Hounds Have A Spa Day

Stella was all set for another night of 'on call nurse' but within minutes decided that I was okay and decided to sleep instead. I am going to stop giving every day updates about my rehab since the first two weeks are over and it's another 4 weeks before my next appointment. There is not going to be a lot of different news until then. Yet, for the first time in a long time I had 6.5 hours of solid sleep last night, all because I could sleep on my side instead of my back. The hounds slept through the night until 1:43am ....

How do I know the exact time? The clap of thunder was so close and loud when I woke up from the sound I swear I was 3 feet in the air (joke). I had no doubt that lightning had struck the house or somewhere extremely close. Within that minute I hear what I think is a bloodhound trotting down the hallway on the tile floor toward the bedroom. It was Stella, who was sleeping in the computer room when I went to bed. Once she saw things were okay she laid beside Heidi's bed and slept the rest of the morning.

A little after 6am the winds were whipping from the SE and it was a cold 52°. I was wide awake at 4am while the hounds slept until 7am. It was going to be a big day for us today. I was going to get a lot of walking done inside the house without the walker and the hounds were going to be picked up by Sierra Dog Grooming at 10am so they could have a spa day.

I planned on alternating between the walker and my trekking pole inside the house but once that my neighbor saw that he said "wait a second, I'll be right back" ... a few minutes later he handed me a metal adjustable cane to use. With the curved handle I found it much easier to walk compared to the flat top of the trekking pole. By noon I had over 5,000 steps, almost twice as much as my biggest day.

Remember the doctor told me to walk as much as I wanted as long as I did not feel fatigue in my right leg or hip.

Kelly arrived right on time with a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I told her all about Stella and Heidi and like everyone else that has met the hounds, she loved them. Once she put my leashes on each hound Heidi started walking to the car while Stella wasn't so sure. Was she being given away again?

Heidi jumped up in the back seat like it was her car and with Stella's hips Kelly was able to lift her just enough to get her in the back floorboard where Stella stepped up on the backseat. Each hound was then buckled into their doggie seatbelts. I was going to be houndless for about 5.5 hours, for the first time since September 2018.

Right after they left I had my groceries delivered by Fry's Market and once again they pulled 34 items from my online shopping list and didn't make a mistake. That service is well worth the $9.95 service fee plus a tip.

I called the doctor's office to confirm that I could take a real shower. I had forgot to ask him yesterday during my appointment but assumed I could since he said the incision had healed very good and he took the surgical tape off. I had no problems losing balance or feeling dizzy. It is a walk in shower not one in a tub. It felt great to feel really clean again. With everything I  had done in the morning it was time for some rest, and a possible siesta.

An hour later I was vacuuming the house and then I put every jacket I brought with me in the washer to prepare for our winter. I can pull the jackets or any kind of laundry out of the dryer with the grabber.

So by the end of the day I was going to have a clean house, a clean me and two clean hounds !!!

Around 3:45pm the Jeep Grand Cherokee pulled up in front of the house. Luckily it wasn't raining so I grabbed my cane and headed outside to grab Heidi's leash while Kelly got Stella out of the backseat. Within a few minutes Heidi knew where she was and trotted away as I let go of her leash ... right into the living room.

Once Kelly was at the side walk I told her to let go of the leash and Stella would run to the house, which she did. Both hounds were soft and shining with an added Halloween scarf around their necks. Heidi's nails looked shorter than I had ever seen them. Stella's were still short from her vet visit a few weeks ago.

Kelly took her time and explained everything she did for Heidi and Stella. She thinks that Heidi might be starting to have an ear infection. Both hounds were happy to be home, wagging their tails and checking to see if I had any treats for them. I asked how they were in the kennel and she said the both of them were the best dogs they had ever worked with. They stayed in the same kennel after they were cleaned.

Both liked getting a bath and both didn't mind getting their nails cut. She said that Stella loved having her ears cleaned and Heidi didn't mind it either.

I will definitely be using their service again, only next time I should be able to drive them to their facility myself. They say don't bath a hound as often as other dogs because it takes the natural oil away but I usually try to bath them when they start smelling like a hound.

There was some other surprising news this morning, adding another thing I can do.

