Ahhhhhhhh!

Well, life continues on and I’m still struggling with this stupid walker. Joanne did go out and buy me an anti-embolism stocking for the right leg. I do think it helps with the swelling and does feel better when I walk. It was a bugger to get the stocking on though. If the swelling goes down then it should be easier to get the stocking on in a couple of days.

Our weather has been so nice for the last few days that it makes this process even more of a pain in the hip. I would love to be outdoors working in the yard and getting the truck and RV ready for traveling. Guess that will not happen until about June. Maybe in a week or so I will give driving a try and see if it hurts the hip or not. I hope that I will be able to drive with little or no pain. I am a goofy footer so I only use the right leg for the accelerator and brake with my left. That is what my dad did and that is how I learned. With the Freightliner, I have to do everything with the right foot because the accelerator and brake are both on the right of the steering column. There isn’t any room to get the left foot over to the brake.

Maybe if my driving test works out okay then I will be able to go to Group. I asked the doctor when I would be able to drive and he said it was up to the “Boss”. He was referring to Joanne. It would be a lot easier if all I needed was a cane but dealing with the walker sure throws a wrench in the works. Things will get better…right?

Four More Weeks

Well, after visiting the doctor on Friday, he gave me the bad news of four more weeks with the walker and no weight bearing on the hip. I sure was hoping for better news. It has been a tough two weeks and having to do four more like this will be so boring. I feel like I can’t do anything. Pain wise, the leg is doing fairly well but I do have some swelling of the foot and calf. I try exercising the leg but the muscles are very tight.

Guess we will have to cancel our first trip of the year to Branson, MO for the RV-Dreams Rally. The brake pedal on the Freightliner takes a lot of pressure and I will not know how that will affect the hip. Rather than push it too much, guess it is best that we delay the first trip of the season. You should check out the RV-Dreams website for some young folks that decided to travel the country and leave the corporate world. The site is at http://www.rv-dreams.typepad.com/.

The thing that I miss right now is not being able to go to my Thursday group therapy sessions. I had a couple of flashbacks in the hospital because I was out of my safe zone. I’m doing fairly well now but still would like to get back with my sessions and the guys.

I've Fallen and Can't Get Up

The best laid plans of mice and men…. Well, our trip to the Hall China Convention in Pittsburgh was cancelled at the last minute on Wednesday, April 2nd at about 3 PM. I had gone out to the RV to get a new pair of flip-flops to take on the trip. While exiting the RV, I found myself flying through the air and landed on my right side. As I was falling, I said to myself “this is going to hurt”.

I could not get up from the ground because of extreme pain in my right leg. Joanne came out of the house and saw my feet under the RV and thought that maybe I was fixing something. She asked what I was doing and all I could say was that famous saying, “I’ve fallen and can’t get up”. I told her to call 911 because I better go to the local ER.

To make a long story short, it turns out that I did break my right hip in two places. I went to surgery on Thursday at about 7 PM and was discharged the next day by 2:30 PM. At 10:00 pm this evening it will be officially two weeks since the three pins were placed in my hip. No weight bearing for four to six weeks is going to be a real pain in the neck. Of course, my allergies to pain medication did not help the situation any. Hopefully, I will get the sixteen staples taken out tomorrow and maybe the doctor will let me start doing more things and start putting a little more weight on the leg. Hey, I can hope can’t I.