The Home Journey

 As mentioned last post, all but one day in the hospital was good. However, that day when I was a projectile vomiting mess is when a dear friend came to see me in the hospital. I was so pleased but looking so grey/green that this dear friend came to check on me the next day. Truly, this is was above and beyond the call of friendship... I was grateful to see her again and she was greatly relieved to see that I was breathing.

Mom only succumbed to a wheelchair at the art museum in the last year of her life.

 Arriving home from the hospital I was greeted by two friends who brought good cheer and fabulous food, the perfect combo for recovery. This instantly energized me and this was just the beginning of my "home journey" toward recovery. Both of these friends know me well and sternly warned me not to over due and to follow all of the rules set forth by my doctor for the Anterior hip replacement. The next day came the home health nurse who is a very dear friend so it was palative in more ways than one. She said something that I needed to hear. "Susan remember that you've had major surgery and what has been placed in your hip should be treated like it is your Grandma's antique tea cup. Go easy and be careful." Then a really darling physical therapist has been urging and coaxing me to be slow and deliberate. I am not known for being slow moving or for being sedentary. Now I am required to be both. Not easy for me.

However, here it is exactly three weeks since the surgery and many good things have happened and many good lessons learned.

1. I learned to take the pain medicine prescribed so as to prevent the pain from causing acute discomfort. Did I follow that rule? Well no, and one night I didn't and paid the price, took me hours to get to sleep.
2. There are so many fabulous friends and good cooks in our small town. Mr. G and I have only cooked two meals ourselves in the entire time I've been home.
3. My husband, though quite the task master, is a superlative care giver and would be still getting up with me at night if I hadn't quietly just stopped asking for his assistance more than a week ago.
4. I have learned to unabashedly ask for help. I am usually the helper [and I like it that way] so this took some getting used to.
5. I am overwhelmed with gratitude: because I was able to have this operation; because of the friends; because of the excellent books that have come my way; because of the fabulous meals that have been brought to us; because my husband is retired and here for me constantly.
6. I am so fortunate that I had an Anterior total hip replacement [as apposed to Posterior] because there are far fewer restrictions on how I can move my body.
7. I absolutely lucked out with this glorious weather and have been able to sit out on our deck almost every day. I can't imagine how this beginning recovery would have been if I had been house bound.

So now my routine is to go down our road on crutches each day and do the exercises that the PT has helped me with. I have ventured into town several times and so many people ask me "what happened to you?" that I feel I should hang a sign over my neck that says, 'anterior total hip replacement right here'... A friend of mine said, "no you should just say,"when I was running with the bull in Pamplona, I got gored!" That is so much more glamorous than the truth about the surgery: osteoarthitis and genetics, but there it is. Being dull is never fun or glamorous.

susansmagicfeather copyright 2012 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved