Outside is Nice

For the first time in a week I breathed outside air and rolled my walker over concrete. By the way, the hilly sidewalks of Park Slope showed me the walker could use stronger brakes.

Actually had a number of learning experiences today. I learned how to make a bed with fresh sheets while on it. I learned the most comfortable position when using the walker as a leg elevator (straight along the leg with your heel in the basket). And I learned rubber tipped crutches and wet tile floors don't mix well.

I had forgotten how difficult the lip of my walk-in shower is to deal with when you are hopping on one leg. Besides being fairly wide the bathroom and shower floors are at different depths. I had to stand and work it out - with a couple false starts - before even making it in to the shower. And when I tried to emerge after my shower my crutch slipped and, while I was able to catch myself, I stubbed my toe. Fortunately I had brought the walker into the bathroom and was able to maneuver it to a position where I could rest my knee and use it as a base to hop the lip. I actually scared myself when slipped and was more then happy to lie in bed for a while to recover.

You really need problem-solving skills to have surgery, especially if you live alone.

It was nice to get out of the house and see people. Most found my walker fascinating and loved the basket. Though the general consensus was that I need a bell.

I did email my knee surgeon as I noticed that the spot where the screw was removed is red and irritated and looks like it is ready to peel and bleed - not an acceptable activity when you are on a blood thinner. We'll see what they say. I also spoke to the Marco, who says that Dr. H feels I should speak to my Hemotologist about the side-effects I'm having on the Lovenox and get his opinion. Not sure why I'm the one talking to my Hemotologist and then reporting back to Marco to tell Dr. Hubbard. But hey, I'm just the patient.

Anyway, it's been a long day and it's time for me to take my shot late and go to bed.

At What Point do You Worry?

Certain things trigger medical paranoia in people. Mine seems somewhat odd until you understand the context. I get worried if I have bouts of bloating and gas. Seems minor until you know they were originally the only symptoms of my mother's stage 3C Ovarian Cancer. Since that particular cancer runs in my family, I get concerned.

I've had the symptoms for the last three or four days and decided it was time to see if I needed to call the doctor or if they were simply side-effects of the Lovenox. While I didn't see it listed on the medication website I did find multiple sites with patients on the drug, especially women, complaining. What a did find on the site was a simple sentence that had me e-mailing Marco about something I hadn't even thought to concern myself over.

The sentence reads "It is important to contact your doctor immediately if you experience symptoms such as tingling, numbness (especially in lower limbs), and muscular weakness." I've had all of those and just attributed them to post-surgery. I've had one or two moments when my legs have felt like they were going to sleep and thought I was sitting badly and pinching a nerve in my back. Wouldn't have even thought to call anyone about it.

Marco's response was that my numbness and tingling may be related to swelling, and to call the office tomorrow. I'd buy that, except it feels like I've had almost no swelling. Within the first 72 hours the cast around my foot and ankle felt loose enough to shift around in and the spot where the top screw was removed from my knee has been getting irritated by the knee pad on the walker (especially today, but we'll go into that shortly). I've added a call to Dr. Hubbard's office to my To Do list tomorrow.

I was on the knee walker more today then I have been since my surgery. I baked. Almost home-made red velevet cupcakes - I decided I was not up to making them from scratch - and pink vanilla cupcakes. Not going to cook a four-course dinner until I can stand on my own two feet, but I can make treats for my Council meeting tomorrow. It was also surprisingly tiring. It seems sad that it is not yet 8:00 pm and I'm ready to hop (crawling's not an option at the moment) into bed.

My MacGyver Moment

Had a bit of unexpected excitement this morning that taught me a couple of valuable lessons. I had just sat down on the couch with my breakfast when my knee walker rolled across the room. (One of the joys of living in an old loft building are the slanted floors!) I sat there trying to figure out what to do. My cell phone was in the walker basket, so calling for help was out of the question. With no visitors scheduled for today, I couldn't just wait for help to arrive. I thought about sliding on to the floor and scooting across the floor on my tush, but couldn't figure how to get back up without the use of my left leg. I decided to wait until my next door neighbors took their dog for a walk and yell for help. Only problem, they didn't hear me (and I hurt my throat and made my voice very hoarse).

Finally, my bladder had me deciding I had to rescue myself. I was able to scoot myself down the couch until I could reach a footrest with my right leg. I hooked the footrest and pulled it close and piled it high with pillows. Fortunately it goes with my Eames chair and was wide enough for me to rest my left knee and hands as I bent over and shuffled across the floor to the recalcitrant walker.

