Week 10. More ASTYM and Thanksgiving

Monday ASTYM, PT, walking, 20' indoor bike

Tuesday 30 of elliptical, 30' SWIM 1250y, walking
Wednesday 10' bike at PT and drive home
Thursday 2x30' indoor bike
Friday 30' each of elliptical and SWIM
Saturday 40' bike indoor
Sunday 3x20' bike indoor

I'm not very detailed, I wish I was. As I'm doing things I think that I'd like to write it down but then I don't. It's either  unimportant or I'm just lazy.

Monday was a re-scheduled PT due to holiday. JB did ASTYM again and said things felt much better this 2nd time. Previously my hip around surgery area, lateral calf, and knee all caught her attention. Bruising more prominent today! I've added a mid-day walk in the 'smoker's park' and I did 2x 6 floors of stair climbing. That all felt good.

Tuesday to Dr L who saw me walk in with my mild limp. He found the usual tight hip capsule a little more tight than usual, and did some deep work on psoas (he said it was 'horrible', and his hands were cramping!). I think he was competing with JB for bruising. Mo' Bruising, Mo' Betta? The elliptical felt great, aside from boring and the guy who decided that out of 10 empty machines he needed the one next to me, then proceeded to go-really-fast while leaning on the screen and/or handles, and exude bad breath all over. Ugh. The pool was with my new suit!! Yellow and black with gold and black new helmet. I was all color coordinated -- blue flip-flops, kickboard, pull buoy, and goggles; bee colored cap and suit. I'm working on dropping the pull buoy, focusing on form and kick. Felt good. Note to self -- 34 is maybe too small for some swimsuit brands. 

In other news I've dropped the now-awful Podcast app from my phone and I'm testing another app. My left eye and side of face has developed a twitch, gets worse when I try to move my lips (eating, talking, etc). I'm planning my menu for the holiday and getting frustrated, would be easier to just bring my own and forget about it. Oh, and see Keto post! Started that yesterday. That was among the things that I wish I was more detailed about.

THANKSGIVING Went great! Hard to keep Keto but I did my best. I also got what exercises in that I could, no walking but lots of indoor biking. I think Mom's bike doesn't fit good for my hip, had some issues with a "ping" feeling, like it needed to pop. Such a short trip, it always seems that way. Drove back Sunday, and to my surprise the drive felt Ok on the hip.

Week 9: ASTYM and OUTDOORS (not at the same time)

Monday visit with M&D, not even PT exercises
Tuesday, Dr L but didn't do PT exercises! SWIM 1200y 30'
Wednesday PT with 10' bike, 5' elliptical; 1.5 mi outside with Puppy, 20' indoor bike
Thursday 30' elliptical; SWIM 1200y in 30'; 1.5 mi outside with Puppy
Friday PT and extra 20' ride at home that night
Saturday BIKE ~9 miles 40' to TGP and around neighborhood!!
Sunday WALK 2 miles in am, 1 mile in pm. "brisk" was goal.

Hard to log all these little sessions. I'm counting but not logging walks here too.

Monday was Dad's appt. We finished the deck in the morning. I didn't mention this in last week's post but most of the deck was done on Sunday and I'm super happy to report that carrying the lumber, bending over to work, and climbing up and down the steps did NOT leave me in pain. I was careful and didn't exceed limits. I also didn't do any extra PT exercises.

Tuesday was 30' swim and 5' elliptical before Dr L appt. I had full range of motion and maintained my lower lumbar back measurements! Apparently, my body likes to do work :)

Wednesday was busy! Up to PT, get Puppy from Big Shark, then work. At work I did a 1 mile "brisk" walk and a 1x 6 floors stair climb. Then went home for more bike indoors. I was feeling it in the hip flexor.  I talked with JB at PT -- she said not doing exercises was right thing to do, try icing the leg before bed to see if the night pains change, and otherwise doing good. No new exercises today.

Thursday I was 20' late to gym but pushed through to get it all done. So when I go home, I'm done, assuming I do my final lunge exercises at work as planned. ....hint.....

Friday PT with ASTYM! JB did this for the medial hip flexor that seems to be what keeps me up at night. And OUCH but YAY I slept and did feel better. Plastic blue torture devices. Didn't do much else today.

Saturday YAY outdoors with Puppy like a real ride. Shoes and all. No problems, no pains beyond the expected. There was a storm front moving in, as I finished the last half mile it was raining. But the fall colors were so gorgeous, the storm clouds a pretty contrast. Had lunch with EC, TG, and TH. Temp dropped 30F over the course of the day.

Sunday took the dog to Grand and back for a Basset-Brisk walk, meaning kinda brisk but a lot of pauses. Rest of the day I rested and got stuff done in the garden, yard, and house.

