Day 5 and feeling clean

Having been warned that the recovery from this operation would be much tougher than after my hip replacement I have been pleasantly surprised. After my hip replacement I could only lie on my right side with a pillow between my legs and it took over a month before I could physically turn myself onto my back. I was weightbearing but I could not bend down, cross my legs or balance easily on one leg. Try putting your shoes on, pulling your pants up and reapplying your compression sock with those restrictions. Anything dropped on the floor had to be retrieved with a pickup stick, unless it was the grabber, in which case it stayed where it fell until someone rescued it.

Today I was feeling so grotty as I'd only had a sponge down in hospital and my hair felt like straw. I was using my iwalk 2.0 to get around because I'd had to go downstairs to start the slow cooker to cook our dinner. I was planning on asking for help to wash tonight but when I went into the bathroom and thought about I decided that I could do it on my own. I'm very fortunate that I have lots of equipment but if I hadn't the OT would have arranged the hire of some. I had both hands free so I could lift my shower chair that swivels into the shower.

I detached the shower head and draped it by the chair so it would be in reach when I was sitting down.

Then I used my toilet chair as a launching platform. I sat on it to remove my comfy cozy pjs and my not so comfy cozy compression sock. I hung fresh pjs and my towel on the seat and hoped that it would be within reach. The towel rail was obscured by the shower door since it had to be open for my foot to stick out. I wrapped a light towel around my leg above the cast and then stuck it in a big rubbish  bag. It tighten up reasonable tight but I stuck some real duct tape around the top for security. I knew that it would be ok on my skin. Then I propped a footstool up in front of the door for my foot to rest on. I hopped the few steps to the shower and sat down, then turned the seat so I was facing into the shower. It was easy from there on and I managed to wash my hair and my body without getting any water near my cast. The duct tape wasn't even necessary.

Drying off was a bit harder because it was a big reach to get my towel but once I had it I just dried off in the shower and then hopped across to the toilet chair to finish off. I could never have done this on my own after my hip op!

I made one other great purchase that was more of a last minute thing but has served me well.  I bought a cheap pair of slippers with grippy bases. 

If I do use slippers they tend to be slip on mules or big ugg boots and neither seemed appropriate for slouching around the hospital. When I was changed into the theatre gowns and one compression sock my feet were left bare and so the slippers kept them warm and I wore them right up to the table in theatre. Now at home the single slipper is quick and easy to put on my good foot to stop me skidding around in my compression sock. Much easier than pulling on a shoe or a boot. Also quite comforting when you have a cold.

So I feel like I've achieved much today. I'm going to take my first dose of tramadol for the day now at 3:48pm because I'm just starting to feel like there's a stone pressing on the heel of my foot. Last night it really spaced me out to the point of having mini hallucinations so I felt like I was not metabolising it very quickly and I needed a break so my body could clear it all out. Hopefully it'll work!