Sweat Hog

, I am old enough to remember "Welcome Back Kotter," which means I could be menopausal. However, I don't think that's the explanation for my hot flashes.

We are having a heat wave in Portland, with temperatures expected to peak in three digits tomorrow. But our house is cool, and I've been spending the majority of my time indoors.

It's been a bitch trying to regulate my body temperature. I think this is a residual effect of all the heavy-duty drugs introduced into my formerly drug-free body over the past several weeks -- epidural, general anesthesia, oxycodone, oxycontin -- as my body tries to detoxify. But it seems to be taking forever!

My last Oxy was 5 days ago, and I did experience two days of withdrawal-type symptoms (nausea, headache, irritability, inability to sleep, sweating). The only remaining symptom now is the hot/sweat/cold cycle I'm in. It's far worse at night, when I wake up drenched, throw open the windows, throw off my clothes, and then become freezing cold. I load up on blankets, and the cycle repeats. All night long. In between I'm able to sleep, but every morning I wake up soggy and, well, smelly. And unhappy.

It could be worse. My hip pain is really minimal, for which I'm grateful. I'm just taking occasional Tylenol for pain. My last Fragmin injection is tomorrow (YEAH!) I get to ditch the lovely TED compression stockings tomorrow (YEAH!) Overall I feel fantastic. I just wish I could stay cool, or warm, or somewhere in between, and remain there.

I got on the scale this morning to find I'd lost just over 10 pounds since my PAO, which is not something I expected. I had gained 10 lbs. from date of diagnosis and was able to lose 5 of that before surgery, so now I'm 5 pounds below my weight before all this started. Perhaps it's all water weight, although I've been careful to stay hydrated during this sweatfest. I actually look a lot thinner, especially my legs and rear, and I think I may be losing muscle mass, which is not something I want, but would explain the severe weight loss. I can't wait for physical therapy (starting in September) so that I can sweat legitimately and start building those muscles back up.

2 weeks post-op

I am a couple of days late with this post as my two week post-op day was Wednesday and it is now Friday. I don't have scar pictures (the post-op photo I took with my phone is pretty blurry), although it looks good. I'll have to get Perry to take a photo tonight because this just wouldn't be a PAO blog without scar photos!

Last night I took a bath. Shhh, don't tell Dr. Mayo, because I don't think I'm supposed to. Some hip chicks are allowed to do hydrotherapy when they are still in the hospital for crying out loud, so I didn't think a bath would kill me. I was careful not to get the scar wet. I am a Pisces. We fish like to be immersed in water. I can't swim until week 6 per doctor's orders, so this is the best I can do. It felt really good to sit in warm water.

Here's my progress at the two-week mark (as of this past Wednesday):
~I am off all prescription/narcotic drugs. Had a bit of withdrawal for a couple of days (headache, nausea, sweating, inability to sleep) as I probably came off them too rapidly; I don't recommend that. Next time I'll taper more gradually. I'm just taking occasional Tylenol for pain. I think I've had just one dose of Tylenol.
~CPM is at 90 degrees, meaning I can get rid of it
~I can sleep on my non-operated side for about an hour and can flip on to my stomach (but can't sleep that way)
~I can shower (sitting down) by myself
~I can shave my legs
~I can get dressed by myself without any helpful devices. Hardest part is to put on socks and shoes, but I can do it.
~I can get in and out of the car without assistance (passenger side - can't drive for 4 more weeks)
~I have been working from home up to 4 hours per day (but not on a very regular schedule; usually about an hour per day).
~As mentioned, incision looks very good. It looks too good, in fact. Who would believe I had major surgery with this wimpy scar? It lacks the necessary gore factor.
~I did laundry while sitting on a stool last night.

Problems I'm still having:
~Sleeping through the night now that I'm off narcotics; usually I get 4 hours of sleep and then another 2-3 during the day. Despite this, I'm not really tired.
~My hands are killing me from crutching. I could crutch for miles if it weren't for that. I have padding for the handles and I have padded bike gloves, but still.
~Regulating my body temperature. I thought this was related to taking the opiates, but it's still an issue. One minute I'm sweating and the next I'm freezing.

Carried away ...

I participated in the Phillip Mills choreography seminar on Sunday morning (representing adult skaters, along with two other brave young-at-heart ladies, in the large group of kids), followed by ice dancing for an hour. Today I am definitely feeling the pain, but sometimes you just have to say "what the fuck."

