First of all, My husband and three year old daughter are braving the cold today for a wonderful cause, "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer", please take a second to see what you can do to help. They are walking in honor of cancer survivors Libba Lashley & David Monoroe and in memory of Walt's grandmother Agnes. To see more about Walt & our daughter click below.
Click here to help
So I went for my one month follow-up this week and was told I could start coming off the crutches!! I think it was one of the happiest days of my life. It's been a slow & gradual process and I still use them when I feel like I'm overdoing it, but already I'm getting stronger.
How does it feel? It didn't hurt, but kind of felt as if my legs would buckle. It's actually been harder on my knee than my hip. When there is pain, it's pretty similar to pre-op pain and I think this is normal. By late afternoon I started feeling really stiff and when I sat down I heard and felt this really loud and jarring pop in my hip which scared me to death, but afterwards felt good...and suddenly I wasn't stiff anymore. My guess is either it was scar tissue or most likely air or fluid popping in the joint capsule. Whatever it was didn't cause any lingering pain.
As for PT, added sitting on the balance ball and some flutter kicks in the pool while holding on to the side. I did one small half lap across the pool to see what it felt like, a little uncomfortable. I could feel that I still need to heal a bit more before swimming, but the kicking felt good.
Now that I'm feeling stronger it's all I can do not to break out into a full run...don't freak out family memebers who might be reading, I'm not that stupid!!! Just wishing:) But I'm very hopeful and optimistic that this thing is on its way to being behind me.
-Vanessa