Things are feeling good, and much better after ASTYM. Will look at Garmin to see if it captured improved sleep. Lifting the leg (like to get into the truck or bed) has improved over the past week, but still pinching.

Week 8! Bring out the bike!

Monday BIKE 15 mins and 3.6 miles outdoors
Tuesday SWIM 1000y and 25 mins, 2 full laps of kick board, breathing exercises
              ELLIPTICAL (does that deserve all caps...?) 20 mins w/ 2' intervals
Wednesday Indoor biking and strength training
Thursday ELLIPTICAL 25 mins and 2 miles (longest yet)
             SWIM 30 mins and 1200y (longest yet) Whoop!
Friday 10' bike and 5' elliptical at PT
Saturday 25' elliptical and SWIM 15 mins 750y?
Sunday nothing, not even exercises, worked on deck


Monday I drove partway to work (my usual free parking near the dog park) then rode Puppy the rest of the way, and added in some FoPa loopage to test the hill. I think I can park in FoPa instead and get the better riding there instead of doing trainer rides indoors. Goal is to build up to riding the entire commute distance, this will take time especially since there's a secondary build in two weeks when I get to wear biking shoes. Not used to being unclipped, that's probably more dangerous for me! It was cold out, upper 40's, my hands got cold but I told them to STFU and enjoy the ride :)  My hip did hurt a bit after this. Also adding in a few flights of stairs at work today, start with 3x 2 floor and see how it goes. It will help that I'm not walking the 0.7 miles each way to the truck when I have the bike. Good trade off.

Tuesday Prior to Dr L appt I got in 20' elliptical and 25' swim. My goal was a 1200y swim but silly delays lost time. I couldn't find my cap and goggles, asked Anton about a lost/found or back-up to borrow, dug around in the room, then found my stuff inside my shower bag. Oops. Good swim, but my technique is sloppy. I found a website with 100 swim workouts, I need some variety so I'm using these to build sessions. Dr L appt went good, worked on back and hip as usual. Said my back is still building strength, but it also seemed to me that things aren't improving or changing and something else needs to be done.

Tuesday bonus. It's colder out but sooooooo beautiful with all the fall colors!

Wednesday PT with JulieB, then at home 30' min on the bike and 20 mins of dumb bell strength training. To the Marvel Comics Ultron movie :)
JB thought I might be able to run a fall marathon in 2018!! Race calendar time!
Dropped Puppy off at BS for a fall tune up. Puppy has needed attention since ...oh...about April when he was previously in for a tune up. That's when the RandomAssShifting started, half and double shifts at whim. And that bump in the rear tire, I'm sure it's an easy fix but it wasn't easy for me.

Thursday Low energy morning transformed into good by an hour at the gym. Longest elliptical and pool sessions yet! And 5 mins of backwards treadmill walking between them. Not really counting that into my hour. So does that mean I'll do 5' of indoor biking when I get home? Probably. Zippo to do today at work, that's been the trend all week. Not happy about it. Energy suck.

My back "pinged" in the pool today, the upper left posterior hip feeling. I think that's the first time I've felt it swimming. Started late, after the kickboard laps. Keep an eye on it. Remembered today that swimming hurt before the surgery, so another positive-- my hip doesn't hurt while swimming! But my neck...my neck not liking the alternate side breathing sets.

I pick up Puppy tonight, and in 1.5 hours I talk to my NSNG-VT!! Excited, nervous, have my notes ready. Report in tomorrow on it.

Friday, didn't get to picking up Puppy. Had PT and that was about it for the day.

Saturday elliptical and pool, but because I got  a late start to the morning I didn't get a full swim in. M&D coming to visit!!

NUMERICS (haven't done this in sooooo long!)
SWIM 2950y, 70'
BIKE 2.5 outside
RUN haha
WALK 10.5 (didn't log all)
ELLIPTICAL 75'

8 week post surgery summary

Quick overview of how I am at 8 weeks.

Walking mostly normal, when I sit for awhile there's a slightly pained stiffness to shake out. When I'm not careful, there's still a bit of guarding and/or limping. Still not walking "briskly" or "purposefully". That still hurts.

Biking started outdoors yesterday! Doesn't feel good yet and I'm really not ready for traffic. Distracted and guarding. The hip flexor doesn't appreciate the angles on the Puppy. That's fine, I'll rest it. Biking to/from the truck will reduce the walking by eliminating the 2x 0.7 mile walk to the parking I use.

Stairs are OK but fatiguing. JulieB pointed out that my down-steps can be lazy, my knee bends in. Need to focus on using the 4-5th toes so the hip muscles are engaged. So working on that. Today I'm adding in 3x 2-flights of stairs at work.

