* Lost post provided via Google cache, but mostly thanks to my friend Elizabeth from Friday night knitting @ Starbucks in St Paul, who is wise in the ways of the web. Thanks, Elizabeth!
Random stuff about the hip surgery and whatever else flits through my brain:
- As previously reported, the surgery went swimmingly.
- I was in the hospital for three nights. Could have gone home one night sooner, but I saw no reason to abandon the place where the bathroom was 3" from the bed.
- Recovery at home went fine, too. Smokey is a [good] nurse.
- I have been walking unassisted by cane or walker since late last week. Yay!
- Saturday morning I was completely pain-free for the first time. Yay!
- Of course, I took that as a sign I could walk around more.
- No pain-free days since.
- On the other hand, such pain as I have now is minor.
- Yesterday Tuesday I skipped pain meds all day until bedtime. Yay!
- Now for the downside issues. Those are more interesting, anyway.
- I had an allergic reaction to Celebrex, an NSAID given to me to reduce inflammation.
- What it did do was give me the super-itchies all over. My eyes swelled, my back and legs were purple with hives, I itched EVERYWHERE.
- The visible signs of that are largely gone now, although I still itch, especially on my upper arms and torso.
- The aftermath of the reaction was been rather like getting a minor sunburn -- I peeled everywhere that had itched.
Sorry for the blurry photos -- it is tough to take pictures of one's own fingertips.
- Something, either the reaction or the salves and lotions that were prescribed to counteract it, have given the affected skin the crepey character of an 80-yo, even though it is immeasurably enhanced by my summer nails.
- This seems to be slowly going away. Yay!
- Other main problem is lack of stamina. Getting up and dressed and making and eating breakfast is enough to send me back to bed for a nap.
- All these drugs -- oxycontin, coumadin, vistiril, lopressor -- have some minor side effects.
- My body cannot decide if it is warm or cold and has decided instead to go back and forth between the two in an unpredictable manner.
- I thought I had finished with hot flashes years ago.
- Nope.
- Oddly enough, the surgery and/or anesthetic affected my bladder control.
- Depends are useful things.
- Happily, I no longer need them.
- I have to be extra vigilant about every single urge.
- Also have to avoid coffee, tea, orange juice, and Coke Zero.
- Bah, humbug.
- I have discovered that neither Fresca nor root beer seem to have whatever it is that irritates/stimulates my bladder.
- Still not as good as coffee or Coke Zero.
- No alcohol at all until I am done with the Coumadin/warfarin/blood thinner/rat poison.
- Hmmph.
- On Saturday my friend Colleen and her husband came over. She watered and fertilized and deadheaded my hanging pots and planted the herbs that I hadn't managed to get into pots before the surgery.
- She also bought me a rose bush.
- And planted it.
- Now, that's a friend.
- Another friend is coming over on Friday afternoon to sit and knit on the deck with me.
- Friends are a good thing to have.
