Because Why Not?

See also: http://fourseasonsandtworoadtrips.blogspot.com/2013/05/dr-aunt-liz.html?m=1

On (Not) Wearing Heels

Today (post op day 29) I sent this picture to Mr. S with the caption: I can't wait til I can wear these again.

Not the purple capris but the patent red heels. I'm wearing the purple capris as I type. 

See, the things about hip surgery is that wearing heels has become literally impossible for me, which is really a shame because I'm five ten, and I really need to wear heels to feel like I'm TALL enough. It's possible that most of everything I just said is a total lie, but what isn't a lie is the following. At PT yesterday I found out that my hip flexor is more inflamed than the average attractive 20-something year old female who's had this surgery, which means they put me on a steroid to kick the inflammation and stopped all my PT other than 2 days a week of pool PT, which I am so glad I get to keep because pool therapy turns out to be my current favorite activity. Walking back and forth and side to side while watching people do the butterfly is probably better than anything else ever. I know you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I write my pool workouts in my workout log, which makes me feel ripped and awesome. They're also letting me do some stretching and bridge poses, and other than that, it's laying in bed on ice checking dozens of books (both audio and otherwise) off of my good reads list. 

Needless to say if you feel like praying for my hip flexor, my gams and I and my heels probably wouldn't even mind. I might even give you some good book recommendations in exchange. 

How is this a gender thing?

Stat Biking

I got cleared to start biking up to 30 minutes at a time, they just said I have to ramp it up in 5 minute intervals. So today is 15 minutes. Can we just talk about how good biking is for the soul?

Yes I'm riding a Schwinn AirDyne. I've also had these shorts since a St. George trip with Ashley Adams in approximately 2004 or 2005. Also barefoot. Please don't judge. I am legitimately happy in this moment. 

#RockingBody

Arthroscopic surgery

I took my steri strips off today. I know you're supposed to let them fall off or whatever, but it's been two weeks and I just had to see the damage. And you know what I found? Three quarter-inch, straight, well-approximated healing surgical scars. A year from now, you won't even know they're there.(!) And I thought: you know, arthroscopic is a pretty good way to go. And also, props to the surgeon or PA who closed this. You win at life. 

This is how the cool kids spend their evenings

Happy post-op day 14 to you all. Also, how did I never read White Fang until now? 

I Tried This In Spite of The Post-Surgical State

           I don't want to talk about it. 

What's Happening In Baseball While I'm On Bedrest

David Freese and Josh Hamilton?! Luckily for me, I'm leashed to my ice machine, which I have to be honest, I love more than Josh Hamilton currently. 

Well apparently that draft of a post never actually posted (I wrote it a couple days ago and believe me I tried) but the update is that Mr S has received a series of texts today talking about my obsession with Mr Hamilton and a series of screenshots of Instagrams (what is the world coming to?!) 

Needless to say, we won't be attending, because, I can't believe I'm saying this, I couldn't get a wheelchair in time. Remember how I was climbing and biking two weeks ago? I am never taking the use of my legs for granted again. But seriously I'm sure a post will be upcoming regarding my gratitude for my health and my #RockingBody's amazing ability to heal and something about how blessed I've felt by The Lord through all of this. And since this is a post about Josh Hamilton, one of the best stories of redemption I know, I guess it's fitting to wax somewhat religious. Over and out. 

On What It's Like To Have Surgery

It's officially postop day seven, and I'm sitting here, scratch that, lying here in bed with my hip on ice. I'm off the narcotics now, so I figured now is as good a time as any to write a blog post about this whole experience.

The good news is that my hip pain has mostly resolved following surgery, which makes me feel encouraged about my decision to go through with the surgery.  If you didn't hear, I hurt my left hip Climbing only to find out that I had a congenital malformation that was only fixable with surgery. In spite of the fact that I work with surgeons, I have a bit of a severe aversion to surgery, but it seemed like the best option at the time so here I am. 

I'm just a little bit sore. Which is not me using literary understatement, I'm actually quite surprised by how little pain I've had. After surgery they kept me in the hospital overnight on a Toradol drip, and I'm mildly convinced that Toradol is the best invention of all time. Staci took me to surgery, and literally five minutes after I got back to my room, I was up, had changed back into my regular clothes, I had peed (Am I allowed to say that on my blog? Urinated?) and I felt like going on a walk. I thought, well, this is no big deal. Mr Sean, who bless his heart, received nothing but completely amorous musings and my very reasonable demand that he sit by my bed and hold my hand every waking second was kind enough to keep a supply of Taco Bell coming all week long because what can I say? I'm a classy girl. 

Then there was the middle of the night when I woke up in excruciating pain. It happened every night for 3 nights straight. It may have changed my views on epiduralless childbirths. Needless to say, there was a lot of crying involved. 

Speaking of crying, I seriously cannot remember the last time I went more than 24 hours without bursting into tears. I hardly know what to say to people anymore. I cry if it hurts, I cry when I'm lightheaded, I cry when I look at my face in the mirror and see how pale and pasty I've become. Yesterday I woke up thinking about how great it would be to go for a swim until I remembered that that's not currently possible, and I made it through that little incident without crying, which I take as a major victory honestly.

I told one my professors I had had surgery, and he "graciously" agreed to allow me a two day extension on my homework. I literally burst into tears when Jenn walked into my house at 9 PM the day before my homework was due and made me get my laptop out and define 10 key terms related to gerontology. I don't care to mention how long it took my neurons to put together this one page assignment, I will only say that without Jenn, it wouldn't have been possible. 

 

So now I'm headed to physical therapy where they'll hopefully take me off bedrest and maybe give me some sort of magic pill to dissolve my lightheadedness and allow me to do more than 10 minutes of biking twice a day. Although, I'm pretty sure that if they do that, I will burst into unrelenting tears, not that that's anything we haven't been exposed to daily this week. 

My Daily View

Just a little post op day 6 picture of my mostly bedrest legs. I won't talk about how long it took me to shave my legs today and subsequently how long it took to recover the energy I lost from doing so. I stand by my statement that it was #worthit

For those who are wondering, I had surgery on my left hip. I can't say that I recommend it. I can say that I'm very grateful for everyone who has helped me through the process