Amped up as I was on Aleve, I did 3 flip jumps (yeah I know, really dumb idea, but I was having so much fun that when the kids jumped, I jumped too) and a toe loop (barely counts as a jump, come on). Then there were a number of spins. It was really a fun seminar and made me feel better, emotionally, that I can still participate. What happens in the rink stays in the rink, and Dr. Mayo does not need to know about this!!

I should have quit there, but the hour of ice dancing after was just icing on the cake, and I worked on some of the partnering for the Austrian Waltz with Bob R. This is the dance we will be doing at the High Dance Camp this year ... well, not technically "we," because "I" will be on crutches ... but I will be dancing along from the sidelines. Depending on when my surgery is scheduled I'll be at most 8 or 9 weeks post-PAO, so I know there is no miracle of modern science that will allow me to skate by then. I really like the Austrian so I'm sad that I'll miss this year. However, I'd be sad to miss any year. I will certainly lobby hard for the Ravensburger Waltz for 2010's dance camp -- that will motivate me to be rehabbed and ready by then.

(My skating readers know what I'm talking about when I say Austrian Waltz, but for my hip sisters, here's a rendition of the dance done at Nationals a couple of years back.)

Reunion

So it has been almost two months since Tim and I last skated. Last time he was weak and I was in pain and it was a wonder we stayed vertical. Today I was on pain killers and he looked tan and fit, so we ran through our erstwhile competition dances, the Viennese Waltz and Silver Samba, and also the choreography for our free dance just to see if we remembered it. We even walked through the Ravensburger Waltz.

The last time we skated Tim didn't have the strength to lift me - in fact he could barely lift himself. Today we did our spread eagle lift as easy as ever, with only slight pain in my hip, thanks to those great pain killers. I swear, he must have been skating these past 2 months when I wasn't looking, because he was none the worse for wear. I was actually able to put weight on my legs thanks to these groovy meds. We skated really well. It was almost as if we had been ... practicing. But neither of us has really skated since early January.

Perhaps practicing is overrated.

A former dance coach, David S., caught up with us in the parking lot and told us he liked our Samba and Viennese. He had been shopping in the mall and unknown to us, saw us skating. He didn't know who we were since he quit coaching about the time I moved back to Portland, but I knew who he was. He thought we looked good! It's nice to know we haven't lost everything. It's nice to know our dances are still recognizable! Another adult freestyle skater also said we looked good and asked if we were competing. Sigh.

It was really fun to skate with Tim again; I've missed it. It's nice to have someone to hold me up since I'm not so good at doing that myself any more. We are going to skate for fun now and then and see what happens. Who knows, we might even tackle the Austrian Waltz so Tim can skate the high dance camp when I'm out of commission!

I'm also thinking of buying the new boots I desperately need. I figure I can break them in now, and if I buy them it will be all the more reason to get back on the ice after surgery. Something to look forward to, actual dance boots vs. these broken down freestyle monstrosities. But I'm not sure I really want to spend the money. What if, after surgery, I am unable to skate, and I'm stuck with brand new boots? Sigh again. There are worse dilemmas to have.

Meds

I am not big on medication. I rarely pop a pain killer, cold medication, or headache remedy. I just don’t like putting chemicals in my body. I feel that pain is a signal from my body that I should listen to, not cover up.

But after Sunday’s skating debacle, I decided that perhaps it would be better to dull the pain a bit before taking to the ice. So with great trepidation, I loaded up on ONE 200 mg ibuprofen tablet and went to the rink.

I did skate better. I was able to put my weight on one foot without keeling over in pain or having to put my other foot down. I still couldn’t really bend my knees because that puts a lot of pressure on the hip joint, and I didn’t generate a lot of power. I tried some twizzles and they were way off balance. But it was quite a bit better than the last try.

Dr. Mayo originally said that the cause of my current pain was wear and tear on the labrum because my cartilage and joint space were both good. I felt something rip on the left when I was in Cleveland, and so I am guessing that I now have a definite labral tear. The right hurts too, but not as much. This is not an unusual problem with hip dysplasia and Dr. Mayo will patch it up during my surgery. I just have to live with it until then.

I hope I don’t start needing two ibuprofens, but I realize I might. Stay tuned to see how this little science experiment plays out.