Shooting from the hip

This morning I walked into the physical therapy office feeling no pain in my right hip. This has become unusual. I almost always am in pain there, and took to using my cane while in Las Vegas. I had just returned from my holiday trip there last night.

While in Las Vegas I did not exercise every day. I went to the gym four or five times in about two weeks, and I did some walking on some other days, but mostly I was not being especially active. Perhaps the extra rest was good, after all, for my hip. I can never tell, really, because I avoided exercise altogether on my November trip and was in a whole lot of pain the entire time.

Nevertheless, here I was, feeling good! It is always nice to start a new year feeling good. I don't do resolutions but I do like to take stock a little.

My time on the Nustep crosstrainer went well; no extra hip pain. I like to meet certain goals on some machines. In the case of the Nustep I like to get to .75 mile in the fifteen minutes I'm on. Today I sailed to .80, which is quite a bit more than usual. I really was feeling strong.

I then moved to the hip flexor machine and had little trouble there. Usually that's one of the machines I just like to get done with. I did start feeling the pain again on the leg press; I do four sets of fifteen with both legs, then four sets with just my right leg, and that's when it tends to set in.

The leg press is similar to this photograph (above). Different from most leg presses at gyms because you lie flat or nearly flat. I completed the rest of my workout continuing to feel good, and when I walked out of the place one of the other clients remarked that I seemed to be walking better. I knew that I was. 

I have had so much pain in my right hip that I have wondered if I would ever have another day like today. They are getting father and father apart. This may be the Year of the Hip for me. Fortunately, recovery from that operation is easy for most people. I should be able to fly through it and get on with my life. I need to make an appointment with the orthopedist and see about setting a date. Assuming that there is no other fix that would make sense. Yes, I know about the injections. If he suggests that, I'll go ahead and get one, see how it works for me.

I am still, obviously, working on getting my legs straight. The therapist says we "just have to outlast it". I am glad he has that attitude because most would give up. I don't want to. The tension in my legs prevents me from using them as often and as long as I'd like. Getting them straight should relieve that tension.

And so I enter my 67th year full of hope, feeling good.

Still Keeping On

Proof of the rack. Here I am, as of last Wednesday (October 24, 2012), on the diabolical stretch machine at the physical therapist's office. Weight on my right knee: 20 lbs; left knee: 25 lbs. I haven't been able to increase the weight for quite a while, but I do feel a slight softening, a little less pain over the 10 minutes I am stretched. I am thinking of adding just a teeny weeny bit next time.

It has been over a year since my second surgery. Being in therapy this long is NOT typical. Most people are out completely within about three months. So please do not take my experience as an example of typical. Further, everything works well except for one thing: the extension. Getting the knee straight is the whole point of my being there. Yes, I also have hip pain but that is a separate situation.

In some ways it seems like I have gone backwards lately. I have had a lot of restless leg issues, in one leg or another and sometimes both, making getting to sleep very difficult. Many nights I am restlessly trying to get some sleep unti as late as three or even four in the morning. No longer the morning person, me. My hip has also made a lot of everyday activities difficult. I give in to it too easily. I start to do something around the house and the pain makes me want to sit down. I sit down. Getting up again isn't fun. I need to turn this around, just get out and do. Get out, get up, get around.

Related to the pain is the eating. Clearly I have been gorging. It is hard to stop. Overeating is the story of my life, nothing new. I have managed to control it at times but am not doing so well right now. Nobody needs to tell me that extra weight puts more strain on the joints. I do know this.

But hey! I have a nice haircut. It makes me feel more "professional", in a way, more "legitimate". I can't quite explain this feeling. But I'll take it. I am also getting out with various groups of photographers more often, always a challenge. There is a lot of walking, standing, and hauling involved in photography, although one pro told our club that he never goes far for a good photo. He finds them not far from his car! Not a bad example for someone like me, who gets a little afraid of doing lengthy hikes to get to the right place. It really helps to be learning, to be working on getting that photo, on doing better this time than the last.

