Ruminations now that I am more mobile

I figured I would document some of the stuff I had to put up with before I forgot it. When I had the first cast on - the over the knee job seen in the photo above. I felt so confined in it - well I was so confined in it. I couldn't get any closer than 2 feet to anything unless I sidled up to it by backing and filling. The first two weeks, my right hip flexor was sooo sore from heaving that heavy leg around. Once I was in bed, I would elevate my legs on the cool pillow K found for me and then try and get the sheet I used as a blanket to cover me. It is amazingly hard to get that foot covered when you can't bend your leg!

I would have to gather the sheet up and throw it over my foot - I had to either aim at the dressor or the ceiling fan in order to throw it far enough to get it to cover my foot. I now understand the meaning of "running through the goal." Inevitably if I tried to just throw it to cover my foot, it would land shy of it. Most provoking.

Oh yes, there was the matter of only being able to sleep on my back for 6 weeks when I have been sleeping on my sides for 51 years!

One minor irritation that turned out to be a good thing was the fact that our bathroom doors are not wide enough for a wheelchair. That meant I had to station the walker inside the door and using it, stand up and hop to the toilet and then hop back. This really strengthened my left leg, which needed it, still being only halfway through the healing process after 9 months, according to the orthopedic surgeon. Now that I have the shorter new cast on, and I am doing some weight bearing on it, I station the walker out in the bedroom - just to increase the distance a little.

I still can't really reach my left foot, so K still has to wash it, but I can now pick things up off the floor. With the long cast on, I had to use a pair of kitchen tongs to pick stuff up.

I have started doing leg lifts to get the upper leg muscles strong. I can't do diddly about the calf and ankle and they will be wimpy once I get the cast off, no doubt, but the upper leg ones should have a head start on PT. I do quads, adducters, abductors, and hamstrings. I have to do them lying on the bed as I coudln't get up from the floor if I got down there! I started with 5 reps each and I am now up to 17, so I am pleased about that.

Still taking sponge baths - maybe after Sept. 1 I will get the old boot and can take it off to take a shower again - I look forward to that day. I am off the pain pills mostly - maybe one a week - I find that the fluid accumulation in my leg and foot is what is most painful now, and if I will lie down and elevate it for a couple of hours, the pain subsides. So, I am off all the hard stuff, and glad for it - everybody seemed so worried about it - just must not do a thing for me. No point in taking it if I don't have pain, doesn't make me sleepy, happy , relaxed, nothing.

I did go to stamp club yesterday and it was so good to see everybody and get their hugs and well wishes. I really couldn't stand too long, so I didn't get to really shop, but more next time! It was only the second fun thing I had gotten to do since June 5 - going out to dinner with Keith, Mom and Ashby at Mathews was the first - Mom treated us for our anniversery on June 27 (day late) and we had a marvelous meal, really good. I was so impressed at one detail they did. Keith and I had on black pants, so they substituted black napkins for the white ones so we wouldn't get lint on our pants! I had never seen that done before - good customer serice!