Now I Know Nickel Allergy to my BHRs - On The Path To Healing

[Two4One]

Thanks, 'nanu!  Yep, I'm a regular hothouse flower and must have ideal conditions in which to flourish. 

'One

[Two4One]

Thursday February 16, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Qd9VR1gD8 'Dream On' Aerosmith

Wednesday For Two Nights in A Row I have visited Islands of the Blessed, The White Isle, the previously unattainable Elysian Fields!1

Sleep        9:30 to 6am = Eight and a Half Hours of Sleep!!!!!!!

(Not only was depth and breadth of my sweet slumber awesome, I was only up for minutes around Midnight to tinkle!)

6:15      Woke up

8am          Out Patient PT
                 Side Steps with Bungee Rubber band around my waist about 20 minutes
                 Leg presses about 20 minutes
                 Massage of Scar and Hip Flexors
                 Walking Evaluation

9:10am      Breakfast out: 2 pieces of French Toast w Butter and Syrup, Bacon, and
                 coffee with cream

10am          Therapy

11:30 -       Meijers:  Bought Seeds, and mini indoor beds to start a massive flower
                  cutting Garden this summer!  I'll start the seeds indoor in March.

12:30         Visited a neighbor, had 1 Beer, and Boursin Cheese and Crackers.  Then, I
                  left in a hurry to chase a loose golden doodle all over our subdivision! 
                  What a bad girl that squirrel obsessed dog was!

2pm            Late lunch of a diet frozen Chicken and Broccoli Tortellini

4pm            Pool PT
                   Tree Poses on both legs
                   Marching forward under water
                   Deep squats
                   Standing Side Extensions
                   Standing Back leg Extensions
                   Side Walking
                   Forward and Backward Walking

                   **I ALSO dropped, for the 2nd day, another 7.5 mg Vicodin, and I'm
                    hanging in with 2 Vicodin/Day totaling 15mg/Day.  I am kind of achy
                    and plenty grouchy!

6pm              After Hubs prepared a yummy dinner of Blueberries, Onions, Feta
                    cheese, Salt, Pepper, dressed with Olive oil, Balsamic Vinegar, and
                    toasted Almonds, I followed up with a Hershey Bar and Skim Milk. 

7:30pm         Taking it easy in the Turret Room and getting ready to catch up on
                     a lot of downloaded TV and movies!  I'm tired, but I'm also very
                     grateful Hubs is helping me more for one more month.
                   
_____________________________________________________________________

1  http://www.theoi.com/Kosmos/Elysion.html

[mslendzion]

Happy Birthday. I hope it was special for you. Wishing you the best.

[Two4One]

Sunday 2.19.13

Saturday
Sleep  Whew! Practically passed out by 9:30pm and awake at 12:30 am.
          With the help of one Ambien10mg, I went back under at around 2am, and I slept in until 8:30am!

ANOTHER Sleep RECORD of NINE AND A HALF HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZSWAkJ3h8E&feature=fvsr Pink Floyd - Shine on your crazy diamond [LIVE] This sure is time for all of us pre and post Hippies to shine!  I don't recollect a time I've ever shone brighter!

9pm     

           It's been a couple of long, relaxing days over this weekend, enjoying
           my Hubs and a tranquil home.  So much so, that I've dropped the
           Hydrocodone15mg down to 7.5 mg, starting today.  I hope to be
           at ZERO Hydrocodone by my pain management doctor's appointment
           on the 23rd.  It's been a fast & dirty drop over these last 3 weeks, but
           I'm extremely determined by nature.  Besides, Pain Doc won't start
           reducing my Dilaudid until I'm off the Hydrocodone first.

           I want OFF DRUGS.  I don't care if I have aches and pains; I'll take
           a bloody aspirin and a stiff drink, if need be!  I will to have this
           chapter of my life behind me, and I want to shake the dust off my
           sandals as I gladly leave the past behind.  I rebuke the OA that
           pinned me down lifelessly to my bed like an innocent butterfly to
           a board.  I'm DONE. End of Line.
______________________________________________________________
           
           I humbly ask The Universe/Lord/Vibes/Best Wishes/Serendipity
           to wash me clean of this scourge of narcotics that reminds me
           everyday of my former two and a half years of horror.  Narcotics
           also slow my bowels to a stop, clouds my head, falsely energizes
           me, and walls me away from my own body like I'm encased in a
           full on rubber suit.  I know I'll be free to walk through this world
           without the 'aid' of narcotics. 

           This spring, I see myself doing healthy stretching after long bike rides
           through the wooded trails of St. Patrick's Park, sitting in the hot tub
           after an hour long swim most days of the week, getting a massage
           from Hubs after my regular low impact step aerobic class or cycling
           class, and best of all feeling everything and thinking nothing as I
           flow through a gentle routine of morning and evening Vinyasa yoga.
             
           By early summer, everyday I will be in our first ever flower cutting
           garden (B.O.Aâ,,¢ we had veggies interspersed with flowers and herbs);
           my hands will be in the earth and planting for the butterflies, bees,
           birds, toads, insects, and every microbe that deems fit to coexist
           with me there. 

           Hubs and I will be sharing all this and more.  We encourage one
           another, forgive each other's trespasses, and experience daily
           transformation until the day our journey ceases.

           Amen


1:30am
I have had a lovely day and an evening pondering some very happy thoughts.  Yet, I think I'm awake into this early Monday morn because of a combination of being tot like and not wanting to go down for a nap and miss anything and of being a bit ancy at my 1st day of cutting one of my pain meds to only one dose/daily the Hydrocodone7.5mg. 

