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 

100 Day Fitness Challenge.

On your mark, get set and...

I am committing to my own:

One Hundred Day Fitness Challenge. 

Believe me, friends, I still have a very, very long way to go. I need a plan to improve my health in general, but you have to start somewhere with specific goals. So I plan to start by fully committing to doing my physiotherapy exercises and trying to walk regularly.

I started this blog in 2008 when I was facing massive health challenges, and I am very proud of how far I have come. I know the routines for getting better. But...

  

This latest crisis with my hip dislocation and resulting surgery has taken a lot out of me, and I am struggling. I don't feel like I have a lot of fight left in me at the moment. Maybe it is a bit of reaction to staying home for the past year and a half, not working for the past 8 months, and not socializing. I do think a lot of my hesitancy has to do with lingering fear after that sudden horrific dislocation. I just have a sense of anxiety about how one simple movement can change a life. I "feel" much safer on my couch.

 

Logically I know that the best course of action is to work, yet again, on strengthening those muscles and on my cardiovascular health. I am working with an excellent physiotherapist and I am sure that the exercises are appropriate and necessary. My hip is recovering correctly, if slowly, but it is certainly uncomfortable and is a constant reminder that things are still not quite right. As a matter of fact, I have had such limited mobility since December that I feel like all my muscles have turned into jello.

 I really need to have mypainful left knee replaced too, but I am backing off from that surgery for now. The surgeon and I agree that I have already been through enough for one year, but it does need to happen sooner rather than later. I really need to keep working on getting that knee strong so that I will be ready when that surgery happens. Loosing more weight wouldn't hurt either.

 I recently started following Nina Adrian Torres on Facebook and YouTube. She has severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and has had 19 surgeries related to her condition. What I like about Nina is that she has a positive attitude and go-to approach to life. She is a strong supporter of others, and especially other arthritis sufferers. She is a passionate and positive force in the lives of the school kids she works with and with her coworkers. She is firm in her faith and feels lifted up and that she is doing what she is meant to do. She rises to the challenges in her life, even when it is so hard, through her trust in God.  

Nina is on day 3 of her own Get Fit 100 Day Challenge. I'm jumping on board by trying to do 100 days in a row myself!

Nina has been saying,

"It's not how many times you fall - it's how many times you get back up!"

 Do you think I can do it? Can I find my get up and go again?

Ok, everyone. 

I'm getting back up.

 I have things I want to do!

I still want to be Leading A Healthy Life!

Lets Go!