PT exercises are more "off the table" but still pretty tame. No lunges or jumps, most recently added in steps and weighted prone leg bends and lifts. No ladder drills yet. Soon. I hope.

I can move around much better, moving to sit on the floor still not easy but I think it's because I'm guarding. Not unreasonable, as it's still uncomfortable to do that motion. A tight discomfort.

Driving is OK as long as I assist the leg on the clutch and parking brake to minimize the hip flexor usage. Same goes for getting in/out of bed, putting feet up on couch to rest, and the like. There's still a pinchy feeling at the hip flexor.

Doing Dr L once a week on Tuesdays, Julie 2x a week on Weds and Thursday. PT at home the other 5 days.

Swimming now 3x a week, working up to 1200 yards/session this week. Still not climbing in/out of the pool from the deck, instead using the steps in and ladder out. And admittedly the ladder-out isn't a good selection for the hip flexor. Biking indoors 2x 20'day but that will change over to outdoor biking as I can. Doing elliptical for a few mins at PT and then 20' on swim days. My goal is 60' of activity (biking, swimming, elliptical, strength on some days) per day. That's pretty tame for me.

Sweeping the patio wasn't comfortable yesterday. Anything that twists the joint it seems does that. Same goes for crossing my legs, a habit I probably have broken by now. I dearly miss breaking a sweat, doing something rigorous and so far swimming is as close as I can get there. But I find that too much of that aggravates the SI joint in my hip as well as my lumbar region. And my neck. So I gotta balance that all out. Still don't like swimming though!

Overall, soooo happy to be biking, even if a short trip. Recovery really in fits and starts, ups and downs. Progress best measured week by week, instead of day by day. Repeating chores that I do once a week (like walking into Dr L's office) are my measures.

Week 7 post-surgery

Monday: 2x 20' trainer rides, cranked up to mid ring and adding higher RPMs
Tuesday 1x 15' elliptical with higher steps (setting of 2!) and higher RPMs
         SWIM 20' 800 yards as 4x 150P, 50S
Wednesday 10' bike and 5' elliptical at PT, then 15' strength and 25' bike at home
Thursday 15' elliptical then SWIM 25' 1050y, 2x50 kickboard
Friday 10' bike and 5' elliptical at PT, the 28' bike and 17' strength that night
Saturday 1.6 mile walk, first mile "brisk", SWIM 25' 1000y, 20' elliptical, 20' bike that night
Sunday BIKE 20 mins and 3.6 miles outdoors! 20'


Tuesday was Dr L visit, I have almost full ROM and thigh can move up to the ribs! He worked lower back, said the left hip ping feeling and femur ache are the SI joint. Gotta google that....    Also worked on the outer left hip area like he's been doing. Returned the rental car today! Mic and I tested a short trip in the truck Saturday and it seems OK. One month with that little car! Nissan Versa not my thing, but I'll miss being able to play pods and music off the phone.

November! Wednesday was a full workout at PT, no new exercises. Gotta say, I'm feeling good! Driving the truck going OK, I still lift my leg if I need to move it and I lift it for the parking brake. After a painful weekend I'm happy to report that my "during the day" discomfort is really reducing. Recovery seems to go in fits and starts. The strength was just the 5# weights, arm stuff and some abs. Just to get things moving. In some down time at work I started up a monthly calendar with starting, midpoint, and end of month goals. Color coded too. Bike indoor and outdoor, stairs at work, elliptical, swimming, brisk walking, and strength.

                           START                MID                                        END
Indoor                 2x 20'/day           increase time and gears        60' DVD session
Outdoor              ZERO!                Zero until here                       Really depends*
Stairs                  zero                  3x/day 3 flights                        3x/day 6 flights
Elliptical             3x/week 5' ez        build resistance and hill      Real 30' sesh w/ hills
Swimming          3x/w 20' 800-1000y   1 mile session                 Master's class 60' 2400+y 
Brisk Walking     easy now, ~2mi/d     Brisk to Compton (1mi)  Brisk to Grand (2mi)**     
Strength               1-2x/week 15'        depends on PT                   Solid habit 2-3x/w at gym

* Don't wanna set goals on this to push, lotsa potential for problems here given weather, pain levels, whether or not I feel in control of the bike
**JulieB says a brisk 2 mile walk (or was it 3...?) is a requirement before moving to the Return To Running Program. Right now I walk dog 0.5 in am, walk 1.5 to/from free parking, then another walk of less than 0.5mi in the pm. Hey....wait....just MMR'd this and found my Nebraska loop is 0.8 miles, the BP loop is also 0.8!! I though Nebraska was 0.5 miles loop. Hey, doing better than expected! Start going for more brisk?