Lessons learned, make sure the walker hand brake is locked when I'm on the couch and if I really hurt myself no one is going to hear me. Not a pleasant thought, though it does justify my taking my cell phone with me every time I went into the bathroom for the first three days (might even start doing that again).

After lunch I did some more household chores and stared at the bed trying to work out how to change my sheets tomorrow. I did figure out how to unload the dryer, fold and put away the clean clothes.

Tomorrow celebrates my one week anniversary (what is the official gift for one week post-op?) and the beginning of my life intruding on my recovery. I have to try to bake red velvet cupcakes tomorrow, though the true excitement comes on Tuesday when not only will I leave the building for the first time in a week, I will also attempt to take a shower (which sounds both cleaner and scarier then the sponge bathes I have been giving). Definitely have to have someone on call for that.

Wish me luck!

Pushing

Every now and then I seem to need to push boundaries - be it in relationships or other parts of my life. Today was one of those days. This morning I started to respond to an e-mail and realized I didn't have all the information I needed. My options were to call and text people on a Saturday morning or see if the information needed had arrived in my mail as promised. I decided to go the independent route (huge surprise I know) and loaded my crutches over the handle bars of my knee walker and bravely set forth from my apartment.

I had to stop and stare at the stairs for a bit, working out in my head exactly how to get down - and half hoping a neighbor would come out I could hand my mailbox key. I was able to hop down the stairs with the aid of a crutch and the railing and then at the bottom (admittedly only 4 steps) reach back and gently maneuver the walker down as well. Took the crutches with me as I managed to turn myself around in a small elevator (did I mention the walker has a huge turn ratio) and then get back on the crutch to hop up the first step in the lobby, before discovering that the windowsill opposite the mailboxes was the perfect height to sit rather then hopping the remaining step. Valiantly made it to my mailbox and dumped my mail in the bag I had remembered to bring with me before repeating the journey in reverse back to my apartment.

I have to admit, by the time I got home I was more then happy to collapse on the couch for a bit and hadn't even tried to venture outside. But now I know that, while tiring, I can manage to leave the apartment. Though I know I will be yelled at for doing it without supervision. I had made certain my cell phone was accessible in case I needed to call a neighbor or ambulance.

I did decide that besides a bicycle bell the knee walker could use some sort of storage or base for crutches for when have no choice but to climb stairs or for getting in and out of cars.

My throat has been worse today. I don't know if it was because my liquid for the day was a tart lemonade, but the raw painful spot never seemed to get coated with phlegm the way it was earlier in the week. It made talking very uncomfortable, which kept me off the phone most of the day. Marco swore it would clear up on its own, so far not so much. Other then the ER, which is stupid for this, I can't figure out how to see a doctor. I'll have to call my Primary on Monday, maybe his office has a secret entrance that doesn't involve steps. I know he has another office, but going out to Gravesend / Sheepshead Bay.

On the information I didn't need to know, but now need to share - I read the small print on the generic Lovenox syringe container. "Each syringe contains 30 mg enoxaparin sodium injection derived from porcine intestinal mucosa in Water for injection." I guess if people are willing to get botulism injections in the hope of looking younger I should not complain that pig gut snot is keeping me from getting a blood clot.

Pushing It

Haven't taken any pain meds since last night. Some pain, but I prefer a clear head and haven't been debilitated. Just would really like a clear throat! Woke up around 3am with that giving me more pain then the foot.

I still haven't made it farther then the steps in my hall, but have discovered more independence around the house. This morning I swept the floor. Can't say it was perfect, but did get some of the cat hair and other bits off the floor. Fortunately I have a long-handled dustpan, so I could get the small pile off the floor. Makes me feel a lot better about hosting my Condo Board meeting next week. My apartment won't be perfect, but it will be relatively clean. 

Still bored, but wound up with a semi-unplanned Bradley Cooper festival. A friend lent me the re-make of "The A-Team" as an easy movie. It is that. Then watched the movie from my movie group this month, "All About Steve", not my favorite Sandra Bullock movie, but it definitely had an interesting ending. Then decided if I had started a Cooper marathon, I should keep it going and watched a couple episodes of "Kitchen Confidential".

I am going to go nuts if I don't get out of this apartment, this mornings roll to the hall stairs did not do it, so my goal for tomorrow is to just get to the lobby. Don't even have to leave the building, just need to see some new walls!

Questions Never Asked

Two questions it didn't occur to me to ask at the time have been bouncing through my head.

