The hip happily continues to improve. Still rather sore but getting less so as time goes on, which is nice. Still no need for Tylenol and haven't had to ice it at all today.
Made it into the basement and up and down the stairs quite a few times Saturday to do some cleaning and threw out about a garbage bag of accumulated unnecessary stuff and old useless paperwork. Good exercise, getting steadier, no cane needed, and it made the work area down there look nicer by quite a bit.
This made Tash happy, as I've taken over her upstairs office so she's going to use my workspace down there until I can bend again and am fully cleared as I can't carry the desktop that I need for some programs back downstairs, nor bend to hook it back up properly once moved at the moment.
I then drove on Thursday home from PT and it wasn't bad. First time driving in 6 weeks. No issues.
Yesterday, I drove for the first time alone in 6 weeks.
No issues then either.
There's a little twinge in the hp while getting behind the wheel and I felt it a bit as it rests against the seat itself, and of course from the many potholes on the roads now, but no control problems with the right leg. So I can drive now which is good.
Putting on socks by myself though is kinda hilarious.
I had to get out and drive yesterday to go pick up the younger daughter at her work as everyone else was out of the house. A little problem was no one had thought this through fully, so I had to get my socks and shoes on by myself with no one else at home.
Putting socks and shoes on solo without bending the hip past 60 degrees is rather difficult.
There is a sock tool:
Basically you stretch the sock over this slippery plastic half cone, place the opening of the sock by your toes and then pull the ropes and the sock is supposed to leave the cone and, as if by magic, appear on your foot and you don't need to bend to do it.
In reality, not quite.
Most of the time the sock goes flying off in the opposite direction of your foot and you have to get up and chase it down before Piper decides to eat it, pick it up with your grabber off the floor as you can't bend, and try it on the cone again.
Then, it gets on somewhat and you have to pull it up with your grabber or the hook end of you shoe horn.
Takes about 10 minutes to get two socks on. This feels a lot longer and stupider than you might imagine. Even some vocabulary is used.
Then after getting the socks on I got the shoes on using a long handled shoe horn and then the grabber to pull up the tongue of the shoe. The hard part is getting the foot lined up going straight into the shoe, without the shoe moving away, nor the hip hurting from turning it at an angle at all and without the shoe horn slipping out. But, it worked pretty well and both shoes were on in a few minutes after some finagling.
So finally fully dressed all by myself, I headed out and picked her up, then drove us both to my office and got some things done there and picked up my mail.
Mission accomplished.
Then today Tash and I met up with some friends in Ann Arbor for lunch.
After lunch, I walked back to the car from the restaurant rather than having her come pick me up. It was across and down the street a ways and was the farthest I've walked outside in 6 weeks. I did use the cane as a precaution but the streets and sidewalks were mostly clear so I could avoid the snow and ice and it wasn't a problem.
So, I can see lots of improvement and it is getting better. Still a ways to go and at least six more weeks minimum before I can bend and cross my feet or ankles again. I'd also like the rest of the iron collar around the top of my leg to finally leave, but it'll still take more time.
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