things I'm loving lately

Some fun things.

Cookie scoops. I got myself a pack of 3 different sizes for Christmas and I use them for cookies & batters, but also just about everything I can think of. Like when I make a big batch of something I use these to portion them out to freeze. Rice, quinoa, etc. I feel like a lunch lady and it's really satisfying. If you come visit and you get a perfectly domed portion of something, you know what's up.

Pretty PJ sets. I'm once again over the faded, stretched out, stained old raggedy tank tops and searching for some cute sets. I found 2 that I like, but mostly I'm finding a lot of shitty polyester and no, thank you. The search continues.

Speaking of, I bought several different colors of a linen tank top that doesn't make me feel like I want to rip it off the second I step outside. I have resorted to simply wearing a bathing suit top and cotton boxers when I know I'll be outside for a while. It's the least amount of clothing I can wear and not be reported to the authorities.

Disposable paper towels. Not for every day use, but for parties. There is nothing quite like washing your hands and going to dry them off on an already soggy hand towel because 20 people before you used it. At least you hope. Ugh. I am NOT above bringing them to a party and casually leaving them in the bathroom.

Naked Pea protein powder. Unflavored. What is with the questionable ingredients in all the protein powders out there? And GOD FORBID I don't want it sweet. I like this stuff, and am already on my second package. I like to add it to smoothies.

some pretty pill organizers. Because we take lots of supplements lately and it's easy to remember if we took them or not with these. And when you travel you just take those days and toss them in your bag.

pft.

Well I had a shitty day.

Mostly because I was super annoyed that, SuRpRiSe I'm still in pain from the really stupid move I made, and it affected everything I tried to do today. So my mood just compounded bad upon bad and eventually it provoked FH which turned into a bad mood for everyone.

So I stewed in my bad mood until this afternoon when I tried to shake it off and failed. At that point there's only one thing left to do and it's take a shower, eat dinner, pour a big glass of wine and go to bed early. Tomorrow will be another day, and hopefully better.

progress?

Well I'm a moron. 

A few days after the conversation with my doctor about how I needed to slow down, I decided it would be a good idea to mow the yard.

Hear me out.

I ran it by FH first, and he actually gave me the okay. I mean, mowing the yard is basically walking behind the mower since it's self-propelled. and I've been walking pretty well, even in the yard.

So I did it. But I forgot about the pulling, the pivoting, and all the other movements involved in mowing. In my defense, I went very slow and made deliberate movements and nothing actually hurt when I was doing it. As soon as I was done, I sat on the couch with an ice pack and rested for a while. Then I rested for most of the day, and I felt fine. A little tired, but no pain.

Until the evening. 

At some point, I took a step, felt sharp pain, and that was it. I knew I had overdone it. It was painful to walk the entire next day, and I spent most of it sitting with an ice pack and taking tiny, slow steps whenever I needed to walk. 

The tendonitis in my arm also flared up and I was in so much pain. 

Talk about a setback. 

I feel so stupid. I thought I was doing good, but once again I overestimated my progress. Ugh. How embarrassing. 

Now I'm in healing jail and I'll be scared to take too big of a (literal and figurative) step forward for a while. 

I really hope this is a lesson learned and I don't do something stupid like this again.

6 weeks

Dude. Essentially at my 6-week follow up today the doctor told me I am overdoing it and I need to slow down.

I thought I was going slow! I also thought I'd be ready to go back to work 3 weeks from now but when I saw the look on his face while I was talking I felt my plans go down the drain. He said that's probably not realistic.

Really? I know progress is slow but come on.

Then I started to believe him when he explained that yes, I could go until I hit pain, but then I needed to stop immediately, NOT keep going for a little bit and then stop. And that if I did get sore, I shouldn't still feel sore the next day and if I did, that means I over did it.

Oh.

Then he did an exam and all the movements we made came with a small sharp pain at some point or another and that's apparently also a sign to slow down.

Because overdoing it (even a little bit) every day slows down your overall progress.

So that whole appointment was disappointing, overall.

To drive the whole point home (pun intended), I have been in pain all afternoon. Why? Because I drove to the appointment (about an hour) and I felt a little bit of pain after about 30 minutes but kept going. This was before the conversation with the doctor. Had I stopped and switched with FH and he took over the driving, I might not be in pain right now.

