first PT session

I am pretty sore from last nights session, and my neck on the right is in pain. It's amazing that even though we didn't do too much, it really made muscles that forgot they were there react. Iced for ten minutes after as well. I've been given four exercises to do every day:

1)on back w/ towel roll at base of skull, tuck chin and hold for 3 seconds. 10 reps/2x day
2)sit w/ good posture, keep face forward, tip ear toward shoulder and hold for 20 seconds. 2 reps/2-3x day
3)stand w/ arms at side, pinch shoulder blades together and hold for 5 seconds. 10 reps/2x day
4)lie on belly w/ arms in diamond shape above head, thumbs to ceiling, lift one elbow up and slowly lower down, repeat on other side. 10 reps/ 2x day

I sure felt them even though it doesn't seem like much. Not happy about the pain today but I have to start somewhere. The PT person said it was a good thing to do the acupuncture and strengthening at the same time. I have to be careful though and just do minimal stretching and no heavy weights for strengthening. At present I am set to go twice a week until the end of February. We shall see how it goes.

Swimming

I skipped the pool on Wednesday as I felt I would definitely be putting myself at risk to overdue it all. I did go for a pretty long walk after work though, so at least got some exercise in.
Yesterday I went to the heated pool on 34th, and I had it all to myself! It was so nice. After I did my regular walking and exercises, I decided to try some swimming. My mother was funny when I told her this - she said "Did they say you could?". My response was "WHO?". Since the insurance co has not let me have PT and I have not seen Dr. Kelly for a few months, I decided to take matters into my own hands. For better or worse. I was good, only did a few test laps with all the different strokes, and (touch wood) all seemed to go well. No popping or clicking or dislocating or subluxating that I could notice. And I can still walk today!!! My shoulders are not happy but they've been bothering me since I started doing arm exercises in the pool anyway. If I am still feeling like this tomorrow perhaps I will try a little more, though I still want to be cautious. It would be nice to be re-evaluated so I know what I should and shouldn't be doing though.
Perhaps the insurance gods will grace me with a positive answer to continue in the near future! Dare I hope???

Busy me

and happy about it. The past few days I've definitely been pushing myself. Well, pushing myself in the terms of my particular body.

Friday I went to the gym at lunch. I did about 20 minutes on the bike and then 30 leg presses. I felt pretty good with that. After work I stopped at the bookshop to see if they had a good book on CSS. There is actually a limit to the information you can find on the Internet! Who knew??? Anyway, of course the section I needed was on the bottom, so I was squatting for a long time. Well it seemed like a long time when your right hip doesn't like to be in that position. But I muddled through, and did find a good book. At least that's what the checkout dude implied when he said it was the book he is using as a textbook for class. So far it does seem pretty good though. Hopefully it will help me with the one area I can't seem to suss out. Anyway, afterwards I think I iced for a bit and then decided it was time to clean the pantry. That took a while, but it was so needed. I disposed of many things I didn't even realise I had buried in there. Every year right before Pesach I do a mass cleaning of the pantry and kitchen. I decided my hip had been through enough in one day and would start on the kitchen the next morning.

Accordingly my body woke me up early, I guess it was very motivated! I cleaned that kitchen for over 2 hours and still wasn't done. If you saw the size of my kitchen you wouldn't believe me! I had to take a break to ice my various body parts. Then it was back to work. It definitely was my workout for the day. Afterwards I dusted the whole flat as well. I just have to do the bathroom. Been putting that off because it will be a whole night ordeal. Being a Virgo when I get started on something it has to be very thorough. It has its good and bad quirks to it. Saturday night my ice and I relaxed and took it easy. We deserved it! Though my body for some reason thought otherwise and didn't let me have a proper sleep!

Sunday I just was too sore to start doing the bathroom, so decided to start reading my new HTML/CSS book. I read through a few chapters, then decided to go to the pool. It was heaven at first as no one else was in the pool for the first half of my workout. No splashing, loud noises, nothing. Pure heaven and so relaxing. I was trying to push it a bit with the walking. It's hard to walk fast in the water but I tried more than usual. I wanted to see how much I could push the hips. After I was a bit sore, but went home and iced like a good girl. Was still achy but the weather was also a bit crap so that wasn't helping.

So that leaves today. I didn't go to the gym as I thought I should take it easy, however that decision didn't last too long as now I've decided I should try to walk home and see how it goes. I still have to figure out part of the menu for Saturday, and order the groceries, but think the walk should be good.

