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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…
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How to Prepare for Interstim Surgery
Recently, I had surgery to implant a battery into my back. This connects to a wire that stimulates my sacral nerve. This process of getting to this point was extensive. I started with PTNS, which is nerve stimulation that goes through your foot. After having success with a few trials, my best option was to move forward with Interstim surgery. I had no idea how to prepare for this. I decided to jot down a few ideas here. I hope you find them helpful. Track Symptoms I saw my surgeon only a day or two before surgery. At that point, they asked how my symptom tracking was going. I don’t…
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One More Surgery
I talked about getting my wisdom teeth removed over a month ago. The last several weeks have been crazy busy. Finally, I have it all set up to get my wisdom teeth removed. It couldn’t have had better timing either because my jaw is really starting to ache. I’ve had conversations with my doctor. As well as an anesthesia team, and the oral surgeon. We are moving forward with surgery at the hospital. This will ensure my safety. When I got my tonsils removed, I had significant uvula swelling. The swelling could’ve been a result of the trauma to my mouth or an angioedema reaction. Anytime the culprit could be…
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OCD and Surgery
I dread having surgery when it comes to my OCD. Downtime is something I really struggle with. I try to keep myself busy. I feel purpose when I have a task in front of me. Relaxing is something that doesn’t come easy to me. It’s something I work at every day. Surgery is the combination of a lot of things I fear. It’s a lack of motivation, energy, and filled with downtime. Going into surgery, I often come up with a cope ahead plan. I plan activities that stimulate my mind. I plan for mindfulness. I schedule appointments with my OCD therapist for exposures and accountability for compulsions. Surgery can…
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I Am Officially A Robot
I am now, officially a robot. I have successfully gone through the Interstim procedure in both stages. I have a battery implanted in my back. This connects to a wire that stimulates my sacral nerve. Check out my blog articles “A Long Road That Ends With Surgery” or “I Had Surgery.” Those are the prerequisites to understand this one. This nerve stimulator helps to give me more control of my bladder. If you’re unfamiliar with nerve stimulators, I’m going to explain a bit more. I have been dealing with urinary incontinence for almost a year. I am unlike people with urge incontinence or overactive bladder. I leaked small amounts of…
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I Had Surgery
By the time you’re reading this, I have had surgery. I’m writing this well before I’ve gone under but it’s crazy to think about. I didn’t know how much went into getting this interstim surgery. I didn’t know the extent of the restrictions. At this point, I’ve only had the first surgery. Now I’m going to be in the trial period of deciding whether the second surgery is done. From what I understand, there will be a lot of communication between myself and my medical team. The deciding factor on the second surgery is my improvement rate. To qualify to have the device permanently implanted, your symptoms must improve by…
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How To Prepare For a Hip Arthroscopy
I was nervous going into my hip surgery. I had never had orthopedic surgery. The only comfort I felt was that it couldn’t be worse than the feeling of my labrum tearing. I didn’t know where to begin when preparing for this surgery. After searching the internet, I found a few ways to prepare. I put them all together creating a plan for after I got home from the hospital. So here is a compiled list of how to prepare for your hip arthroscopy. Strengthen Your Arms I thought of this on my own ahead of time. I stopped working out due to my hip and suddenly I realized I’d…
