Home again Home again Jiggity Jog

Ok so no jiggity jog, but we are home again... at my parents' place, anyway. I'm soooo happy to be here! We had a long day taking the flight from Baltimore to Atlanta today. I wasn't really excited about checking out of the hotel super-early since I didn't fancy hanging out in the airport more than I had to, but it turned out that the hotel was having a FIRE DRILL. At 10 AM. I didn't want to have to go down the stairs, and this was a BIG fire drill, with fire trucks and everything, so we decided it was a good idea to get out of there before 10. But, our flight wasn't until 1:20 pm, so we got there with time to spare.

Getting in and out of the car is still way harder than I had any idea it would be, but I managed to do it and I'm here in my dad's recliner where I hope to stay for a while!

Hannah asked if I were going to have a scar to show off... yes! I'll have a big souvenir! Right now it looks terrible, about 8 inches I guess running down the side of my thigh with staples-looks like train tracks. I'm told that the scar fades a lot. My vain side doesn't want to have any ugly scars, but my story-telling side is kind of excited about fact that I'll have a souvenir to show off and a(nother) story to tell. Not to mention, I'll just be glad to get the dang staples out!

Thanks y'all for keeping up and checking on me.

2 days down

I think I mentioned how tired I was yesterday... I dozed off and on all day. I could hardly keep my eyes open even when the physical therapists were here talking to me, and needless to say I couldn't read or watch TV (which makes me sleepy anyway).

Today I was much less tired, no naps at all so far and it's 6:30! This morning was really busy with visits from the nurse, a resident who changed my wound dressing (I got to see my incision for the first time which made me cry), Dr. Mont who did the surgery, and the physical therapist. I decided to try my crutches with the physical therapist rather than the walker and I actually felt like I could get around much better with them than with the walker. What a relief! I was too dizzy and light-headed to walk down the hall to the PT area so I got rolled down in a chair, where I practiced going up and down stairs. Because of the dizziness they gave me another IV with fluids which seemed to help right away, and I went walking in the hall later with the nurse. Also my great friend Kirsty came down from New York with her 2-year-old daughter and they were great entertainment! We had lots of fun.

Of course I am still very sore and I keep thinking "is it supposed to hurt this much?" But truthfully it really mostly hurts when I'm up and about, and when I'm sitting and lying down the pain has already subsided a great deal. I'm excited about how much progress I've made today. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be discharged from the hospital and then fly back to Atlanta on Monday! Last night I couldn't have imagined doing this but tonight I feel much more confident about it.

My new bionic hip

I had surgery yesterday afternoon and came out about 4:30 PM. So far, so good! There was a chance that my bones could be too soft or too degraded for the resurfacing that I wanted, in which case I'd have to have a total hip replacement. But, everything was fine and I got the resurfacing! I'm feeling okay really, of course I'm sore and soooo tired but the pain is manageable. Earlier today the physical therapists came--my task for the morning was getting out of bed and getting in a chair! It was actually harder than I thought, and letting the PT move my leg was a real test of faith.

The staff at the hospital are extremely caring and nice, there's free wireless internet and I'm sitting next a big window where I can see the sky.

Have to make this one short because I'm just so sleepy, but just wanted to let you all know that everything seems to be going fine.

4 AM, Baltimore

We arrived in Baltimore yesterday for the surgery. The flight was uneventful. I had to go to the hospital for one blood test which was no big deal. I was advised not to eat or drink anything after midnight, and the surgery's not until 1:45 PM, so to "tide myself over" I stuffed my face at dinner last night! Yummy crab cakes and mashed potatoes and bread and pie and wine... needless to say, a full belly, nerves and pain are keeping me from sleeping! I think I'm almost as nervous as not being able to have coffee, water, breakfast or lunch as I am about the actual surgery. I can't stand skipping meals, and as soon as I think about the fact that I'm not supposed to drink water I feel absolutely parched.

We are going to a class at the hospital at 8, where we'll learn more about recovery and rehab. Mom and Dad are going with me. Then I check in for surgery at 10:30.

Although I think the next couple of weeks will be hard, I'm really excited right now about getting my active life back. I'm also very excited that my good friend Kirsty is coming down from New York to see me in Baltimore! I haven't been able to visit her recently because of a generally busy life and then health problems, so I'm really looking forward to it. She'll bring her 2-year-old, and I can't wait to see them both.