My hound sitter/feeder MJ The Pet Nanny sent me a text this morning that she was going to be late due to an emergency with a client that has five cats. After that she had to take time to feed horses of two clients. Like she told me last week, horses are different than dogs when they are hungry ... they don't whine or bark, they kick down gates and fences so she had to feed them before she stopped by to feel Heidi and Stella.

It was getting pretty late, past Stella's breakfast time so I looked at the situation and grabbed an empty dog dish with "the grabber" ... no problem sitting it on the floor and picking it up to clean after their meal. Would I be able to bend over to dip the kibble out of the container into their dishes without breaking the doctor's 90° rule?

To make sure I leaned over on my good left leg while keeping the bad right legs off the ground  ... no problem. While the hounds were eating I had the neighbor watch me and confirm I was not breaking the 90° rule when bending over to get the kibble out of the storage container.

I had to try another thing. I grabbed the poop bag and headed outside. I like picking it up as soon as possible and knew I'd be doing this once I moved to Arizona. Stella would  no longer have that 7 acre field she like to crap in.

So once again I leaned over with my bad foot/leg off the ground and was able to pick up what I needed to without bending more than 90°. I was close to feeding the hounds again and cleaning up after them. Since I have been sitting things I need up waist level or higher around the house so I can reach them, I decided I needed to sit the kibble container on something a couple of feet tall so I would barely have to bend over to get the kibble out.

I had the perfect solution. I have a hard fiberglass case that I stored camping stuff in that was just he right height. I had my neighbor bring that in from the garage and it worked out perfect. MJ was giving me a discounted price for coming twice per day since I was here and could let the hounds out during the day and later at night. She loves Heidi and Stella too but she has a lot of animals to take care of besides all of the ones she owns.  I will also call her when I need her in the future to take care of Heidi and Stella.

So the hounds are shiny, clean and sleeping. I am clean and can do the majority of my walking with a cane and sometimes with only my two feet. Once again I feel stronger than yesterday, still following the rules for making turns and using the walker as an alternative. It's been raining again so I expect another good night of sleep and we start all over tomorrow.

Comment or email me if you have any questions about hip replacement surgery or rehab.

It's a rough day spending all of it at the doggie spa ....

It's cold and rainy here in the Wild West.

Great News At The Doctor Appointment

We have not had our typical monsoon this year so it tried to make up for it starting last night around 3am. By the time we got up at 5am it was in full steam ahead. My phone set off an alarm last night while sleeping for a tornado warning in Wilcox NE of us by 50-60 miles. So, we couldn't find the mountains this morning in my viewfinder. I knew I would be wearing shoes and a rain jacket to my doctor's followup appointing at 10:45am.

I had a good night of sleep but I noticed for the 2nd day in a row I woke up fining that big foam piece they gave me at the hospital to sleep with between my legs, had been kicked to the floor in my sleep. Was that a sign I no longer needed to use it? I'd find out the answer to that at my appointment.

I was "camping showered", shaved and ready to go by 8am. My neighbor was going to pick me up at 9am but since he was ready to start early, we left at 8:45am ... in the rain.

I had to stop at the post office outgoing mailbox and I needed to go to the City Dept to drop off a signed form and void check so they could take my trash and sewer payment out of my checking account automatically. They still do it the "old fashion" way instead of letting me set all of that up online. They were the last company I set up automatic payment. That will be convenient if I am ever hospitalized again ... income and all utility, tv/internet, water, trash, sewer are all paid automatically.

The more we drove around town the harder it rained. The city system of concrete washes were full of high speed water and one of the main roads out of town was having flash flooding. Twitter is great for getting those kind of emergency weather announcements.

The surprise of the morning before I left was being able to fit my swollen foot into my shoe without bending over. I tried both shoes at first with no shoe strings, pulled them out at the hospital the day I left. Without raising my right leg I put the big toe inside the tongue of the shoe, grabbed that long shoe horn they gave me at the hospital and shoved my foot into the shoe with ease ... a shocker.

I thought since my foot fit inside the shoe so easy, it looked like it would if I put the shoe laces back in the shoe ... so I repeated the process and got my foot in the shoe. Now ... how to tie it? Left foot was no problem since I could raise that foot up to my chair seat. I had to be careful with the right. No twisting, couldn't raise it as high as the left.

