation of hedgehogs, and is glad of my intervention.

Friend's son enquires: "Why did the hedgehog cross the road?" Glynis knows the answer: "To meet his flat-mate." Oh gosh, to have such skills!

Genuinely sorry to have rushed you, ZF. The Penguin Strut is something to aim for. Nirvana!

 

[zauberflöte]

ByGosh well PHOOEY! So now you can't swim either? Can you sort out if it's the actual being in the pool actions, or getting in maybe, or walking on the hard pool deck barefoot? Is it three days in a row that does it? maybe a break between sessions?
Actually, the last little in-house walk I took, none of that leg pain. But what i forgot to mention-- the additional swelling at the top inch of the incision, which is above the hip crease-- I think that's from a deep bend I did the other day, which I should not try again soon. It had something to do with the lovely white stockings, as I recall. This goose egg really deserves a picture! It is not sore, or else it's still numb, can't decide LOL. But that's a mercy anyhow!

 

[zauberflöte]

glynis please hang out here all day every day, ok????? I laughed out loud continually for the hedgehog story, but I confess i lost you in the "Why.....road?" joke.....
I'm aiming more for the "liquid hips" approach just now, you know, "he slanted a gaze over his shot glass as the dame's liquid hips rolled her across the bar towards him" sort of thing. We all know what he was imagining, which they would spell out in excruciating detail these days, but which in former times would be rightly left to the imagination, being as our collective imagination is so much better than that of one lousy author!
Hedgehogs are so adorable to my unacquainted eye-- do you who have them in your garden think the same ("so sweet" make me think yes?)