Not my typical postivity

(I feel like I'm going crazy...)
I'm so tired of my walker. I know it's all worth it in the end, but i'm tired of it. I'm tired of my arms hurting, and the shoulder/back/neck strain. I know that my doctor wants what is best for me. He's probably one of the best in the country. Last year he was President of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the years prior to that he was 1st President-Elect (which is next in line). He's the chairman of the ortho department at the University of Maryland Medical Center, as well as the head of the University of Maryland Medical School as well as a professor there. He gives lectures all around the country, even in China, South Africa, Australia, and other countries. He's also published who knows how many articles. He is a very cautious doctor, and I do respect that.

A new hippie friend of mine used a phrase I can completely relate to and that is I am "discouraged in a competitive way". Almost everyone I know that had surgery just days before me and even after me are using, canes or nothing at all. I'm extra pms emotional right now and want to cry every time I get up and have to grab the stupid walker, but it's whatever...gotta follow doctors orders I suppose. I have to keep doing this for another 2 weeks - maybe even 4 if I have to wait until I see him which sucks even more. :::sigh:::

Vroom! Vroom!

Yesterday was one of my twice weekly outings for physical therapy. She upped my sets, bringing me up to 4 sets of 10 for each of my exercises. I'll tell you one thing...it's TOUGH on the non-surgical leg. The muscles in the thigh and butt of that leg burn like they're on fire while I do my standing exercies for the new leg. I skipped electrotherapy though, cause we had Isaiah with us and had to go to the grocery store.

So off to the store we went. Mom keeps telling me that I need to use the electric cart, and I kept insisting that I would just walk. Yea...that didn't last. I caved in and ended up using it, and while I felt like an uber dweeb at first, by the end of the shopping trip I was having fun. Isaiah got to ride with me a bit and I got to chase him a couple times with it. :-X HAHA!

I feel like a puffer fish

Yesterday was a pretty great day. I got in more physical activity than I have since I had my hip surgery. I went out and did about 20 minutes of walking down the driveway and down the road a bit then back. Each trip took me around 4 minutes, and I think I took 5 trips. I took about a one minute break in between each trip - so was on my feet about 30 minutes total there. Then I decided to take the opportunity of being out there to spend some quality time with the kiddo. We played catch with the velcro mits and ball, then we lost the ball in the ivy - yikes! So we progressed to playing catch and practicing with the football. It was great to see such smiles on my little man's face as he had a great time with his mommy. I just can't wait until after my next surgery and I'm given the ok to be free. I'm going to just LOVE going out and doing things with him without having to say, "Maybe tomorrow honey, mommy hurts today." It's going to be simply amazing!

So back to yesterday! I spent about an hour on my feet. It was the first time I've truly been able to compare the pain in my bad hip, and the changes the new hip has made. All I have to say is, YAY! I had no joint pain at all in the new hip! The bad hip was a pain, literally. I could hardly put any pressure on it and walking on it was horrible. The only pains on the new hip side, wasn't even pain, just a dull muscular ache from working muscles that had been cut up during surgery. So, am I pleased with finally getting the surgery? You bet I am!! God makes things happen when they're supposed to happen...and I believe this was the perfect time for me. It gave me the first 5 years of my sons life to stay home with him. To be there for him and to raise him the best way I could. I'm so lucky to have amazing parents who've helped us out financially during this time, so that I could be there to take care of him in every other way. Now, he's going to be in Kindergarten full time from 9am until 4pm every day. And guess what that gives me??? The time needed to get a full time job, and start supporting us! Could I have worked like that prior to these surgeries? Not at all. Will I be able to now with shiny new hip? You bet I will! I won't lose any quality time with him, and will be able to get us the money we need, and also work on getting myself back in school. It's a super great feeling. :)

So, you might be thinking...why does she feel like a puffer fish? Well, yesterdays activity has cause me to swell up around my incision. Mostly the area between the incision and the tube drain holes. It's rather annoying and ice seems to make it puffier...blah. Hopefully it'll get better tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow I have physical therapy - lol! I'm definitely going to ask them what they suggest other than ice for these moments. Maybe heat will work better? Or maybe I need to see my surgeon and have it drained? It seems more like fluid, and I wonder will it disappear on it's own, or would i need to have it drained? I guess I'll know more tomorrow!!

Til next time my loves...

Every day gets better and better...