Food: for those of you who have been suggesting various diets or supplements and possible allergic reactions, believe me I have been there. I make no bones of my not being a fan of supplements. Don't get me started on that. But I have also done elimination diets to determine if there are certain foods that increase inflammation. So far I have not found any that made any significant difference. I continue to eat a vegan diet, but unfortunately I do have these long-term issues with food, and unfortunately there are many foods that are vegan and not healthy. At least I am avoiding animal proteins. Give me that.

One Year

It has been one year since my second knee surgery. It seems hard to believe that I have been in therapy for that long! On the other hand, it really has been getting old. Yet I plug through the routine three times a week, occasionally upping the weights or number of reps.

It is frustrating to me that my hip pain causes me to limp sometimes. Others usually attribute this to my knees, and I feel like a broken record saying "no, not my knees, my hip", and having to explain that yes, I see hip surgery in my future. I bore myself just getting the basic info out.

I was at the gym today for an Aqua class, but the class was canceled because not enough people showed up. It was raining, and rain tends to keep a lot of people away. I went upstairs to the weight machines instead. I did fifteen minutes on the bike, six on the elliptical, and fifteen on the treadmill. I devise my own little intervals on the treadmill, upping the level three or for decimal points for thirty to sixty seconds, then upping it again, and then taking it down twice. I do that a few times during the total fifteen minutes. I felt mild discomfort in my hip when on the treadmill today, but nothing I could call pain. That's an improvement over when I first took to the treadmill some months ago.

After doing the above cardio exercises I did several exercises on machines, strengthening my upper body, core, and back. I think I should head for the gym after physical therapy M,W, and F, to fill out the workout with these upper bod and core exercises. Making for an all-around effort.

At times I do wonder if I will ever see that light at the end of the tunnel. Did I mention in my last post that other clients at physical therapy have told me they suddenly hit the straight leg? That after a long time working on it, their knee finally went straight and there was no more pain? God, I want that so much. Will I be that fortunate?

I continue to take meds for restless leg syndrome and a recurring rash, but nothing else most of the time. Sometimes my leg (usually the right) aches to the degree that I cannot sleep and I end up taking some sort of pain killer, usually tylenol. Just to take the edge off. Sometimes I resort to Tylenol PM when it looks like it's going to be a LONG night. But I don't make a habit of it.

I have been doing a lot more work with photography in the last many months, partly because I upgraded my camera. But one difficulty I have faced is that photography field trips offered by photo groups in the area tend to involve standing and walking and not much chance to sit. Depending on how my hip is doing this can be quite a problem. I brought a "shooting stick" - also called a seat stick or something like that - to an outing at the Oceano Dunes not long ago. I found it a bit difficult to put the stick in the sand and lean against the seat, though. Other places should not present as much of a problem. Photography is usually a physically demanding activity for those who are really good at it. Well, sigh. I am doing better than I was before surgery. That is the point.

One year down. What will I say next year?

Keeping on Keeping on

It has been a long time since I have written anything here! It isn't that there hasn't been anything to say. I just have a habit of getting out of habits after a while. Writing here was a habit.

It is almost a year since my second surgery, and I am still in therapy. I must emphasize that this does not mean that anything went wrong or that this is any kind of typical experience. Whatever the cause, the muscles in the back of my knees have been resistent to change, particularly to stretching, so that my legs can get straight. My legs do not know what "straight" is. The rest of my body doesn't, either. It has been accommodating this bent person for so long that it doesn't know how to help.

This is not meant to be a tale of woe. I am doing so very well overall. I have a higher energy level (I have always been lazy so it may be hard to tell!), I can walk more, I have many days of almost no pain. The pain I do get is usually in my hips, which is a complicating factor. I still have difficulty at night, although this has not been consistently true through these many months. Mostly I am facing the "restless leg" situation, and it seems to have gotten worse in the last few weeks, after being almost nonexistent for quite a while. I can't make sense of that.

A few weeks ago I went out on the Oceano Dunes to take photographs. It was hard going but I did it, and I was out there for 90 minutes. I can't imagine doing anything like that before surgery. It simply would have been inconceivable. I have done smallish hikes, sometimes finding that any pain in my hip would go away after a while. I really am getting stronger and having less pain overall.