Sigh.

alcoholish

I have a doctor's appointment next week. When they sent me the confirmation text, I had to click on a link and go through my medical history to confirm that nothing had changed. It pre-populated the fields with what was already in my file. I was scrolling through the fields when I got to one that made me do a double take.

Under alcohol use, I was categorized as a "heavy drinker." 

Say what?? I was offended!

So I looked it up. Apparently, medically speaking, the standard for women is, if you drink more than 7 drinks a week, you are considered a heavy drinker. Which seems awfully light to me. At 2 glasses every night, I never thought of myself as a heavy drinker. Moderate, maybe.

But maybe that's the problem... thinking that you don't drink as much as you do. 

So I got to thinking: One drink every night is fine, but two is too much? Is drinking every night even okay? Where did these definitions come from? Does it even matter? Is this a sign to take it down a notch? I don't get drunk every night, I just like one with dinner and one to wind down and get sleepy. I rarely have more than 3 drinks in one night because I know I'll feel like crap the next day. My doctor has never said to cut back but now I'm questioning if I drink too much.

I stopped drinking the week before surgery so it's been a while since I've had any alcohol. There have only been a couple of times in the last several weeks where I even wanted a glass of wine. Right now would be a really good time to do a hard reset and change my drinking habits. Maybe having a glass (or 2) of wine every night isn't the healthiest and I am trying to be healthier overall...

So I guess the new standard for Jen is to have less than 7 drinks a week. If I have 2 glasses 3 nights a week that's under the threshold... I never thought I'd have to overthink how much alcohol I drink!

Ok well that's a lie because alcoholism does run in the family (having both sides come from Wisconsin this is a normal thing actually) and I've always thought I was never even close to being a heavy drinker. I am able to say "no" and I am able to just have one drink and stop. When I do get drunk it's fun and it's never extreme. I feel like those are classic tests of alcohol problems. It still bugs me being classified as a heavy drinker though. 

Hm.

custom ice /heat packs

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? 

Since I've been icing my hip on a constant basis, I needed more than 1 ice pack so I could pull a cold one out of the freezer after one got warm. I made a couple using ziploc bags, but they are an awkward size and after a while they started to leak. (Well, the Ziploc brand did not leak. The Walmart brand did.)

To fix my problem, I created a pocket in a wide ace bandage by folding the end back on itself and sewing along the edges. 

Then I made custom ice packs to fit that pocket using the food saver. I used 2 parts water, 1 part rubbing alcohol so when they freeze they are kinda slushy and pliable. (They are hard to see in the picture because they are clear) 

It's tricky to seal them with the food saver, but if you elevate it on a book or something, you can get the plastic on the sealer and the liquid won't spill out.

I also made a custom rice pack using leftover fabric from RV curtains. Because sometimes you need heat instead of cold.

week 4 ish

What day is it again? Oh yeah, it's June. Damn, May went by so fast and so slow.

It's been over a month since surgery. Walking without a crutch was slow and awkward at first, but gradually I was walking without pain and with a slight limp. I was doing great until The Incident involving big roaches in a paper towel roll and I ran before my I knew what was happening. Not something you want to do on a healing hip. It set me back progress-wise about 2 days, which wasn't so bad in the long run but man it sucked.

At this point I'm mostly pain free, but still feel the joint get pinchy if I do too much, and am icing all the time to stay ahead of inflammation. I'm done taking all the drugs (YAY now maybe my stomach will calm down), and I'm ready to start trying to drive. I need to see how much strength and stamina I have so I can start to measure progress. I'd like to go on walks to measure how fast I get tired but I don't really have anywhere to do that safely. 

I still wear the brace if I'm in the yard, since grass and hills are surprisingly difficult to walk on, and I also wear it if I'll be doing bending, like weeding the garden. It's uncomfortable and HOT, but keeps me from bending too far. I think it will be a while until I can bend past 90 degrees. 

Ironically, I'm in a lot of pain but not my hip. My arm hurts from crocheting too much. It seems like I developed forearm tendonitis from crocheting for hours every day. Go figure. So now I need to find some other way to pass the time.