I'm coming up on the one month anniversary of my brand new bionic hip! I feel great, though still not doing tons cause of my restrictions. I've begun my physical therapy. Right now it's not too tough. They have me doing the same exercises that I do at home, except that they push me to do a few more sets than I do here. That ends up being rather tiring, more so on my non-surgical leg. I have 3 exercises that are standing and since I'm only allowed 50% weight bearing on my surgical leg, I'm only allowed to do those exercises on that leg, therefore standing on my non-surgical leg for over 15 minutes straight. Talk about feeling the burn! Ha! That leg gets so incredibly tired and sore while doing the exercises. One good thing is that that leg is getting it's own kind of workout and being strengthened as well, so that hopefully it'll be in good shape for the next surgery...which brings me to more good news!

I have a date for the other replacement!!! September 20th I will officially be a double replacement hippie! Haha! I'm very excited and plan on getting the current surgical leg as strong as possible before then so it will be able to hold me up well while I have to lessen the weight bearing on the other leg. Life is good!

In other news, Isaiah starts Kindergarten on August 24th! I can't believe it's already that time. He will be leaving the house around 8:30am each morning and will not be home until after 4pm. This kind of saddens me. Ok, this *really* saddens me. I'm hardly going to be seeing my baby at all soon, but for a few short hours each day. Once he gets home, then it'll be a mad dash of homework, dinner, showers, and bedtime. Oh wait, and football. Yep, he's going to be playing flag football again! So exciting! There is an upside to it though, and that is once I'm fully recovered from surgery and given the go ahead by my surgeon...I can get to working. I don't care if I have to get into fast food, i will do something full time. I will have all day to work while he is in school, and then I can start working on getting out of debt, getting school student loans out of default, and begin getting back to college and taking classes in SOMETHING. Still working on that...there are many different areas that I'm so interested in....graphic design, nutrition & fitness, make-up, and now going through what i'm going through I'm beginning to find a deep interest in nursing, specializing in orthopedic surgery...somehow working with docs assisting in surgery. Hmmm...think, think, think!

I also had a play day last night. Not sure if I've discussed that I have a page on facebook where I do mini make-up tutorials for my friends who love my make-up. I did my first one in a long time last night and that was nice! Made me feel pretty - haha! I based it off of the Connecticut state flower, which is the Mountain Laurel. I'm in the process of doing a look for all 50 state flowers. A few photos below showing what I came up with!

The Sad Hip's Journey in Pictures

Love my non-slip socks? Oh yea!

So excited!!! I've waited 18 years for this!

This is a drawing done by my sweet baby boy when he visited me at the hospital. They showed up and he broke out his dry erase board and then handed this pic to me...it's me with my IV stand and tubes. I love him so much!

Nervous to come near mommy.

There we go <3

Sad that it was time to leave :(

The Devil! LOL

Drain away!

The view outside my window - some think it was my guardian angel :)

time for some exercises!



Time to go home!!!

Gotta keep those blood clots away!

Yes - i sleep with a blankey since coming home! LOL

He gets to sleep in Granma's bed for now.

Epidural damage :/

IV damage

One week post op!!

2 weeks post op - drain tube holes looking like a vampire bite LOL


2.5 weeks post op


3 weeks post op - just hours after getting my staples removed!

The Story of a Sad Hip's Journey

On Monday, June 27^th, my father had his 50^th birthday. On Monday, June 27^th, I began preparations for my first hip replacement surgery that was to be the following day. Talk about an exciting week for all!


That day I began packing and getting ready for the great journey ahead. All day, packing, making sure I had everything I needed, as well as Isaiah. All day waiting for that important phone call letting me know what time I needed to be at the hospital. Mom went shopping, I stayed home with Isaiah. Finally around 4pm I got the call, “Please be at the hospital by 8am!” Yay! I was thrilled! So we waited for Mom to get back from last minute shopping, packed up the car, and we were on our way.


It was a pretty good drive up to Baltimore. Traffic was decent, kiddo didn’t complain, all in all very nice. We all stayed up way to late, but had a good time. Before bed I had to do my first scrub down with the special sponge full of anit-germy soap. I kinda liked that stuff! Haha! I got about 4 hours of sleep between staying up late, then nerves, etc. I then woke up around 5:30am to take my second anti-germy shower, waited for everyone to get ready and then off we went to the University of Maryland Medical Center!


