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I Got Knee Injections
It’s been six weeks since my latest hip surgery. The recovery has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Most of that is to be expected, although some of it is harder than I would’ve imagined. My knees have become a significant problem. It’s something I anticipated but hoped would go away. I have had knee pain and issues since high school. It’s been a difficult endeavor to recover my hips without causing more problems for my knees. There are a lot of emotions surrounding this topic. It’s not easy to consistently have new problems that come up frequently. I’m extremely grateful for my care team. They are absolutely…
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What You Need For Surgery Recovery
I have recently completed my seventh surgery. That feels crazy to say. I have learned quite a bit since my first and I wanted to share that wisdom with you. I’ve written before about what to expect. I highly recommend checking that out if you haven’t. Now we’re going to talk about items that you need for recovery. This will obviously depend on your specific surgery but these are the basics. Notepad and pen This is great to have handy to write down medication times. It’s also good for pain tracking. In general, I find it incredibly helpful to have. I have always still accepted calls post surgery and if…
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How Crush Helps With Surgery Recovery
Crush has been incredibly helpful throughout all my surgeries. Although, most of the time after surgery he can’t perform his regular tasks, he can still help. So what does that look like? Here’s how my service dog helps me after surgery! Get Help This is a big one. Crush is trained to go and find someone in my house. I can simply say, “get help” and he’ll find someone and nudge them until they follow him back to me. This can be helpful if I’ve fallen or simply can’t get to my phone. Retrieve Crush usually has retrieving tasks. Picking stuff up off the ground is incredibly strenuous for me…
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Five Post Surgery Distractions
If you’re like me, all you want after surgery is distraction. It’s easy to wallow in the pain and get lost in napping. Although I appreciate letting my body rest, it’s helpful to have distractions when I’m all rested. So here are some ways that I like to distract myself post surgery! Writing I really enjoy writing. Whether it be journalling, writing blog articles, or working on a project, writing is a good outlet. It can be difficult to get started, especially if the pain is intense. Once I find my rhythm though it’s easy to get into a flow state of mind. Not only is that helpful to alleviate…
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I Had My Second Hip Surgery
I finally did it. I went through my seventh and hopefully, my final surgery. It was worse than I anticipated. I beat my own record of the worst labral tear my surgeon had ever seen. They had to put so much fluid into my hip it was equivalent to that of a hip replacement. I woke up in intense and severe pain. It wasn’t at all what I anticipated or hoped for. Luckily, it’s day two and things are already improving. Once that fluid is absorbed by the body, the pain starts going down. Although I’m still swollen throughout my entire leg, it’s nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I’m…
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Preparing for More Surgery
Here we go again. I’m preparing for another surgery. I’m excited at the prospect of getting this done and over with. I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to receive great medical care. This surgery is going to be more complicated to prep for though. I need to have my left hip fixed. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that almost a year ago I had a labral repair on my right hip. Along with sewing my labrum back together, they pulled apart my tendon and shaved down my bone. I’m waiting to find out the extent of the surgery I need on the right…
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Dealing With Bad News
My medical life has been relatively stable lately. It’s been an incredible change that I’m very grateful for. That being said, I have suffered a setback. Several weeks ago, I started having pretty intense shin pain. It would come and go varying on activity level. It masked itself as knee pain or other various complications of weak hips. Now, the pain has become daily. I brought it up to my surgeon, per the advice of my physical therapist and they’ve told me that I need to rest. That may seem like an easy answer to most people. If you’ve followed my journey for a while, you know that exercise is…
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An Update on My Hip
Last week I talked about issues I was running into with my hip. I had surgery earlier this year on my left hip. I had extra bone which caused a tear in my labrum making it extremely painful to exercise. The significance of this tear was something they’d usually find in someone older, around 65-70. Now, after having amazing relief in my left hip, my right hip is causing me problems. I saw my orthopedic surgeon and they came up with a treatment plan. After looking at images of my hip, it’s clear there are abnormalities. Not only do I have extra bone on my femur and hip socket, my…
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Running Into More Problems
As you may know, I’m finally off my surgery restrictions and I’m back to running. It has been quite the journey thus far. I’m genuinely shocked at how much endurance I’ve maintained. It feels incredible to be able to run a mile without any issues. The other day, I managed to run two miles with a short walk in between them. My heart has struggled to keep up but it’s doing its best. I can’t fault it for needing a bit of help after just starting up again. Shockingly, my heart is not the part of my body that is struggling the most while running. Running has always been a…
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How to Prepare for Removing Your Wisdom Teeth
I only recently got my wisdom teeth removed. I will be the first to say that I didn’t prepare super well. Unlike most surgeries, I assumed this one would be easy to recover from. I wasn’t wrong but I wasn’t right either. It still took a tremendous toll on my body. I forgot to stock up on everything that would’ve helped me recover. In an attempt to save you from my own mistakes, here’s how to prepare for your wisdom teeth surgery. Buy Soft Foods I’m sure that your oral surgeon will warn you about this but I missed the memo. It didn’t even cross my mind. Luckily, I bought…
