Sunday morning - depending on how you count, either eleven or twelve days post-op. I had a miserable, miserable night and woke up this morning hurting worse than I had since right after the operation. You know you're hurting when the grimace becomes more of a reflex than breathing. I took some pain meds, waited a bit and had the anti-inflammatory medicine, Celebrex (that one requires food - took me three or four days to figure that out), put some ice on my hip, and slowly got the pain under control. Honestly, it was brutal.
So where'd it come from?
Last evening, in the back yard, trying to keep up as Hettie played with the dogs, I put my crutches up against the fence and I leaned over to pick up a tennis ball using a Chuckit ball-tosser.
That's a total no-no. The "after your hip operation" literature says so - and the Physical Therapist emphasized the point several times. But I was using my good leg, lifting my operative leg behind me like some kind of perpetual motion bird toy. So I wasn't bending my hip at all - technically wasn't exceeding my motion limitations. So what's the problem?The problem is I lost my balance - face it, that's not a natural movement for someone in my position, at this point in my rehab. And when I lost my balance, I reflexively jabbed my left leg (my operative leg) down to the ground to keep from falling. It hurt - a lot - but I learned my lesson and felt I'd gotten off pretty easy. Until I tried to sleep. The pain factory at my surgery site ramped up its production overnight, reaching a near all-time high output in the early hours of the morning. By 6:00 a.m., it was as bad as it's been since the operation.
It could have been a lot worse. I could have dislocated the new joint, could have torn something, could have really, really set back my recovery. So I think I got off cheap, so to speak. I really, really get it. You have to take it slow, not put yourself into stupid positions, literally and otherwise. Nothing quite cements a lesson in my mind like searing pain - the kind I thought I'd gotten past.