So we find some parking, get inside and checked in as visitors, then head on up to the 2^nd floor where Same Day Surgery is. Once up there though, I find out that Isaiah isn’t even allowed in that waiting area, that he has to go up to the 3^rd floor one if he’s planning on staying. Made me sad, but gotta follow the rules. So we waited for the nurse to call me back, and I gave the little guy a new toy from the new Tron movie, and lots of hugs and kisses before sending him off. My brother took him back to his place for the day while mom stayed with me. Once I got back, changed into my gown and all situated, Mom was able to come back and hang out with me for a bit. We were chatting and having a good morning when the anesthesiologist came back and had a little chit chat with us. I *loved* her. We talked about all kinds of stuff both related to my upcoming epidural and not. She was super nice. Now, one of the things we had to discuss was my prior epidural that I had when I was pregnant and giving birth to Isaiah. At the time, it took the guy then about 45 minutes to get the epidural in, not to mention he had to stick and restick me about 4 or 5 times. We just chalked it up to me having a giant preggo baby belly and not being able to arch my back right. Not to mention I have scoliosis, but I didn’t think that played much of a part in it at the time. So fast forward to me heading over to the epidural room and it was time for Mom to leave. We said our goodbyes, hugs & kisses and she was off. I, on the other hand, had to get ready for multiple needles in my back. I had a feeling things weren’t going to go right when the assistant was the one who came in to actually administer the epidural. I’m sure he was a student, and I know that they all have to learn sometime. This is about how it went. Poke #1 – numbing agent. Poke #2 – try and get into spinal cavity…BUZZ…wrong move, electric jolt down the right leg. Try again…BUZZ…wrong again. Try one more time…BUZZ…wrong yet again. Let’s try this yet ANOTHER time….ZING!!!! Searing pain straight up over my head turning into a sudden headache into my eyebrows. It was actually VERY scary, as I couldn’t lift my head up, cause if I did it was the most intense pain ever. So, he stopped (thank the Lord), and the original, more experienced lady comes back. They had given me pain killers in my IV plus other loopy meds that were beginning to kick in. She was a godsend because it only took her ONE TIME and she got it in just fine. At that point I was calmed down and feeling pretty nice from the stuff they shot me up with, plus the epidural was kicking in and numbing me up.


Time to go! Next thing I know, it’s time to head to the operating room and get the show on the road. All I remember is lots of people, bright lights, and lots of noise. They kept asking me if I my legs are getting heavier…and then there was nothing.


A few hours later I get woken up during the middle of surgery to see the bone they had cut out of me. It definitely was NOT what a bone should look like! It more looked like a chunk of coral from the depths of the sea. Then, fade to black. A few MORE hours, I’m back up. Mom is there trying to get words out of me, but all she is getting is a bunch of babble. I don’t remember much during this time, just in and out of it, a little pain, and waiting for a room. At this point, mom went ahead and went back to Chris’ house for the night, and shortly after I got to head up to my room. I have to say that my stay at the hospital was great. The first day I got to just rest. Day 2 – got up and walked a bit. They had to keep an eye on my hemoglobin levels because it was a bit low. Day 3 – I ended up getting a unit of blood cause those levels wouldn’t come up. Didn’t do any therapy that day due to being very weak from the low blood levels. Day 4 started off pretty darn rough. They waltz in at like 6am and give me 2 Percosets to pop…so I do. They’re doing this to prepare me for my epidural removal later that day. Well, next thing I know I’m knocked out and they’re coming back to check on me about an hour or so later. I felt horrible, I was insanely loopy and extremely sick to my stomach. They gave me some anti-sick belly meds, I felt better, and a few hours later started me on Tylenol 3’s and those were MUCH better. They made me sleepy, but that was tons better than what the other meds did to me. So the day goes on, they take out my epidural, take out my drain tubes, take out my IV, and I’m FREE of tubes and wires! It was really nice! I did a little therapy that day, worked on the stairs, then rested up. Day 5 – they came and took my full leg bandage off, put a simple dressing on and sent me on my way back home!!


It’s been a great experience. I’m now 3 weeks post op. I had my first check-up today and all is going well. I got my staples out today, so that means no more tape all over me keeping bandages on! I’m down to one Tylenol-3 about 3x a day, and getting around really well. I’m to continue using the walker for the next 3 weeks, no driving for the next 3 weeks, and I start physical therapy tomorrow. As for my next surgery, it looks like we’re going to be getting it done around mid to late August or early September!! I cannot wait…so super excited!!! This is the time of my life I’ve been waiting for!

It's been a week!

So, yesterday (July 5th) marked my one week post-op anniversary...haha! I'm feeling great! Just a short stop in to say it's been so amazing! I'm currently in the process of writing up a detailed story of how it all went, so keep an eye out. It may be a few days but it'll be here soon along with some fun photos!