1 Month!

It has now been one month since my surgery. I am more able to walk for stretches around the house without crutches, improving daily. I’m supposed to keep the crutches for another two weeks, weaning myself off of them on the sixth week. I can get into and out of bed myself now, but I still ask for help if people are around to assist me, since my left hip is still pained in that activity. Overall, the pain is quite manageable, and is really only bad when I’m trying to sleep at night and during physical therapy. My scars are healing nicely. The two on my left side have actually lost their scabs and just look like new skin. The two on my right still need bandaids since the wounds are deeper, but the scabs are drying out and getting smaller.

My JC class has been a little more manageable now, as it doesn’t hurt me as much to sit as before. My assistant and I have figured out a pretty good system to enable me to do as much as I can. My professor is super accommodating, which makes everything possible.

I am moving forward slowly in PT. As Dr. Sampson predicted, my left hip is moving at a slower pace than my right, but Greg says not to worry about that, and to wait until week six to see how it’s doing then. I have done two new exercises that are especially difficult. One is lifting my leg up with the help of a band that is connected to a weight. So I stand on one leg while I lift my other one up and then pull it back down with this weighted pulley set-up. This exercise hurts, but I feel it making me stronger. For the other, I stand in a quarter squat position with my pelvis tucked under me. Then I reach up and pull two handles down and let them back up. The handles are attached to weights, so there’s some resistance when I pull. This one really burns, but in a good way, and it makes me break a sweat! Imagine that—I have reached the sweating stage.

I saw Lisa yesterday in Portola Valley for the first time since my surgery. She did some deep tissue work on me for a while, and had me move my own hips and legs around. It was painful, but she thinks I look good. That is so relieving to hear, and I can continue moving forward knowing that Lisa Green said I am doing well. I’ve decided to just stick to seeing Greg (and sometimes Brandon) in San Francisco instead of coming further down to Portola Valley to see Lisa. It’s more convenient for everyone, and I’m happy in San Francisco. I will always be grateful to Lisa for being my guide, the first person to diagnose me for what I really had and point me in the right direction to surgery.