Setback #2

 Doggonit!  Rats!  Phooie!  Forgive my swearing, but I've done it again:  pushed myself* to another setback.  I was getting comfortable with recovery from setback #1, pretty much back to where I was pre-March 25.  I was noticing how easily I could move and how many things I could do again.  Yea!  So, how did I respond to this progress?  By pushing to get stronger.  That's the way it works with the human body, right?  Use it or lose it.  No pain, no gain.  Add a little to what you can do today, so that you can do more tomorrow.

On Tuesday I worked through PT assignments with no problem.  I balanced on the wobble pillow for 80 seconds with each leg.  I did sit-to-stands ten at a time. I did a few gentle lifts in the Roman chair.  I did the McGill 3.  I put my pants on while standing.  I worked in the yard.  I sat cross-legged for a while.  All of this was possible Tuesday. 

Wednesday morning movement seemed a little harder, but I pressed through.  I did a little more vigorous dance and more weeding besides the PT.  Steve and I took about a mile walk at suppertime.  I could tell things were not great with the leg as we walked, but I thought maybe it would loosen up.  It did not.  Apparently I had gone too far.  By the time we got back home, I needed to lie down, flat back, for an hour, my right leg achy sore and tight.  Later, going up the stairs had to be done left leg first for each step.  Sigh.

Steve suggested ibuprofen.  Ah.  For once I didn't hesitate.  Hopefully every eight hours for two days would restore normal—my new normal.

Thursday I skipped the PT work and had the sense to downgrade a walking date to a Zoom date.  But, I also spent several hours on my feet in the kitchen cooking for us and for neighbors with a new baby. 

By evening, the ibuprofen didn't seem to be doing much.  Watched a silly Diane Keaton video for distraction, but was aware of pain throughout and couldn't get comfortable.  Bedtime was the worst.  I had trouble getting my sox off and changing bottoms.  Only with slow struggle could I get into bed and settled.  No position was pain free.  I took a second ibuprofen 90 minutes after the previous one (9:30 & 11 p.m.) and moved to the guestroom with my magic-back-sleeper pillow.  Right leg complained seriously about having to bear any weight at all. 

By God's mercy, finally I slept and felt much better Friday.  But I’m on pins and needles.  Which of my activities caused the setback?  How do I balance working hard to recover with not overworking and hurting myself again?  Where is that line?!?  I don't like having to be constantly careful.  Show me where the line is and I won't cross it! 

*Or did it just happen without my pushing?  Who knows?

Setback

 I was getting used to the life change that happened on January 5, 2021, when a second one caught me by surprise March 24, 25, 26.

I had been recovering well from the ice crash, until then when I wasn't.  What caused the horrible, painful setback of those days?  Friday morning I was fine, picking up worms from the wet driveway and dropping them into the garden; by afternoon I could hardly move my recovering leg which hurt all the way down through the calf with no position that didn't make me want to cry.  What was happening?  I had been faithfully doing the exercises assigned by my excellent physical therapists.  Did I overdo?  Could it have been the eleven weeks of favoring my left side?  Compensating.  Worse thought:  had something gone wrong with the spike holding my femur together?

It was a horrible, awful, no-good afternoon of pain—and what-on-earth-is-going-on-in-my-hip?!?!? anxiety.  Finally I got a nurse on the phone who told me to take ibuprofen.  So I took that and then one of the leftover pain meds from the hospital stay.  In an hour or so I got myself back.  It was scary how much it had hurt and how much my movement was still restricted.  Had I lost the gains of those weeks of PT?  What was wrong?  The directive to take it easy all weekend was painful too because I wanted to go out for a walk so much.  :-[

X-ray first thing Monday morning showed the hip was fine.  Praise God!  Huge relief.  But then what's the cause of this setback?  My osteo surgeon's nurse practitioner said it was likely coming from lower back.  She told me to take an ibuprofen three times a day for two weeks and then to see the osteo doc again.  

So, that's where I am now.  Taking 200 mg of ibuprofen (a year expired) about every eight hours and actually feeling pretty good.  (I had never realized that ibuprofen had an actual benefit besides inhibiting pain.  Good to know.)  I have started doing some of the physical therapy exercises again, ever so gently, with no negative results.  And I’m out walking again, maybe up to about half the distance I was before.  Great relief!