John, glad you are improving. What an ordeal from what should have been a "simple" surgery. Hang in there.

 

 

John, I'm so glad you are walking with a cane now. It's been less than a month since you posted that you walked unaided and now you can walk across the house.

I have never dealt with anything as physically challenging although I've had some mental challenges with depression. It sounds like you are well on your way now to get back to your normal, or maybe, a better, new normal. You are learning life lessons as you go through this. Hell yes, it's frustrating! But you're getting close.

Thank you for keeping us informed. We also learn something from your ordeal. For me it's like this; "Holly shit! I wouldn't ever dream of an infection taking me down from a common surgery! But look how John is handling it and surviving. He's an example of perseverance and accomplishment. He's a good man and I'm glad he is telling us about his trials and progress. Not all diseases can be beat."

~Patty

 

Great to hear you are making progress.

 

Great to hear you are making progress.

 

thanks for giving this ^^^ nice boost to John, Patty! yes, he's making great progress

 

I usually have both physical therapy and occupational therapy on the same day, but yesterday only had physical therapy. So I decided I was going to work really hard in physical therapy. I ended up throwing up in the gym. The PT made light of it - said he's had much worse happen in the gym, but it was certainly embarrassing for me.

 

I don't know if it is exhaustion from the the your body has to do to heal or if it is the exertion (probably the latter) that made me so sick, but I know I could barely creep around when I got home (and I felt quite lucky to make it home) and I was so, so sick. At least when you threw up at the gym, someone else had to clean it up. The physical therapist told me many of his patients were ill after the sessions. I had knotted muscles in my lower back that he had to manually release which left tremendous bruises making my back sore to the touch. It was almost painful to wear slacks. I usually wore sweats with elastic waist bands and ended up having to buy them too large so I could stand the waistband touching my sore back. I am however quite thankful that the therapy gave me back my ability to walk unaided. Losing my independence for a time was humiliating and depressing. I'm so glad you're doing so well and wish you the very best!

 

to you, too, Val. My mother cannot wear anything around the waist that puts pressure on her back. So she wears dresses/shifts most of the time.

 

it's tough to find the right pace for rehab. you want to get it done and be back to normal today, but pushing to hard has side effects.