Thursday OOOOOOOHHHHHH so warm out! 52F at 5am and up to the 70's today? OMFG Intellicast says 77F right now! Gotta walk outdoors! Anyway, up to some PT, then gym for 15' elliptical and 25' swim. Longest swim yet at 25' and 1050y, and 2 laps with the kickboard. My shoulders did worse than the hip. On the deck I talked to a guy I recognize from spin classes over the years (Mike) about the masters. I saw them Tuesday. Today they did at 2850y sesh (eek!) but he said the instructor (Sarah) is flexy and can help make a workout tailored to me as I rebuild. So I'm looking at Y masters as an end of month goal. Yay!

Friday was PT, one new exercise added and the prone leg lifts now have a 1lb weight added in. Can definitely move up on the poundage.

Saturday was a lazy day, I was up late Friday watching LOTR TTT, caught some full moon at 00:24, then slept in to get a minumum of 7.5 hours. Day went slow..... took the dog for a long walk of 1.6 miles (did 1 mile 'brisk'), then didn't get to gym until midday and didn't have a lot of motivation for anything. And some mental stress, a lonely depression feeling. Manifested badly :(  But not hurtfully.
That night was TV's bday celeb! I walked to it, enjoyed it and the dress code of race t-shirt and running shoes. Then home, then more badly. Ugh.

Sunday Gained an hour of sleep which is good because again I stayed up late to watch a Marvel Avenger's movie from the library. I was going to hike today but the that mental feeling was still there. Again, wasted a morning badly, got the bike ride in (a highlight of the weekend!!), but not much else. Just feeling lazy and tired. Weather was SUPER WARM and rain in the afternoon heralded the end of a warm spell.

At Sunday's end, my hip wasn't up for a hike anyway. A little hurtful and I'm going to guess it was the Saturday walk, elliptical, and swim builds. Careful!

Sis and family and town!

Weekend of fun with Sis' family. Marvel Comics show, City Museum, but I was good and didn't move around too much.

I slept with K on the futon, this was a not-so-great idea but I made it work. The futon pad isn't really "padding"! And my back was unhappy for it.

Symptom update:
1) Hip flexor down front quad: I'm actively resting it, picking up my leg and assisting
2) lumbar back easily gets tight, and I have a pain in upper left hip associated with the back.
3) lots of leg pain in left femur, best guess is related to #2
4) outer hip pain, trochanter? Achy, sometimes sharp pain.

Overall good, my back gets tired from walking and carrying a backpack. A tingling feeling in the mid region, right side.

Did as much PT as I could, only got in one 20' ride on the trainer.

Follow up with surgeon

Monday PT at home and 2x :20 bike, Dr L appt
Tuesday PT at home and 2x :20 min bike, surgeon appt
Wednesday PT in am, then nothing for my bday!
Thursday PT in am, gym 10 min each bike and elliptical, SWIM 5x 150P, 50S
Friday PT in am

Monday Dr L appt in the afternoon, a mixed up day, but good appt. He mentioned that my cerebellum will need to relearn walking and etc, love the casual science drops :D

Tuesday 6 week follow up with Dr P-G (I though for sure I was 7 or 8 weeks!). All great! She moved leg and hip around, noted the pain and said it's to be expected. I can bike!! Short and flat course, 8 week if unclipped, 10 weeks if clipped. I smiled the rest of the day for this news. Can work up to swimming without pull buoy. Next 6 weeks the focus is healing, being careful, resting, and normalizing. She also pointed out that I have to mentally relearn, in particular to NOT hesitating when I clip out while biking. She's right on that, I'll hesitate.

And kept the rental car for one more week, next Tuesday will be a month!

Wednesday, HAPPY BEEDAY! PT and three new exercises. Long day at work with FACS assay but otherwise a sunny warm gorgeous day. I walked too much, between parking meter payments and such, irritated my hip. Best part of day was hearing from family and friends :)

Thursday, yes I've irritated my hip, it hurt all day. Hip flexor as usual. Swim was great, slowed down a bit without the pull buoy, 21 mins down to 22, ha! My form is terrible, and this conclusion supported by observation that my lower back was also irritated today. Carrying a backpack, walking, could feel tightness, fatigue, and "pings" in the upper rear left hip. Iced in bed.

Friday (today!) At PT we discussed my fatigues and pains. Three new exercises -- step up and step down stuff. Bought a blue band as I've graduated from green on the hip bridges. She tested my back (do a hip bridge, then back down, then she felt pelvic bones for 'levelness'), and the left side was rotated back. She demonstrated an exercise to counter those muscles pulling it out of place.

Lots of commas today, too tired for full sentences?

My sis and her family coming down in a few hours!! WHOOP!!