How big a scar am I going to have? This will join the three major surgery scars (or as in my knee duplicate surgery scar) on my body not to mention the numerous almost invisible ones - where I cracked my chin on the playground or where I got my finger caught in an old-fashioned folding elevator door to name two I can remember the cause of. Will this scar reach the blue heart tattoo I got on my ankle two weeks before my Dad died? Will it make slingbacks uncomfortable?

The second question is how much nerve damage will I have? Having been through leg surgery, I don't believe for a minute that some of the nerves on my foot and toes didn't lose their connection to my brain. I can already feel, or not feel as the case may be, spots between the little piggy that went to market and the little piggy that had none. I don't know what else I will or won't feel when I am out of this cast and can begin to move my foot.

I was very proud of myself this morning. I managed to do a load of laundry and scoop kitty litter. I then realized I can't get the dirty litter bag from my apartment to the trash shoot and am still trying to figure the logistics to get the laundry out of the dryer and put away, which takes away some of my pride in the moment.

I want to thank all my friends who have called, e-mailed or texted to see how I'm doing and if I need anything.  Thanks to them I now have a safe container for my used needles, though the sharps will now smell like Basil laundry detergent. I have Extra Strength Tylenol to replace the Percocet I mentioned I seem to be allergic to, and have been kept in good meals - today's lunch arrived via a local Chinese restaurant from a friend in California. (Have to remember that trick for far flung friends in the future.)

It's the boredom that is getting to me. I don't have the concentration required for the minutia of the grant proposals I hope to finish while I'm laid up, and I need more narcotics than I have available to manage to sit through one more Republican Presidential debate. Friends shocked to learn I had never seen any of "The Godfather" movies lent me the trio on DVD, I gave up about 20 minutes into the first one.

At least after my knee I had the CPM machine twice a day, which gave me some semblance of a schedule. Now it's get up when the cat's yowling starts to drive me mad, move to the couch so he can climb on my lap, try to watch tv, or play Sudoku, realize it's only 10:30am, try to watch something, check the internet, or read from the large pile of books and magazines, lunch, more of the morning activities, doze, listen to the cat cry for 90 minutes before his actual dinner time, feed the cats, write up my day while I eat dinner, answer any email's I hadn't gotten to, get my evening shot, do my nightly ablutions, go to bed, try to read, sleep and do it all again tomorrow.

And I know I need to be quiet this week so I can push it to attend a meeting Tuesday night, still trying to decide if I'll be able to bake for it and then host a meeting Thursday night. And then a week from Tuesday it's back to Dr. H to hopefully change to a walking cast. Any particle physicists with the ability to speed up time please contact me at this blog. Your gift to mankind will be greatly appreciated by this woman. 

Feeling the Love and Itching

Whatever higher power you believe in, I figure I'm blipping on the radar somewhere. A Brooklyn Priest, my Uncles in Texas and a Cousin/Priest in Louisiana have all been lighting candles and saying prayers for my recovery. Add to that a Muslim in India, a Jew on the Upper West Side and a Buddhist currently in Paris and I'm feeling fairly well covered.

The pain reached a crescendo last night and I found myself taking two Percocet instead of the one pill I had been dosing with. An hour later I found myself very itchy. I didn't see any signs of a rash this morning, but did leave a message for Dr. Hubbard and told the Recovery room nurse when she called to follow-up with me this morning. All I need, another pain med I'm allergic to.

Just getting up, washing what parts of me I could and getting dressed exhausted me this morning. I had to push myself to get some breakfast and then eat. My upper arms are sore from having to lever myself up without using my left leg. I am reminded again that it would make sense to have pre-surgery Physical Therapy / Occupational Therapy to work on all the muscles and activities you will have to do after surgery. But then again the term "health-care reform" seems to be an evil phrase in the US these days.

I continue to be utterly bored with my confinement, especially as I still don't have the attention or focus required to read any of the books and magazines piled around the couch and bed. (I have enough problems hoping these posts make sense.) I've grown tired of tv and Sudoku, but my throat is still rough enough to make me sound like I have a cold and long conversations difficult.

It occurred to me this morning that if my throat doesn't start to show signs of improving soon, I can't even go see my Primary, both because just getting out of the house is difficult and because his local office is no where near ADA compliant with a good dozen steps and no elevator. If I still feel like this in a day or two I will call my neighbor the nurse for her opinion.

In the meantime I have a scintillating schedule of watching workers on the top of the new Nets Arena and catching up on my Hulu queue.