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Showing posts from June, 2013

Post Op Day 2 and 3

Post Op Day 2 We receive a phone call saying that I have hit my annual cap for insurance.  Cue major freak out. Well then I found out it is just PT they are cutting off, which is still not ok but not quite as scary. My PT said he will work with us to make sure I can still see him and I plan on fighting the insurance company because we are not supposed to have a PT cap, and someone told me it is illegal to have one in the state of CT, so if anyone knows information on that please share. I still had my first PT appointment as planned. My PT was very happy with where I am at and said I look more like 2 weeks post op not 2 days. I was told to do glute sets, modified pelvic tilts, and my all time favorite exercise (cue lots of sarcasm)... quad sets. I cannot wait until I am allowed to weight bear more so I can stop the table exercises. All was ok though because I got to end with ice and stim. I even somehow managed to go to my friend's house for s'mores. I am not quite su

Left Hip Scope Surgery and Day 1 Post Op

I am home from the hospital from hip surgery number two! I probably wouldn't of stayed over night except my surgery wasn't till 3:30 pm. The big discussion pre-op was what kind of anesthesia I should get because I got a spinal headache from the spinal block last time. My OS was still adamant that he thought I should avoid the general. I was also really scared about the general because I had been told it meant I would need to be intubated which I did not want. When I talked to the anesthesiologist he had a very different take on the situation, he said I had a very high risk of getting a spinal headache again because I am above normal height, I am a teenage girl, and I had a spinal headache four months ago. He said if I had a general I may have of miserable night, but that would be compared to three or four miserable days if I got a spinal headache. He also used an IV only version of the anesthesia instead of gas which reduces nausea, plus the fact I do not get nausea from

Graduation!

I am a high school graduate! I can not believe I actually survived senior year, it has been a trying one. This whole weekend has been amazing. Since I am really exhausted I am going to just post pictures. I am so proud of my cap, I free handed it! So Ready! Waiting to get in to the all night Post Graduation Party! Relaxing at a Post Post Graduation Party Party! And tomorrow is the scope on my left hip. I am so excited to get to the other side of this surgery, and can not wait to be back on Voltaren. Have I mentioned how much I love Voltaren recently?

Life Without Medication

Today is the first day of my two weeks without any medication, I had to go through this before my other hip surgery as well but I do not remember it being quite this painful and horrible. So here are some tips on how I have been surviving (just barely) without my precious Voltaren. Tylenol Arthritis Although I actually have discovered I like the Walgreens brand better. The Walgreens brand bottle hads and easy to open cap instead of a childproof one, so when my wrist flared I could still open it with my one usable hand. Heat Pads! My favorite things ever. I know cold is better for swollen joints but heat feels so good and kick's stiffness' butt. My Amazing Heat Pads Plus you can't go wrong with a red owl right? Hot Baths I love hot baths, they are amazing. They just make everything feel better. Nuff said. On another note I really like some of the health tracking apps on my new iPhone, so soon I may make a post with some of those.

The Swollen Wrist

This morning I woke up to a red painful swollen wrist. My right wrist was not happy or useable for the better part of the morning. Of course my mom wanted to make a rheumatologist appointment for this week but I really did not think it is worth it. Since I am now in the 2 week period before my hip surgery I can not take anything but Tylenol anyway (no voltaren or fancy cream), so there is not a whole lot that can be done. We finally settled on me going to my GP (for the 2nd time in one week as I had a pre-op appointment with him on Monday), and I took a picture so I can show my rheumy at my next appointment. I managed to get an appointment at 11AM because my GP was in the office this Saturday. By the time of the appointment my wrist looked pretty normal, although I had the picture so he could see something was up. He had it x-rayed just to rule out any issues non rheumatology related, and as we both guessed the x-rays came out normal. My Lovely Wrist this Morning I was left wit

Top 5 Things I do While I Wait

I spend a lot of time in doctors offices waiting so I decided to make a list of things I tend to do while in them (in no particular order). Just so you know how much time I spend, in the month of July I currently have 4 appointment scheduled plus I need to schedule one with my opthamologist. 1. Catching up on school reading. I think the sole reason I was ahead of everyone in English in terms of reading was because of the shear amount of time I spent in waiting rooms. 2. Making flash cards or work on AP Bio labs. Pretty much every flash card I made over the course of senior year was made somewhere in Hospital for Special Surgery. 3. Steal my mom's iPad. The only time she lets me use her iPad is while waiting for doctors, which is more often than before, it used to be only the morning before surgery. (The first time I used it I was waiting for knee surgery) 4. Try to figure out exactly where at HSS there is cell service. I should actually make a map of the T-Mobile hotspots a

Prom and Internship

Senior year is coming to an end, and with that comes senior prom. As I stated in a previous post I decided on my shoes without taking my joints into account, which is the way I should be able to (but was not smart). Even though my shoes fit me last week I struggled to get my toes into them Saturday. By the end of the night my feet killed, although anyone who wore shoes like mine would probably of had sore feet by the end of the night. My left knee did not do well, it is the only joint that really can not under any circumstances handle heels, even when my meds seem to be working. It gets clucky and catches and clicks and pops (although the last time I wore heels was over 10 months ago). I put some fancy cream on both my left hip and my right knee before I attempted to dance. I did manage a little dancing which was nice. At after prom at my friend's house we went in a hot tub which really helped calm my joints. The whole night was actually amazing and better than I could have ev