So I broke a rule for a few seconds. I bent over more than 90° while sitting in my chair and tied that shoe as fast as possible. I never felt any pain and took my time bending over to see if I felt any kind of muscle pull in my right hip ... none.

After adding the rain jacket over my t-shirt I was ready to hit the road.

I had time to stop in at the hospital to get a copy of all my records, x-rays included, for my two day stay at the hospital. I'll get them in certified mail this week because I did not want to have Gerry take me back tomorrow just to get them.

Luckily, like me, he likes to get to appointments early. I finished all of my errands so we decided sitting in the lobby was the best thing to do as the rain continued and was non-stop hard. He brought his golf umbrella and refused to let me walk anywhere alone even with my walker.

He is the type of guy that knows everyone in town, including the receptionist. He has had some past visits to this same facility. Of course there was a 'stack' of paperwork to fill out and by the time I did that, they called me name for some new x-rays.

During the time I filled out my paperwork I found something disappointing with my Apple Watch that was connected because my phone was right there. When I went into the watch to get some contact phone numbers I could pull up the information okay BUT it showed everything but their phone number !!!! That was the one reason I wanted to buy a new watch because last January I did NOT buy one with "cellular" model to save money.

With that performance I was very hesitant in upgrading my Apple Watch. I still am as I write this post.

I received a bill this morning for the ambulance run. It was 7.2 miles from my bike wreck location to the hospital. That only cost me $114.50 But something called "BLS Emergent" cost me $1,146.38 and only $31.40 for the supplies. I was pretty happy to see the total bill was less than $1,300 which my insurance will pay.

I cannot express in words how good I feel today. Yes the hip and leg feels better than yesterday and if I didn't see my walker nearby right now I would forget that I was hurt ... it feels that normal. Only 16 days after the hip was replaced.

So ... what did the doctor say???

He watched me walk with the walker and said I looked fantastic. My incision was healed and he took off the surgical tape. After asking questions about my condition the past two weeks he told me the exercises I had been doing were not needed at this time. ALL HE WANTED ME TO DO WAS ... walk.

He gave me permission to walk inside my house without the walker but to have furniture, a table or a kitchen counter nearby in case the leg fatigues and I could catch myself. He gave me permission to walk as far as I wanted outside or until I felt the leg fatigue with the walker. So now when it's sunny in a day or two I can join those morning walks again.

Can I take Stella .... not at this time ... I cannot take any chances that a 1 in a million event would happen and make me fall.

He was really happy with my condition and my walking. I am to return for a checkup in 4 weeks, which would be the magic number of 6 weeks, which seems to be a pretty consistent amount of time of rehab to get by to "normal LIGHT" activities, possible driving and possibly walking Stella.

He did say that he understand due to my mental make up and past bicycling that I might be tempted to do more, thinking more is better like any old ex-athlete would think but in this case it is not ... walk ... heal and then walk some more.

He did say that he sewed some muscle back together that was torn in the bike wreck plus the operation for the hip replacement but that my situation was different than others because of the trauma of the wreck that caused the surgery.

I can follow those orders pretty easy and I know now that even though it does not feel like much ... I am making the progress I need to make following his schedule.

We returned home in the rain ... the hardest of all.

I let the hounds out to take a break, drank a large glass of ice water and decided to take a nap to check out how nice it would be to be able to sleep on my side again instead of my back for the first time in two weeks.

As I sat down on the edge of the bed, Heidi trotted to her bed in the corner and Stella walked to the opposite side of the room to sleep between the bed and wall. I ended up having my best sleep in two weeks by sleeping on my side with a pillow between my legs and slept longer in one period than I had in two weeks. That's a major change.

It was cold and rainy but was about to take a break until in the middle of tomorrow morning when it will start raining again tomorrow morning. I guess it plans to make up for all the days it was suppose to rain but did not the past three weeks.

With all the rain, the hounds didn't do much more than this, pictured below.

I really feel good after this doctor visit and the way I feel physically. Funny that he wants to see me again at the 6 week mark and that is when I had marked on my calendar that I MIGHT be able to drive again and I MIGHT be able to do some stuff around the house, like feed the hounds and bend over to pet Heidi.  I still have to follow the 90° limit when bending for these next 4 weeks though.

