Week One Hip Report

 

. “If you're going through hell, keep going.”

- Winston Churchill 

Well,  one week after the first hip surgery, I rolled a little bit to one side, the side I could manage, and told Jeff, "If I had know how hard that was going to be, I'm not sure I would have done it."   This was after being in a lot of pain for several month, but still the ordeal of it was truly awful.  

This time, one week out,  it is nowhere near as bad. 

Comparing the two experiences has really been a meditation on     "heyam dukam anagatam."

This time,  I got to have the surgery at the Surgery Center.  I was supposed to last time, but I think the Physician Assistant was sick and so things had to be rescheduled to Seton Main.   It was still supposed to be outpatient, but that didn't happened.  It feels very much like I feel through the cracks in the system last time and ended up in a giant hole of pain that, even leaving the pain aspect of it aside, the amount of trauma  the overall experience caused both me and Jeff, would have been great to have been avoided. 

The whole set up at the surgery center is geared toward you being able to walk out the door and make it to your house. I got a lovely IV dose of F  moments before leaving and even at the height of rush hour traffic got home pretty well.  Last time,  I felt every bump on the road, even in my fancy car.  

Last time, it was the hospital vortex trying to suck me in.... 

I would not say  I have been in a pain free state, but starting the whole thing off with basically no post surgical pain medication due  to  a "miscommunication"   compared to adequate meds has made a big difference.  

It has also really made tangible the whole  "stay ahead of the pain." advice.  You can't really stay ahead when you are in that kind of hole to begin with.  

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on it, overly,  but if you are ever given the option  of  out patient, in patient,  definitely pursue what those options would look like for you. 

Also, I advocated for better post op pain meds for myself rather than just going with what the Dr. originally wanted to prescribe.  

We will be fully prepared by the time Jeff has to have his replaced, if he does.  

Last time, I was so out of it with pain, I could barely watch a movie, much less read.  This time,  I'm getting caught up on some books I need to read so I can write reviews of them and some Parmenides lit and just some fun reading.  I've also been listening to Douglas Brooks talk about yoga philosophy. He and Christina did a workshop together  up in Rochester a couple weeks back. He's really great. 

There are definitely some resonances with his academic story and mine and so in addition to hearing a broad sweeping historical narrative about yoga, it has caused me to reflect a good deal on my own life journey and how strange it was that as a twenty-one year old, I loved Plato enough to go all the way to State College Pennsylvania to study with Rosen.  And that I had the good fortune to learn from people who knew to tell me to go there and I had the good fortune of being able to listen to and follow through on their advice. 

Philosophy, academic philosophy,  has not always been an easy path, but it is the path I've followed and I am really enjoying where I am on the road of the journey right now. 

In terms of movies,  Jeff and I watched All the President's Men over the course of two evenings and then we watched The Post (which is about the publishing of the Pentagon Papers).  It is very depressing that fifty years later, we are where we are politically and that Jeff Bezos now owns the Post. Something deeply essential to the health and flourishing of our nation has been lost, probably irreparably so. 

In terms of books,  I've reread and rewatched   Anatomy of a Scandal.  I read a very good survey book on the Sophists by Richard McKirahan and am about finished with  Paula Erickson's  Early Christianities.  . I've also been looking over  John Palmer's  Plato's Reception of  Parmenides, which I have not read in many years..  We will spend a week on the Parmenides in  Plato Seminar.  I will be zooming in for that one.  

 I decided to take FMLA while we still have a federal government and that  has definitely taken a bit of work worry off my mind.  Last time,  I did the surgery with a month left in the summer and I probably pushed myself a bit too much to go back.  Though that was a great classical class....  

The in home  PT has also been much more effective this time.  Last time, I was so out of it, that there really wasn't a lot I could do also I had like three different people.  This time, I had the same person for all six  sessions and she was nice and highly competent.  (Not that the folks weren't last time, but it is very different just having one  person). 

So now, my life is set the time for an hour,  get up walk around with the walker, do a few exercises, stay hydrated.  Get resettled.  Read,  repeat. Decide what to eat for dinner. Eat,  watch or listen to something, and go to sleep.  

Other than the fact, that I just had hip surgery,  it is nice to have some down time to catch up on things as I'm  healing. 

That's about all there is to report,  that and it is  already 94 degrees.