Dr. A., We Meet Again......

Waiting for Dr A, French Fries (special treat) and my car hit 100,000 miles all on the same day!

 I had my 2.5 month check up with Dr A. last week. There was a lot of waiting involved..like 2.5 hours worth (it must have been an honor of my 2.5 months with a new hip). I waited in the waiting room for about an hour and then my hip couldn't wait any longer, so I spoke with the receptionist and they let me wait the rest of the time on a gurney (which I actually think was temperpedic, seriously, I am not being sarcastic (it was so comfortable I got a nap in ;)).

Dr A finally did make an appearance and I asked him every question I could think of. The main points I got out of our meeting were:

1. My hip is not like a regular hip replacement, so I need to get those kind of ideas and timelines out of my head. There was a lot of previous damage as well as a lot of surgery done to my hip, tendons, and muscles. I need to stop comparing my hip to regular replacements (he reiterated that to me quite a few times..ok I got it!)
2. I can start weening off crutches! Dr. A also pointed out my crutches are to short for me. Ironic no one has said that to me before including him..it's not like this was the first time I have shown up with these things with me (ok now I am being sarcastic ;)). He was talking about drilling holes in them to lengthen them (it must be the surgeon within him ;)). I am just dealing with the situation by just trying to get off the darn crutches. At this point I am down to one crutch and have taken a few awkward steps without them. Hopefully can transition to a cane this month. I do have to say it really is hard to walk on my own currently. I can't do it very well and I have a limp. They say it is due to my leg being weak at the moment...
3. Physical Therapy: For the next 4 weeks PT should be focusing on deep tissue massage and stretching, so that's what I have been doing! Don't go and get all jealous over these massages ,they are more of the ones that make you cry than feel relaxed, but it is needed to get to the other side of this so I am just rollin with it.
4. All precautions lifted..YES!!! This is the one hip thing that is makes me hip happy...Hooray! Having precautions sucked to say it bluntly. The first thing I did when I got home was lay down on my floor and just stretched which felt amazing it just took me a little bit to figure out how to get up afterwards. Just because the precautions are lifted doesn't mean things start working automatically I came to find out while I laid on the floor contemplating a plan to get my body off of it, lesson learned;baby steps :)!
I got back to see Dr. A towards the end of January to find out what happens next!

Every day has been different some up some down. This hasn't been easy, but it is what it is and I just hope that 2012 will bring me the hip that I have been working so hard to get. At this point I don't really have it in me to type my complete feelings about this recovery because it has been difficult and I just honestly don't want to focus on all the negative parts because it is emotionally draining for me at this time and I pretty sure it's not so much fun to read about either. If you have any questions please feel free to write to me in the comment section and I will be happy to answer any questions about my THR recovery. I have been doing a photo documentary on Flickr on my day to day recovery (they say a picture is worth a thousand words anyways so you can follow my progress there if you would like :)
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwNA6f3

Happy Holidays xoxo

Happy Holidays and Cheers to a New Year!