Week Six Post-Op

This week was all about returning back to normal.  I was still only at work part time, but I am starting to feel ready to put this fragile stage behind me.  I am moving much better now.  I can bend over and touch my toes, cross my legs both ways, sit indian style, and sit with my op-leg foot on the knee of my other leg.  I can't think of any positions right now that would bother me.  However, being stuck in my desk chair at work was still slightly irritating if I didn't get up and move around enough.  Nothing to warrant even ibuprofen; it's just annoying. 

PT really did a number on me this week.  The lady clipped this belt (looked like a seat belt) around my leg and around her at the same time and did all sorts of weird pulling and pushing to try and increase my ROM.  I'm still having pain bringing my knee toward my chest when I am on my back, but apparently that's normal.  I'm now doing mini squats with a band around my knees and then walking sideways and forward.  I also got permission to walk a mile outside and then slowly increase to 30 minutes.  The first time I walked a mile on Tuesday was pretty difficult.  It felt like a long way to walk and I could definitely tell I was slowing down toward the end.  But by Saturday, it became a lot easier.  I've found that if something feels hard at the beginning of the week, I can expect it to be a lot easier toward the end of the week.  Healing in action and all that.  Mileage this week:

Monday: 8/10 of a mile
Tuesday: 1 mile
Wednesday: 1 mile
Thursday: 6/10 of a mile
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 1 mile
Sunday: 1 mile

I am still riding the bike every day, but toward the end of the week I started alternating my easy spinning with a little resistance.  Adding in the resistance actually makes me feel like I'm doing a workout.  It feels good to sweat again, even if it's just inside my living room.  For some reason I've found riding the trainer a lot more tolerable this year than last year.  I don't know if it's because I've adjusted my bike so much that it fits better or if because I am just desperate for something to do.  Either way, I've been listening to music and happily going for 30-40 minutes at a time.

On Friday, I got to move back to my own house!  Staying with my parent's was extremely helpful for those first few weeks.  I couldn't imagine doing it on my own or mostly on my own.  Long distance relationships are certainly not very helpful in these types of situations, so I was lucky to have my parents close enough to take me in.  I didn't have too much to haul between houses, but my dad did most of the heavy lifting.  I did pick up a big duffel bag and twisted or rotated oddly and tweaked myself pretty badly.  I was limping most of the rest of the day, but iced off and on and woke up feeling fine the next day.  I guess I still do need help with some things, but I feel mostly back to normal in terms of day to day type of activities.

I think the most important thing to note over the past six weeks is that while I've had various pains, I have not had any of my pre-op pain.  None.  For the first time in almost 2 years, I have no groin pain.  It's pretty crazy to think about.  I can roll over in my sleep again!  Rolling over in bed probably caused me the most acute pain before.  I can't wait to discover even more things that don't cause me pain anymore.

Two of my three scope wounds.  The other is on my outer hip.