And so I’ve got to 5 months now. It’s not perfect but I’m not stressing over it. I still have the groin pain, mostly first thing in the morning or if I’ve been sitting too long. And as I have a desk job and am often pretty busy some days it’s almost inevitable I will be getting up feeling rather creaky. Anyway the groin pain doesn’t interfere with my walking or anything else so it’s liveable with for the moment. I’m due back with Mr Hoad-Reddick in August so maybe that’s why I’m less bothered as I don’t have to think about whether to ask about it. I keep telling myself that I just need to get back doing my exercises then I can ask about it if it hasn’t subsided. That plan is working really well. Apart from the bit about doing my exercises that is. I do the odd standing stretch, and I happily lie on my back and bring my knees in to my chest. But those pesky clamshells and bridges…OK OK I know I should but I can always find something more fun. Like washing the dishes or cleaning the bath. Anything. In the meantime I’m hoping it will settle. And one of the criteria I have is my knicker-putting-on-ability. In the past few weeks I have had several days where…drum roll here…I have stepped into my own knickers, ta da!!!! It hasn’t been entirely painless doing it but I’ve done it. Then again there’s been other times when I nearly end up flat on my face even trying and give up and resort to the dangle and aim well. I refuse to resort to sitting down just to put knickers on so the comedy moments aren’t entirely gone yet.
Having said I’m doing a lot of sitting I am also getting a fair bit of walking in, a darned sight more than I was doing pre-op, even before the hip deteriorated. We’re halfway through the steps challenge thing and I’m averaging over 12000 steps a day. Not bad considering I was aiming for a mere 10K, and on a working day I leave home around 7am and am not usually home before 6pm. I’m parking on the 3rd floor of the multi-storey and walking across to my building, even when it’s been raining. I’m trying to go for a walk at lunchtime. Well when it’s not peeing down with rain. Doing this walking malarkey would be a heck of a sight easier if summer could remember its job here. I’ve got into a habit of walking once I get home too. I can even get Kev to come with me sometimes if the destination is one of our pubs.
2 weeks ago we had a few days in Barcelona and I got LOADS of steps in. Capiltalised as there were so many of them. I hit my all time record on our last day there when I got in over 28000!!
Our visit there had us doing the open top bus tours which sounds like it was really sedentary but when we got to the hop off part we ended up walking a lot. And to do the hop off meant negotiating the bus steps often while it was moving. We did the tour of the Nou Camp stadium…more stairs there. I did cobbles. I did cobbles in heels. I just did everything as normal. I absolutely loved that as I can look back now and realise it’s been bloody ages since I could say that. In fact if it wasn’t for Facebook I’d probably give my hip a lot less thought. I’m in some hippie groups (and yes one of them has had its description changed to make it clear we’re not about driving Volkswagen campers, smoking herbal stuff and declaring peace and love) and can really sympathise with newbies. Some people do come on a few months post op and declare it’s time they moved on; I like to keep an eye, follow the newbies and hear how they’re doing. And hopefully answer questions as I know what’s like to feel worried then be calmed down by finding out that actually I’m not the first person to be going through things. To be fair it doesn’t take much to lure me onto Facebook but the hippie groups do pop up a lot on my feeds and so my own hip issues/successes are more to the fore than they might otherwise be. Which isn’t a bad thing – it’s nice to remind myself of just how good things are and appreciate what I’ve got. But if it wasn’t for that I’m sure I’d just be getting on with things and not giving Horace a second thought.
Anyway not only did I wear heels in Barcelona, I wore some even more impressive heels at an even better occasion earlier this week. To backtrack on the heels…we were in York recently and I went into Debenhams and fell in love with some shoes, dark blue with a cream flowery pattern on them. But I’d been wearing sports socks and trainers all day, driving a couple of hours, walking round York, and there was no way my feet were in any shape for trying on shoes. But it was Debenhams – no probs, we were going into Chester the next weekend so I’d get them there. So Saturday we went into Chester but the wretched things were only there in a size 3. Gutted! But I wasn’t planning on leaving empty handed and found another pair…blue with a purple flowery pattern, would go with my blue or purple dress. Ok so the 4” stiletto heels were the naughtiest I’d have got to since the surgery but hey a day out dressing up without heels – well that just would be wrong. So on Tuesday I poured myself into my slightly clingy blue dress. In order to do that I had to squeeze into the Bridget style big knickers. No chance of stepping carefree into them. Jeez it’s like a military operation getting those lycra beasts in place. But having got into big knickers and probably not big enough dress I was ready for my son’s graduation. I did do the sensible thing as we had to walk about 15 mins from Chris’s house to the uni, I carried my lovely new heels and wore flats for the walk. But once there the heels went on, and stayed on for the whole afternoon, walking round the campus including a couple of trips on a spiral staircase. I can’t deny the feet did start feeling a little bit ‘tired’ by the end of the afternoon but nothing bad in the hip department. And certainly didn’t leave me feeling nearly as bad as the prices for the official photographs did. But overall a great day where I thoroughly enjoyed my 'proud mum' moment
My lovely new heels weren’t the only new shoes I’ve bought recently. The other pair are purple but not really what you’d call sexy. But they are eminently more practical and will hopefully come into their own next Thursday when I intend to go back to dancercise class. I’m holding off full-fat Zumba for a wee while yet so will use the dancercise class to get myself used to actually doing something lively and energetic again. I’ve been going to the gym, even done a bit of a jog on the treadmill, but a dance based class is just so much more fun.
And I’ve also bought a new pair of jodhpurs to make me get off my backside and back in the saddle, literally. I had messaged a friend to ask for recommendations for somewhere I could go for some lessons to get back into the whole riding thing as, apart from my fell riding experience 2 years ago, I haven’t been on a horse in years. But instead of give me a recommendation she had a word with her daughter who has said I can go ride her horse. I know nothing about her horse other than she described her as a ‘chunky monkey’ so it’ll be a test. But if it doesn’t feel right then I can just get off and won’t be disturbing a class. So all being well, Sunday 24th will see me back on horseback.
I do have days where it's a bit more meh than others (rain, cold, busy at work yadda yadda yadda…) and I am a bit achey but it feels more like just a general thing, not a hip problem. When I think of what I do without limping, without pain, without even thinking about it…well it’s bloody brilliant. If I come through dancercise and riding in one piece I will be buzzing :)
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