Field Trip

I have been dreading today for quite some time now, J has had a business trip planned and is out of town, I am alone, with both kids, on a weekend! But they are now both in bed, asleep from their adventurous day!

We are going away this week, we have a wedding, Jk and L are walking down the aisle. L needed dress shoes, so I decided to be brave and take them both to the city. In my head, I was going to find a great parking spot, walk in, buy the first shoe she tried on, and be on my way! Again, I was way wrong!! Everything seemed to be going well, we found a parking spot 3 blocks away, and it was free! But the store was closed. The next closest store was 14 blocks away, and I did not have my double stroller. L was such a trooper and walked both ways without a single complaint! I did have to bribe her with ice cream, but she walked a total of 28 city blocks, and she is 3. That means I also walked a total of 28 city blocks, as I am writing this, I have no pain!

I did make an interesting discovery though. Since most of my readers are in similar situations as me, I have found us a wonderful solution for mobility. Since we are probably all on the younger side, because we did not opt initially for a hip replacement, looking cool is a big deal to us! Eventually, we will probably all need new hips, and begin to lose mobility. Rather than rely on a cane, walker or wheelchair, we can all buy this:

I saw a woman riding one in the city, either it needs a better braking mechanism, or she needed to learn to drive it, but with a little tweaking it can be the ride of choice for 'hipsters of the future'!

As I am moving forward, I used our treadmill today for the first time! The treadmill generated a huge argument in my household, I did not want it. I will never be able to run on a treadmill, for the rest of my life, if I want to preserve my ever so fragile hips!! I don't need a treadmill to walk, I walk outside...alot! J insisted that he would use the treadmill everyday, I insisted that he would not, and I would not, and it would become a clothes hanger. I was wrong. He uses it occasionally, I never have though, it came in the interim between my 2 surgeries. But today, I actually used it. No, I didn't run, or even jog! I used it for a total of 3 minutes and 41 seconds! I did my side squats on an incline on it! It really hurt my right hip, hence the short amount of time! But I plopped L in front of the TV to buy some time and do my exercises.

I came to a shocking discovery, I cannot do a straight leg raise on my operated leg. I know the protocol says no straight leg raises (SLR) for 4 weeks, tomorrow is 5 weeks, but I could not lift my darn leg. I finally squeezed hard enough, somehow pulled the femur in close to my body (or at least it felt like that) and lifted it a few inches. I will have my PT watch me do it this week and report on what he sees, since my account of it from the floor may no be so accurate. It also really hurt to even attempt a SLR. Prior to surgery, I could do no more than 5 or 10 without severe pain, my right leg can do 8-10 at a time, and then it gets weak and painful. Hopefully, in the near future, I will be able to do 20, consecutively!