As far as the new hip popping out of place, without asking him, he told me that was a 2%-3% chance of happening within the first two weeks. So things look good there but I was still going to have to remain cautious of my movements, turning and NO twisting.

It may have been raining all day but with this news it was one of my best days in the Wild West.

The Improvements Continue

Although Heidi loves her new bed that arrived last week, sometimes there isn't anything better than an old rolled up blanket. With a cool breeze coming though the southern bedroom window she found the perfect spot to nap until breakfast was served this morning. For the first time in a long time, both hounds slept through the night, never getting up one time. Stella found a new place to sleep ... the walk-in closet. It's dark, quiet and no windows, the perfect place for solid sleep.

I on the other hand was getting up every hour. Did they do something to my bladder during their hip replacement surgery? Finally I was wide awake at 5am, did my exercises for the foot, legs and hip and started the day. There were some amazing cloud formations right after the sunshine came up.

Remember that I am writing these updates for any of those readers that may have hip replacement surgery in the future and possibly have one scheduled. Maybe I can give them some idea what they will go through. I KNOW we are all different so anyone's surgery and rehab WILL BE different.

With the release of the Apple iPhone 11's the other day, commercials are being swamped with advertising about the new phone and cameras the different models have. From all the reviews I have read that is about the only difference, is the cameras. So this morning I decided it was going to be iPhone photo day just to remind myself how good the quality is for the iPhone 8+.

I am undecided as of this afternoon if I am going to upgrade my phone but I definitely will my watch. Like I said, unless you have the cellular function on your watch it is almost worthless in an emergency situation if your phone is not nearby. With not many differences between the Series 4 and 5, I may stick to the Series 4 and just trade it for one that has cellular function. Luckily my dog sitter brought my phone to the hospital that Saturday and I was THEN able to provide them with all the names and phone numbers they needed.
 

With my followup appointment scheduled for Tuesday morning I wanted to take one more close look at the incision. Since the swelling is going down daily I can see more than I did previous times. What a shock it was to see one of the finest healing jobs I have seen. There are definitely no staples to take out and unless he used sutures that dissolve, I don't see any stitches at all. Just surgical tape over the incision which is already close to being healed.
 

With the lack of pain in the hip and the clean surgical incision I can tell he was very precise in his work and had great attention to detail.

With a forecast of highest temps in the 70's and lows in the 50's, it's perfect weather here in the Southwest. It would be perfect weather for bicycling riding too.

Stella stood there a little after 7am, scoping out the yard for any snakes, scorpions or other critters that might be in her yard. We have yet to see any of those in the yard or anywhere else, after living here 3 months and 10 days.

First thing in the morning I could tell during the stretching exercises I was going further than yesterday. I kept the walker on the floor and in front of me but I was walking a normal stride down the hallway at normal speed. Again I did do a little walking along the kitchen counters without the walker and I am not quite there yet for fulltime walking without it. I expect another week or two using the walker based on information I have read.

Stella enjoys a short nap before breakfast is served. Normally this would be the time I would be drinking coffee before our daily walk. She will be happy to get back those I am sure and I have an idea that those walks well be very good for me as well.

The photos were not edited today.

I wanted to see what that green tree looked like if I used 2x zoom.

She was snoring in that photo.

These photos show what amount of exercise the hounds get on any normal afternoon, 7 days per week ... they don't deviate much from their routine.

By mid day my right leg was almost back to normal size but the ankle and foot were still swollen a little bit. With the grabber I could only pull my tight compression sock half way up my foot so I called for assistance. Otherwise with help of the grabber I can dress myself.

I am a little excited to hear what the surgeon has to say tomorrow. I feel like I am ahead of schedule in healing but I am not sure I am good enough yet to slide into my cars. Just a little too high and any twisting or tweaking of that new hip ball joint is NOT a good thing. I don't expect to have any chance to drive until September 28.

I am going to post this early today. Not much more will be going on between now and tonight. I might try to read a little for the first time and I'll watch a little football tonight but nothing more. For the third day in a row I only walked when I needed to do something here in the house without any walking up and down the hallway or from the front to the back of the house for a workout.

