Walking in Winter

I would love to be walking outside, at least on the slightly warmer days. I tried to work on walking outside at the beginning of December when I was getting ready to do a 1k walk called the Santa Shuffle hosted by the Salvation Army.  I was walking outside short distances each day with my daughter despite the icy, snowy sidewalks. Everyone, including the physiotherapist, was warning me to be extra careful and not fall again.  My cane has gripping spikes I can pop down when needed, and my sweet sweet friend Mindy even sent me some grips to put on over my boots to help keep me from slipping! I was very excited to reach my goal and participate in this virtual charity event, at an indoor location of my choice, but there was a downside.

 I still need to get my left knee replaced and when my physiotherapist assessed me a week after the official walk it turned out that my walking gait had actually gone downhill. She thinks that when I pushed myself to walk on the bad knee I favoured that leg in a weird sort of way that could cause serious damage to my hips as they continue to heal and strengthen. My gait has been less than perfect for almost 14 years, and so has my balance, but this is pushing it all to a new level.

 Soooo I have been just sitting around safely at home wayyy too much. 

My husband Bob and I finally had enough and went for a drive in our neighbourhood yesterday. We have had several big snowstorms so with the streets freshly plowed we decided to get out of the house at long last. We started our drive by going to the closest Salvation Army Thrift Store where we donated some clothes at their drop-off area. We followed that by getting a burger at a fast-food places drive-through and then eating it in their parking lot.  

I still wasn't ready to go home so we drove around and took a few pictures in our neighbourhood. It was around 4:30 in the afternoon and dusk was already beginning so the pictures have an extra grey and blue tone to them that I love. I personally think the short days are worse than the extreme cold we can face here in the middle of Canada.  Bob is an amazing photographer and I thank him for letting me share his photos. I hope you enjoy them. Look at the height of some of those snowbanks!

I'm Hoping For a Better Year

Welcome back to my Blog!

I have been stalling about writing this post but it is time to update you about how I am doing and try to get back to the fun and informative stuff. It's time to get back to Leading a Healthy Life! I am busy thinking up projects to keep me busy until spring. Easy, low-energy projects. Any suggestions? I promise to share regularly!

What is Happening Lately?

We have been working on decluttering our house, which has really gotten away from us, especially this past year. We are trying to figure out new ways of looking at all our spaces, belongings and at our many collections. It will undoubtedly lead to a few little home repairs. 

I am also working on my general health, but I am primarily working on controlling my weight. After a lifetime of serious weight issues, I was doing pretty well last summer and I felt optimistic. Unfortunately, in the past 3 months, after breaking my second hip, my weight has started climbing up again, so it's time to really focus on weight loss again.

I usually tend to be kind of private about my weight issues and clutter issues. Still, sharing might help me on my journey and perhaps help others struggling with similar problems. 

I am making progress with my hip recovery, so I am currently sorting out my return to work plan. Exercise had been hard despite encouragement from my physiotherapist and I do have a ways to go in my recovery. Still, I love my job and I am even more passionate about Therapeutic Recreation.  I believe work accommodations will be possible. I should find out soon.

My Miserable Year and Catching Everyone Up.

I have not really coped well with this past year. I consider myself a relatively resilient person, but I think that somewhere in the past 6 months, we found out the limit of my reserve. I realize everything could have been much worse. So many people have experienced enormous tragedies over the past couple of years. We are all doing better at my house, and our family is in good or improving health. I can walk, and I am grateful for that. Life is starting to look up a bit. 

It is a year and a month since I rather dramatically dislocated my artificial hip. I thought of so many worse-case scenarios in those first hours and days after my injury until they managed to get the hip prosthesis back in place. I was given the hope that three months in a hip brace would allow me to recover and that I would be back to my everyday life by March. 

Then it partially dislocated again briefly! I thought I would have a repair surgery shortly, but it was months. Then I thought, ok, we can get through this. It was June before I finally got the surgery to fully repair my hip. Recovery was painful and challenging, but I did my exercises and tried to have a good attitude. It would really be fixed in 4 months and, finally, it would be back to everyday life.

 In the meantime, the knee replacement surgery I was booked for had been cancelled with no idea when it could be rebooked. We had believed that by the beginning of 2021 I would have the knee fixed, Covid would be under control, my savings account would have improved and we might even have a getaway trip with a few friends. That new knee and I would be hiking all over the place.

Unfortunately, in September, I fell at the cottage when my left knee collapsed and I landed on my left "Good Hip". It broke so badly that I needed an emergency replacement for that one too.

Hip Recovery has been slow, and my attitude could have been better. The Knee Replacement is on hold for now. Continuing close-downs with Covid and particularly harsh winter conditions have added to the stress, affected my recovery and resulted in nasty cabin fever for my family, but I think I see a glimmer of hope coming soon.

I will be back here next Sunday with a much happier and more positive post. Please check it out on February 6th!

Here I Go Again

 I am in the hospital yet again! 

The hospital I’m in.

I fell and broke my “good” left Hip!  It was severe enough that they couldn’t fix the top of my femur so they had to give me a total hip replacement on that left leg.  The right hip is not yet fully recovered from the revision so I am basically really wobbly and in quite a bit of pain. I have been hanging together the best I can but it is really hard to keep up my spirit and trust that this too shall pass.

My “100 day physio challenge” kind of ended abruptly, and I was rocking it too!   I guess that in a few weeks I shall hit a reset button.  The physiotherapist that I work with when I’m home is aware and already getting informed about my condition. Tomorrow I should get some information about what to do next from the hospital physiotherapist.

I’ll write more about how I broke my hip in a separate post. I am still kind of processing that this is really happening. Can you believe that this is the 4th time in 39 months  that I have been hospitalized due to a hip issue?

Even while lying on the ground, first injured last week, I started saying “not again”, over and over, and in the past couple days it has become “here we go again”. It seems that when I experience these life crisis I find myself with song lyrics running through my head. That doesn’t mean the whole song is relevant, but that something in the lyrics or melody resonates with me. 

 I searched youtube for the tunes I was humming and this is what I came up with. 

In a few months, this might be the beginning of my Rewind Recovery Exercise Playlist! 

Edit: It looks like I can’t figure out how to share the YouTube videos via my phone since the recent update to blogger and I’m just not up to working on it. I’ll fix it someday. 

Trust me- it would of had you rock on and dancing between Whitesnake with “Here I Go Again” Dolly Parton with “Here You Come Again” and blasting off with a Mamma Mia! clip of “Here We Go Again”

Here I Go Again

Here You Come Again 

Here We Go Again