Goodbye to 09' and Pain

Nothing to do but take pretty pictures on such a beautiful December day. I would love to be out riding in this, but I won't know if riding is on my list of 'can do' things until I see my doctor this Thursday. Physically, I feel like riding would be fine. I'm sure I will be sore afterwards, mostly because it has been nearly two months since I last rode.
On Christmas Day I went for a good hike. There are some logging roads not too far from our house where I sometimes ride or my husband and I hike. My daughter joined us to work up an appetite for Christmas dinner. The first half hour is a pretty good climb and I was proud of myself for not getting left too far behind:) I kept a steady pace and had absolutely no pain. The most impressive part was coming down. For several of the past years walking down hill has been very painful for my hip, at times near tears and stopping frequently. This day was like night to day, not a stitch of pain. I am so excited about this new pain free active life!
I have been the primary foot caregiver for my two horses for the last year. I trimmed both of them two days before my surgery, knowing that it might be a while before I could attempt to get back to them. I have been checking them this last week, debating whether I feel up to it or not. I'm nervous about getting it started and then not being able to finish, leaving them unbalanced. Working on their feet is a great workout for the glutes. If you doubt this, just try to find a farrier with a fat hiney. I think it has helped that I have the horses on a paddock that consists of all 1/4"minus rock this winter. It keeps their soles exfoliated beautifully and the thrush I battled all last year is gone.
I am hoping to get permission from the doctor to begin riding. It would be fitting to head out for a New Years Day ride on my new hip. If he suggests I wait, I'll wait. I know that it will be soon and that this next year will be full of many pain free rides. I'll be cleaning tack this week just in case:)

Back to Light Work

This last week has been busy. Along with physical therapy three times a week, I have been putting in some hours at work on an inventory project. We also had a couple of surgeries scheduled, so I was able to run a modified version of anesthesia to fit my restrictions. The anesthesia cases ran pretty similar to normal only I didn't perform the pre-surgery physical exam, blood draw, or place the i.v. catheter, somebody else did. I also delegated the task of knocking the horse down, as rarely they can have an adverse reaction to the sedation and things can get crazy, dangerous quickly. I'm not quite ready for that yet:). I was able to place the endotracheal tube and help place the horse on the surgery table after it was down. I stood for most of the first surgery like I usually do, but I was really sore the next day, so for Tuesdays surgery I sat off and on. I helped as usual to recover the horse, but only the first part, when the horse is still down and I am helping it breath with the demand valve, waiting for the horse to breath on its own, then waiting for the horse to begin to have the swallow reflex so that I can pull the e.t. tube. Once the tube is pulled and the horse is breathing well on it's own I step out of the room and we bar the doors and recover the horse with a head and tail rope. The rope recovery part can be strenuous, so I just watched this time. Both horses did very well. I was pleased with how I held up too. It will be another two weeks before I go back to the real horse handling duties of my job. I've been given an inventory project that will keep me busy in the mean time. Along with getting back all my household and barn duties, I am busy enough.

On The Road Again

I have started driving again! Last Wednesday was my first outing. I drove myself the 15 or so miles to where I'll continue with Physical Therapy. I wasn't so sure how this would go since my car sits so low and it has a manual transmission. My hip did get a little achey and uncomfortable, but I think most of that was due to the firmness of my car seat. I still have some swelling and the firm seat did nothing but create pressure on that. Getting in and out, and running the gas and brake pedal was not an issue.

Physical Therapy has become more demanding, but also more rewarding. I'm noticing daily improvements in both strength and flexibility. It was pretty pathetic though to be nearly breathless after only 6 minutes on the stationary bike. No where to go but up from here.

I have been able to start doing the daily horse chores. I still let hubby dump the full wheelbarrow, but he has been happy to let me fill it up. It feels good to start to get back in the routine of things again. I don't think the horses missed me much. They are as fat as ever.

I have gone back to work this week part time. It will be office type work for the next two weeks. I'll get to run a couple of anesthesia cases, but kinda from the side for safetys sake.

Moving around is nearly back to thoughtless. My hip is still a bit stiff after sitting for a long period. I think that is still muscle and soft tissue healing. I'd say most all my daily activities are pretty comfortable and easy at this point. I'll be happy to take the compression stockings off once and for always. Only two more weeks of those, yeah!

I'm getting a taste of what recovered is going to be like and I LIKE IT!