The flex in my knees is great - somewhere around 130 degrees, maybe more. It does not hurt my knees to walk (it often hurts my hip, which is why I don't walk more than I do), but I do tire sooner than I should, because the muscles in my knees never get that moment of rest that they need. When we straighten our knees as we walk, we release the muscles momentarily. I never get this rest. This, at least, is the way my physical therapist explained it, and it makes sense. He says when my legs get straight I will be able to walk much longer and will less discomfort all over.

A couple of other patients at the therapist's office have told me that their legs suddenly went straight. After much time working on them, they suddenly gave in. More, the pain went away. It was no longer painful to have somebody push on those muscles. Lately I have felt greater pain when I stretch on the machine, but less pain when the therapist pushes on my knees. I am taking this as a sign of progress, whether it is or not. A few other patients have told me that I am walking much better, that they see the improvement. It is much harder for me to see, so I am happy that they thought to say so.

Sleeping In

I consider myself a "morning person". I tend to get up and moving early, and I seem to think best in the mornings. I am no good in the evenings, and I retire early.

During my work years I learned to get up every day at the same time. I read somewhere that if you do that, then it is not a struggle to wake up on weekday mornings because you've slept in on the weekend. Every day the same. Lately I've broken with the tradition.

Yes, being retired has its advantages. I can choose when to get up unless I have an appointment or class. I do, however, like to get things out of the way. Thus I wake up early enough to get physical therapy out of the way so I can have the rest of the day to myself. And I wake early on Aqua days, even though the class starts at 10:30 am, because I like to have time to myself to get going first.

OF late, though, I have been sleeping in. I wake up and just want to lie there longer, fall asleep again. The pattern that has emerged is that I get up early to feed the cats, bring the wet food for one cat back to my room with me, shut the door on the others (they all want his food), and go back to bed. I then get in another hour's sleep, sometimes even more. Yesterday I didn't get out of bed until after nine. This, for me, is very late. Will it be ten next?

I think one reason I have gotten this way is that for many months after surgery my knee, my calf, some part of my leg would hurt in the morning. Nothing I did would ease it, so there was nothing for it but to get up and get moving. Now, however, I don't feel that pain. Lying in bed is so wonderful! I love it and I want to enjoy it.  So in a way this sleeping in is a good sign. On the other hand, another reason I like lying in is that getting to sleep at night is often very difficult. Sometimes it is my mind, racing around, not willing to stop. Other times it is my body, unable to get comfortable. I think if I can solve this problem I will also solve the other, and will again be greeting the day early and well.

These Knees aren't made for running, and other stories

A few weeks ago Chuck, my therapist, mentioned that my new knees are not designed for running. Running wears them out. Doubles tennis is okay. Walking is okay (as long as it feels okay). No running. Also no deep knee bends. These are activities I was not engaging in anyway so I'm not missing them.

I am missing walking without pain, consistently. My right hip is bothering me more and more. Sometimes I can do a bit of a hike or walk and feel good but then the next several days I get nothing but hip pain. I am not sure how to work this.

I have joined a photography club. At our monthly meetings we get "assignments" for the next meeting. These assignments are starting to get me out there, on my feet, for brief forays. I am remembering a time, years ago, right after my younger daughter was born. There was a big storm. The day after the storm I went to a park that was flooded to take pictures (with a film camera, of course).  Standing in the tall grasses, feet soaking wet, body starting to shiver, I realized that I was capable of ignoring discomfort when engaged in something I love. This was actually a revelation to me. I am finding it to be true again.

Back to the Coast

photo by joey

Yesterday I did the east-west ranch hike in Cambria again. This time I was with my grandson and it was not foggy, but it was very windy and cold. We did it in one hour, which for me is respectable and, I think, less than the last time. I did not feel the discomfort I felt the last time, although my hip acted up a bit near the end. Gives me hope.

I am a bit stiff today and my right hip is hurting again. It does seem like I pay for these hikes on the following day. Worth it, of course.