I will find out tomorrow what the next plan of action will be.

Another beautiful day here in the Wild West.

Day 14 Post OP Best Day Yet

By mid-afternoon I was declaring today the best day I've had since my surgery 14 days ago. I did not try to walk more steps, following my Saturday plan of rest and sleep fit in around football games on tv. I still followed the PT instructions for turning, getting in and out of bed and sitting in a chair. What I did do was more walking around the kitchen while preparing meals or putting dishes away, without the walker. It was sitting within reach if needed.

Nurse Stella followed me most of the day with a couple of times where she felt I was okay enough for her to take a siesta outside. Of course sometimes there is food involved where she thinks she might have chance for some kind of drop or an offer from me to share.

I told my friend yesterday that this view of the mountains from the patio reminds me of the clouds and mountains I would see in Hawaii, standing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier docked in Pearl Harbor.

I could tell early this morning by Stella's actions this was going to be an extra rest day ... a lot more rest and sleeping.

While I watched football on tv, she napped outside in one of her favorite spots half on half off the patio. The temps were about right, 81° with a breeze. Not hot enough for the AC to kick on but not that cool either.

I knew before I moved that I would not be able to see my 'local' team the Colts on tv much and changing my tv service to Cox Cable, they would not have a program like they do in MLB where I can see every game depending what channel I change to.  So while I watched a game on tv, I kept track of the Reds on the phone while it was charging and the Colts on my iPad Mini. I miss the split screen that came with DishNetwork where I could watch 4 games at one time. Yet the picture quality is sharper and to me that is a great trade-off. DishNetwork's signals during the monsoons are not a good match I'm told.

After my siesta of almost 2 hours in the middle of the day, Stella was nowhere in the house where I could find her. Bedroom-No, Computer room-No, behind the love seat next to the living room window-No ... outside soaking up the warmth and in a very deep sleep.

The winds picked up from the south/southeast where it was not only strong enough to keep the house cool but also it felt like a storm was blowing in. You cannot really tell here if the percentages are accurate because I've seen it storm with a 10% chance of rain and nothing at 80% chance of rain. So who knows?

I took all of these photos in this post with my Canon G9 X and edited out the dark spot on the sensor. I still think my iPhone 8+ takes better photos of the same areas.

Nurse Stella was going to make sure that I would not wander around the backyard without my walker. Her idea of blocking me was the best prevention. Remember, she is on call 24/7 and only charges food instead of cash for her services.

This was the first time I got a really good look at Stella's foot, where the growth was removed from her inner back paw just a couple of weeks before I broke my hip. That looks like a good job by the vet and looks like it is healing nice.

Heidi made her afternoon appearance while we were sitting outside. Strong winds made her work her nose a little before giving up and taking a short nap.

By the time I got up to leave, rain seemed like it was right around the corner. I also didn't notice until I posted the photo, I did not edit the black spot out of it. Can you see it?

After the way I felt today I think with another 48 hours of walking and continuing getting stronger I might be looking pretty good when I visit my surgeon Tuesday morning. Will I return home without the walker to use for another week or two or will he give me permission to move to a cane? I DO NOT expect to get the okay to drive but I would love to get the okay to move from my hard wood kitchen chair to my couch when watching tv or reading a book.

I have a nice 4" orthopedic seat pad for that chair, still it's not as nice as sitting on the couch.

Another development and one that is huge, happened today. I was able to lift my right foot just enough to pull my sock up. It is a compression socks that comes just above the ankle with tread on the bottom to prevent me from slipping and sliding. I can do that on my left foot without a problem.

I am still cautious getting in and out of bed  as well as sitting down and getting up from a chair. When turning I do the small sections at a time as the PT taught me so I will not twist that new ball joint in my hip nor my knee. With my daily scrubbing with soap and water I had a few more scabs decide to remove themselves from my elbow, and knee from the bicycle wreck, that caused all of this. I have not gone anywhere close to the incision with anything wet as directed.

So at least on this day, Sunday the 22nd, I am feeling great but still not exerting myself like I was before. It was my best day yet.

It was a great day in the Wild West today.