5 weeks post-op!

I've made it to the five week mark!! This was the week that my doctor originally said I would be able to put weight on my leg. However, when I went in for my 2 week check up, he said to come back in 4 weeks. But since I am in between jobs and trying to avoid paying for Cobra, I scheduled my appointment 5 weeks after my first appointment. He told me that I couldn't put weight on it until I go back to see him and get an x-ray. So I'm trying to be good, but I have shifted some weight on my leg around the house and it can handle it. But I have to wait till July 28th before I "officially" put weight on my leg. ; ) Over the last week I finally got passed my nausea and I'm back to eating normally. I've also gone from taking Norco 5s to breaking them in half. I take about a pill and a half throughout one day. I'm also able to wait until I eat breakfast before I take any meds, because I just don't need it right away. I finished my last Lovenox shot on Friday too! This past weekend was VERY busy (wedding Friday night, little Nashville trip Saturday, Suds & BWW Saturday night, pool party all day Sunday) and I didn't exhaust myself doing it all.

I am having some new issues. I'm having a lot of pain under my scar when I stretch my leg out. My scar also feels really dry which might be from all the sun I got on Sunday. I keep putting lotion on it. When I try to imitate walking, I end up with a lot of pain in my knee.

My next major challenge will be in less than two weeks when I start my new teaching job. The first week is at school with no kids. I don't go in till 9:30, so that will be nice. Then the 2nd week we will be traveling to Nashville, Tennessee for a conference. Five hours in a minivan does not sound exciting or comfortable at all. Then I will have one more week at school without kids and the kids start August 16th. The month of August will hopefully be easy on me since we will dismiss at 2:30 instead of the normal time of 5. I'm really glad I made this job change because I get to start later, have more time without kids, and ease into long days. Especially since I'll be doing PT in August too.

Here is my scar at 5 weeks.

Week 4

I've made it 4 weeks post op from my LPAO! Thursday will be exactly one month from when I went under the knife. I've stepped down from taking Norco 10s and am now taking Norco 5s. Unfortunately I'm having to take them almost every 4 hours and I'm starting to have some sleepless nights without my giant pain pills. I also started having nausea over the weekend. On Sunday I ate a fried egg sandwich at 9am and then didn't have anything else to eat until 7pm that night because I was so nauseous. That is way different from how I had been. I had a healthy appetite before then. Last night I tried to take 2 tylenol PM in place of my Norco to see if I could sleep better and it didn't make a difference. I still laid in bed for 2 hours before I fell asleep and was wide awake at 6am. So this morning I called the doctor's office to request something to control the nausea. Hopefully that will help me some. I have a headache right now from not eating right and the tylenol PM hangover I always get.

I have made some progress in movement. I am sleeping on my good side a lot more often. Also, this morning I was able to roll onto my stomach and sleep for about an hour, but I had to put a small pillow under my bad hip to support it. I've been out and about more hanging out with friends. I still can only sit on a hard chair for about 2 hours before I have to move. Sometimes this is frustrating for my husband because he wants to stay somewhere longer, but I'm ready to go. I hope to drive a little bit in the next week. We have another wedding coming up on Friday and I will probably not use my wheel chair at this one. But I will probably use my wheelchair Saturday when we go to little Nashville because it is hard to park close to where you are going.

Scar Picture at 4 weeks (you can see where they scoped too)

Skinny little leg

I just wanted to put up a picture of the muscle atrophy in my left thigh. It was already weak before surgery and now it is teeny tiny.

Ants

Today I have truly lived up to the name of this blog. I'm having a very bad morning and it's all because of ants. They were on my counter when I got up this morning so I sprayed them with cleaner and wiped them and the counter up. I took a shower and when I came back out, the ants were back. So I sprayed them again. When they showed up a third time, I couldn't take it anymore, and I started crying. All the emotions of 3 weeks of pain and exhaustion came out and I cried over 10 ants marching around my counter. Now I feel like the biggest whiny girl and my eyes hurt from crying. Ugh, I hope I can only go up from here!

Three weeks!

I've made it three weeks post op! I'm moving around great. I've been able to lay on my right side for short amounts of time. I try to sleep like that but then I get sharp pains in my hip, so I have to roll on my back. I've cut back a lot on my pain meds too. Yesterday I had a pill at 6am, 12pm, and then 7pm. I didn't take another pill until I woke up around 5:15 when Jeff got up. I did have a big day yesterday. My sister drove me all the way to my parents' house and we had lunch, went to walmart and went to Batesville. I slept on the couch from 7-9:30 last night and then got in bed and slept until 7:30 this morning. The only issue I am still having is with my incision. For some reason there is a part along the bottom of it that is wide open and keeps "weeping" and bleeding. I took all the antibiotics that my doctor prescribed but it is still bleeding. I took the dressing off this morning and blood actually started pooling in it. I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow to get it looked at again. Here are two pics. One is the top part of my scar that is healing up just fine. The other is of the bottom of my scar when I took the dressing off this morning.

Two week follow up with doctor

At first I was confused when I got taken back for the doctor-they didn't take me straight to x-ray. But Dr. Scheid said they were going to limit my radiation exposure and do my next x-ray when I go back in four weeks. He asked how things were going and looked over my incision and stitches where they scoped. He was concerned about the weeping along the bottom of my incision. I can uncover that part in the shower but then I have to put a clean dressing over it tightly. He also prescribed me some antibiotics in case of infection there. Still no weight on the leg until I go back. I am supposed to mimic walking with crutches by putting the foot of my bad leg flat on the ground. Only the weight of the leg can go on it. He doesn't want me driving until I clear out some pain meds but I can use the recumbant bike. I just need to get to where I can drive myself to the gym. Lastly Denise popped out all of my stiches. Yay! I follow up with him July 28th. I had to do five weeks because of the transition from one job's insurance to the next. I don't want to have to deal with sending bills to Cobra.
Next big milestone: I'm getting all fancied up for a wedding on Saturday. Definitely using the wheelchair for this one!

Two Weeks

Well I have made it two weeks post op. I've made some more progress since my last update. I've had three trips out of the house. First trip was last Thursday and I was out of house maybe 3 hours. I went to my new job to fill out paperwork. Then my husband I went to target and I had my first experience with a motorized cart. I was exhausted when I got home.
Then I went out again Saturday morning to grocery shop and after the trip around Meijer my hip was so stiff and sore that I had to stay in the car at Kroger. Then I actually went to dinner Saturday night but only lasted about two hours until I started to have pain. Today was my first day home without any support and it went well. I am able to shower on my own and take care of my own food. But I still am having to take pain meds every 3 hours and every time I try to go longer, I start having pain right at 3 hours. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday so hopefully the X-rays look good. Here is a picture of my scar at 2 weeks.

And here are my doggies that like to get in my way.