My niece Lauren says she's going to help me feel better when I get back home with "a really big Pirate Band-Aid with a little bit of love on it too."

Next update I'll hopefully have my new bionic hip!

Four more days

My big hip resurfacing surgery is on Thursday! I can't believe it's less than a week now. As it's gotten closer, I've been "faking it" more and more, and trying to enjoy my freedom as much as possible before going under the knife. I haven't been using a crutch or cane all that much since I know I'll have to after the surgery. My leg hurts more, but I guess it's bearable because I know that it's going to be fixed soon. It is pretty painful though, I'm having a little trouble sleeping and it even hurts sometimes in my dreams.

I'm really looking forward to getting better--but really scared about the surgery and recovery. I'm just planning on giving myself the rest of the calendar year to lay low and get better. I'll work as much as I am able and have a couple of holiday parties already planned, but I'm otherwise planning to just focus on getting well.

I'm planning to stay with my parents for a while. I'll have to see how it goes but I'm expecting this recovery to be much harder than the last one.

It really makes a big difference to know that all of you are thinking of me. Sometimes I feel really tired, discouraged or I hurt and then I remember how many people are rooting for me, each in his or her own way, and I feel better and stronger. So--Thank you!

Getting Closer

I'm still on for the resurfacing in Baltimore on November 15. Everything seems to be falling into place: I've got the plane tickets and the hotel, the insurance has been approved, lined up a house sitter, and I'm getting things wrapped up at work. I'm really ready--lately I've been missing out on a lot of fun things because I just didn't feel like getting out. So, I'm looking forward to just being able to do what I want to do and not worry about how much standing or walking there will be, etc.

This surgery will be harder than the last one--I'll have several weeks of in-home rehab. they have to take the hip apart and put it back together, so I'll have to relearn to use the muscles and everything. And, there is a risk of complications during or after the surgery. One of the more common complications is that the femur neck can break. If it happens during the surgery while they are hammering on the metal cap that goes over the femur head, they just convert to a total hip replacement. But if it happens after the surgery, they have to go back in and convert it after the fact which doesn't sound fun at all. I think I'll be extra-conservative after the surgery for a few weeks to try and avoid this!

Au revoir Monaco

Monday I got back from my trip to Paris and Monaco. I'm still jet-lagged; it's 4:50 AM and I can't sleep!

I was really nervous about getting around over there. One of my favorite things about Paris (and other places that were built before cars were invented) is that it's made for walking. This time, though, that seemed a little intimidating. I wasn't sure how I was going to get around. When I got to Paris, my apartment wasn't ready so I had to go entertain myself for a few hours. I had a good time walking around and took a lot of pictures, but I was tired from the plane ride and my hip was pretty painful. I tried to figure out the Velib, free or low-cost bikes that are everywhere in Paris, but it turns out that you need to have a credit card with a "puce", or chip, on it. American cards don't have this. Besides, although there are Velib stations every 300 meters in Paris, the closest station to my apartment was still a few blocks that I didn't necessarily want to have to walk every time I wanted a bike. I found a place that rented bikes for longer-term, and got one for 4 days @ 25 euros.

Riding was so much fun! The mayor of Paris is very supportive of cycling and alternate forms of transportation, and in addition to starting Velib he has added many bike lanes. Smaller streets were great for riding on as-is, medium-sized streets generally had small bike lanes to the side, and large boulevards had a lane dedicated to bikes, buses and taxis. I thought it worked great! I didn't quite get the hang of turning left from a bike lane that's on the right side of the street, and lots of the routes I typically walk were hard to replicate on a bike because of one-way streets, but the fun of riding around more than made up for those minor drawbacks. Plus, riding bikes doesn't put weight on my hip joint, so it just doesn't hurt like walking does.

I took the train to Monaco for a work conference, the real purpose of my trip. I booked the closest hotel to the conference center to try and minimize my walking. This also happened to be one of the most expensive hotels, so I shared a room with my boss. I thought about renting a bike but it was quite expensive, and the conference center was only about a 5 minute walk. Besides, although the ride to the conference center was along the beach and very flat, a ride to anywhere else would have been hard--there are so many hills! I did take the bus some but I also just walked a lot, and it hurt.

The conference was a lot of fun, and my presentation went well. Monaco is beautiful but very expensive, and very touristy (rich tourists). I'm glad to be home!

Resurfacing surgery for the left hip is still on for November 15. I got the plane tickets yesterday.