Swim

I went for a swim today and it was going well until I decided to try the breast stroke. I had already done my leg exercises and thrown in some arm exercises for good measure as well. I did the walking up and down the lane and at the every end decided, heck, what can half a lap do? The good news is that my right hip was ok for the task, however, after just a couple of strokes, my left hip, on the inside, near my groin, started screaming bloody murder. Not good. That was the end of that. I'm wondering if I do have a labral tear in there, as that is the location that was hurting. I know we have yet to do an MRI, but I am in no rush as there's nothing we can do about the left until my right is very strong.

I was definitely sore on the right side afterwards, and came home and iced for a little bit which helped. I then went to a friends house and had multiple children climbing on me, but I behaved and did not pick them up, well, not for any length of time at least. So right now my right knee and foot are hurting but (touch wood) the hip is ok. I am going to go again tomorrow for a swim and see how that goes. Since I missed PT on Wednesday and they're closed on Monday, I must make some sort of effort to keep the strength up.

On a different note, I am v. excited about getting a new scanner and getting to work, but am baffled as to whether I buy additional bits for my PC or just get an iMac. I'd originally wanted the Mac OS but funding just does not exist for that at the moment. There's + and - 's for both so if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it. So confusing and I'm so not up to date in this tech world! I have to keep doing my homework! Also trying to find anyone who might have Mac software for scanning and/or Photoshop. It's incredible how much software costs.

Pool

I went to the pool again last night. It was so crowded, about three people per lane! Thankfully I just took up part of the wall for most of my time as I was doing my leg excercises. I worked both legs because the other day I only focused on the right and wanted to see how the left would do.

After about 10 minutes of those exercises I did about 10 minutes of walking up and down the lane. I'm sure the other people in my lane loved that - they kept swimming past me and almost into each other! The deeper water is the hardest to walk through and keep my balance, so I've been using my arms to sort of paddle through as well. I KNOW I am not meant to swim laps, but I just had to throw one in at the end for my sanity.

On the walk home my left hip was really not happy with me, but once I got home and iced it it seemed much better. The weather has been pretty icky as well, and between that and the stress I've been under, I am praying my fibro doesn't flare up. Today I am a bit sore on the right, but left seems 'normal' whatever 'normal' is on that side.

Am planning on going swimming tomorrow as well, but there is a photo exhibit I came across a few weeks ago that is opening that I might do instead. Will have to see. As for PT tonight, I'm cheating and not going. I originally had plans to shoot some pool after work, but will wait and see how things go with my mother in the hospital. Haven't done that in AGES, so we shall (possibly) see how my shoulder and hips hold up.

17 weeks post op - and slightly freaking out

Well, it's been a rough weekend to say the least. Here I thought I was doing so well last week that I might have gone too far, too fast. I had been hoping to go to the pool this weekend and try out some exercises that my PT showed me, but alas, my hips had other ideas. I tried icing them but it did not do much. Yesterday my right hip was so bad that I actually used a lidocaine patch on it. I have not done that since before surgery, so you can see why it is so upsetting. I will go over all of this with my PT again, though last week he did say I couldn't damage anything that had been done surgically. Hopefully it is just that I over used it and pushed myself too far.
As for the left, whatever the injection did to help it seems to have stopped doing. I know I should contact Dr. Kelly and tell him, but at the same time I cannot imagine having surgery in the near future for this. My whole body cannot handle that again this soon, and I definitely feel my right hip would not be up to the pressure of supporting me for three months on crutches. So we have yet another catch 22.
To add to it, my lovely hands have been out of control pain-wise for the last week. Anytime they hurt for more than a day or so straight I start to worry.
The weather is not helping either for the moment.

Oh well, as my heroine says,
Tomorrow is another day.

left hip not happy

This week in PT they worked my left leg as well as my right. The sad thing is my left leg is much weaker than the right. I had been trying to do exercises with it pre-surgery, but obviously the last couple of months have not been able to keep it up. On Wednesday when I was going to do the stim for the right leg we tried a 5 lb weight for the leg lifts on my left, and 7 lbs on my right. That was a bit over-estimating my strength. I was just able to do 6 lbs on my right, but my left we had to get down to 3 lbs. My knees have been very bad and they were hurting with all this lifting, though I know only strengthening my quads will help the knees. Yet another catch-22.

We also added 1 lb weights to all my isometric leg lifts; inside, outside and back; for both legs. I wish I knew what triggered the left hip so badly so I won't redo it. I was going to do some PT now, but my left hip and knee are killing me, so thinking I will ice them and hopefully in a few hours I will be able to do something.