we stayed in BOS at the Yawkey Family Inn for 7 nights before heading back to NYC. i was probably ready to go home a couple days earlier in terms of comfort. i slept fitfully the first couple nights out of the hospital. it's really annoying cuz i can't move around since my legs are all stuffed with pillows. maybe the hospital bed was more comfortable because it can prop up at a slight angle. i tried a valium at 2am one night and felt so out of it the whole day, i didn't eat it again.
my left leg is so swollen it looks like thanksgiving turkey dinner. i used the commode over the toilet to get extra height mostly b/c my thigh was so tight and uncomfortable being bent. i don't have any issues getting up from seated. my pain is pretty low but mostly have stiffness and tight and burning feelings. Dr Millis says this can be nerve waking up or psoas rubbing over incision. the numbness in my left leg is getting smaller but the whole left half of my thigh is still numb. my bowels seem to be very active and i'm quite gassy. i'm not sure if it's the drugs or what. my palms are all chafed and sore from crutching. i can't believe i'm getting callouses from my crutches. i still suffer from crazy itchiness. the sarna works temporarily. we decided to try gold bond cream. the area around my incision and steri-strips are itchy and i have to be careful when i scratch it. after i shower (maybe every other day), i ceremoniously apply sarna all over my itchy areas and gold bond where it's esp itchy.
the PT moves i was given are still really hard. heel to butt slide, abduction/adduction, knee pronation. i look at my leg and try to make it move but it doesn't. the heel to butt slides are progressing more than abduction/adduction. i also practice doing stairs at Yawkey. there are tons! my left hip flexor just really didn't respond and wouldn't lift on its own. miraculously about day 9, i could do stairs easily. i spent the first few days at Yawkey in my wheelchair and after i could do stairs, even the staff noticed i was out of my wheelchair and moving better.
we took field trips to trader joe's, cvs, dairy queen (for my calcium boost) and copley, all getting carted around in my wheelchair. the wheelchair creates some serious static electricity! i didn't have any problems with bumps in the roads and just had to shift around once in a while to loosen up. we stopped by Dr Millis before leaving for NY and he removed my tegaderm so i just had steri-strips flapping around. parts that were exposed looked pretty closed up.
since my pain was fairly low, i gradually pushed out my 1mg diluadad from 4hr to every 8hr. and i have my daily lovenox shot which i DREAD. i switched to 650mg tylenol on day 13, took it for 2 days then stopped all pain meds.
the drive down to NYC from BOS was pain-free, both with my hip and with traffic. it was thanksgiving morning and we were back in our apt 3.5hr later. since i practiced stairs on my crutches so much at Yawkey, i had no problem getting up our 26-stair one-flight walk-up. i couldn't help bring any of our luggage up, which was a very helpless feeling.
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