The One Month Mark

Today makes exactly one month since my second periacetabular osteotomy. Here's the update.

About a week after leaving the hospital, I started my summer semester, and used a wheelchair that week of school. Advice: If you are going to be on a lot of medication while attending school, take easy classes. A couple of weeks ago I was so drowsy and dizzy from the medications I have to take that the numbers on the board were moving in my statistics class. Talk about frustrating. Otherwise, school is going well.

I'm pretty much off the medications. I take a dose of acetaminophen or ibuprofen every morning, and even though it hurts pretty much all the time, it's pain I can tolerate, so I don't bother to drug myself up any more than absolutely necessary. I'm still taking Lyrica for nerve pain. Both thighs are numb now, thanks to some nerve damage. I don't expect it to go away. It's something I'm learning to accept and live with. The more accepting I am, the less frustrating it is.

I use a walker on days when I'm feeling really weak or am having a lot of pain. Otherwise, I use crutches. They get me less stares and I can travel much faster. They're also easier to maneuver and are less cumbersome.

It still stuns me how often people stare, point and make rude comments. And most of these people are adults. Children sometimes come up and ask me what happened, but they don't point. They don't give me rude nicknames. It also surprises me how often people will stare, open mouthed, as I'm coming down the hallway, but they won't move to get out of the way. And I have to move. A young woman with a walker isn't that weird...is it?

This morning I heard my hip crack when I tried to get up out of bed this morning. I couldn't move for a while, and it's the most severe pain I've felt in a while. After about ten minutes everything was okay.

One of the things I miss most is the ability to sleep through the night. I haven't slept all the way through the night since before surgery, and it's taking its toll. I think part of it is that it hurts to sleep on the left side because of my December PAO, but it's basically impossible to sleep on the right because of my June PAO. And sleeping on my back isn't comfortable either. In time I'm hoping it will get better. I really can't wait for these eight screws to be out of my body.