I have been on a 5 on 2 off schedule, taking the weekend off walking to spend more time with Nicole and Elyse who both seem to sleep an awful lot. I have been trying to add some very light weights work in order to reactivate some areas of my body which has included some shoulder work, traps, a few gentle squats and some crunch holds. I also have done a few push ups here and there which seem to be OK and actually are doing my core some good at the same time. It’s funny, everyone I meet who I tell I have had surgery is amazed at how mobile and “normal” I appear, it’s just too bad that the normality only lasts a short while until I have to lay down. That said, I am still happy with my progress.
I am not able to do any kind of twisting yet, any time I try I get a very sharp and pretty alarming pain through my incision site. So as far as my mobility goes I would say I am linearly back to 75%, I am able to put on socks and tie shoes and reach my feet for short periods but I have not tried to standing fold at this time, I don’t think I am up to that. Everything I do is done with particular attention to keeping my lower back straight, something that I have learned over the past year of deadlifting is not only recommended but actually engages the correct muscle groups required for heavy lifting. My foot drop is almost all gone, I can heel walk without issue and my lifting ability with my right foot is about 80% of what it was. I do still have a lot of pain in the left fibula area which I will have to monitor and see if I can stretch it into submission. The problem is that most of the stretches that are effective for back, hip and hamstring flexibility require twisting. Hopefully as that ability returns, the rest of the pain will subside.
It snowed here this past weekend (yes, May 12) and so I walked on the treadmill on Friday and Monday for a total of 2.5k each time. Earlier in the week I had been outside and I will hopefully be able to get outside again today, Tuesday, since it’s supposed to be 13 and then in the 20’s the rest of the week.
We have had some issues with WordPress this week, apparently a botnet of 90,000 PCs was attempting to brute force attack WordPress accounts to access admin rights on servers. This caused me to be unable to log into my admin panel to post anything. It seems like they have it under control now, but it was not just Dreamhost, apparently it happened starting last week to many providers of small business and personal websites.
As far as the other patient is going, I am still giving Lightning subcutaneous fluids 3x a week but his numbers are down to a high normal range. I am hoping we will get a little more time with him and that his health improves to the point where he is happy again. He has lost a few pounds which I know very well is always a help.