It's time to take an Ambien10mg (Don't ever mix with Valium or Alcohol, Kids!), watch a little 'The Walking Dead', and sleep in LATE Monday morning - no appointments and 'no particular place to go'!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtKcdzaqq40  No Particular Place To Go - Chuck Berry (Look Out, Hubs! :-*)

[hernanu]

Hey 'One - Love the progress you're making, including the righteous anger.

You are doing right on the drugs, dropping them at a good pace and working with your doctor. You are taking back your life by the handful, love the sleep, no hospital bed and now getting all that stuff out of your life.

Keep getting more and more light in your life.  :)

[Two4One]

You're the best,'nanu! 

Too bad you want to keep your game 'broad'; you could use a good woman - my 3 cents since it's my area of prior professional expertise.  If you're intrigued with my unsolicited opinion (the very worst kind), PM me, and I'm not talking about a flirt fest; I'm talking about a good ol' fashioned talk.

Anyhow, back at the ranch, located somewhere in the vicinity of my 3rd eye.

Keep getting more and more light in your life.  :) - hernanu

My life keeps getting lighter and lighter!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSVTdAtNYE Talking Heads - And She Was

'One

[Dan L]

Funny you should reference "Shine on you crazy diamond"; when in the hospital for Hip #1, could not sleep, downloaded "Wish You Were Here" particularly so I could listen to that very long and 70's flashbacky tune to get me back to sleep: it helped.  Next night, same problem, downloaded "Dark Side of the Moon".

Weird.

[Two4One]

Well, Dan, I am very intuitive, especially with off the cuff stuff I say.  Almost everyday, someone will remark on it to me like, "I was just thinking about that! Weird!"  (They always say "Weird!" too, lol.)

Too Bad I've never won a lottery ticket or even a raffle that had only sold three tickets! :P

Life ain’t nothin’ but a funny funny riddle.1

'One

1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9dCI-YqICQ&ob=av3n John Denver & Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Thank God I'm A Country Boy

[Two4One]

Monday 2.19.13

Sunday
Sleep  2am to 6am = 4 Hours

          The Ambien10mg I took @ 1:30 am did nothing to prevent me from bolting awake when my
          dog jumped off the bed to go look for Daddy!  So much for the plans of mice and men!  Forget
          Ambien; tonight it's back to what's been working for me - Valium5mg at bedtime, taken along with
          the only Norco7.5mg of the day, my final nightly Dilaudid8mg, and Promethazine25mg.

          Also, I factor in my lack of sleep because I skipped all PT yesterday and dropping down to
          only one Norco pill couldn't have helped either!  Best to be philosophical about these things.........

         'We are such stuff
          As dreams are made on, and our little life
          Is rounded with a sleep.'

          - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest
___________________________________________________________________________________

9:30 I'm Preparing 2nd Breakfast - I'm Hungry!  Today's Goals:

       ✔✔ Walk Pup for 1/2 a mile.  (We just got back in at 10:45)
             Land PT
             Pool PT
             Help prepare Dinner If I feel good.
             Day 2 of one Vicondin7.5mg for the day, taken at bedtime
             Brush Boo Boo
             Apply Revolution to poor Boo
             Sort my Hall Closet so I can put in the shoe shelving Mark assembled

5:45pm    Just got back from another uncharacteristically sunny walk with Boo and Hubs.
             My R Hip is about 5, and my L Hip is a 2-3.  Although that's pretty good considering I'm
             almost off Vicodin/Norco7.5mg for 'breakthrough pain',  I wish my R Hip would get
             with the program.

             Hubs offered to make Dinner!  Yay!  I'd already assembled all the fixin's and had told
             myself that if Hubs offered to make dinner, I'd say "Oh, Yeah!"

6:15pm    ETA on Dinner:

             Greek Macaroni and Cheese:

             First, bring a medium pan to a boil.  Then, boil 1 1/2 cups of Penne pasta 10 -12
             minutes, and reserve a half cup of the boiled water once you've poured the cooked
             zucchini through a colander. Chop up 2 TSP of washed Fresh Mint to later use a garnish.
             Hubs says to keep leftover mint for up to a week, put it in an open plastic bag in the fridge.

             Meanwhile, saute' 1 TBSP of olive oil in a wok or large skillet on medium high heat.
             Add 2 medium zucchinis and 1/2 Tsp Salt; cook for 10+ minutes until brown & crisp. 

             Stir in Penne pasta, the half cup of reserved cooking water, and 4 oz goat cheese,
             (herbed or plain) until some of the water is cooked off.  Grind in a 1/4 TSP Black
             Pepper, and you now have a yummy creamy sauce.

             Serve Hot

             Tonight's variation: cook a package of sliced mushrooms in a little butter and add
             to this dish for a more robust and filling serving.

             Enjoy.

[Two4One]

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Wednesday
Sleep     A SOLID Eight Hours!! Hallelujah! Thanks, Universe!

My Schedule below is what I've basically been up to everyday since Monday!  Yep, I'm running around!  I'm running around and getting more & more happy & healthy every single day.  Here's hoping all of us
heal fast and laugh often!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ousaiByU1ko&ob=av2e Blues Traveler - Run-Around


Thursday, February 23 Schedule[/b]

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM    PT
9:30 AM - 10:30    Pain Doc
11:00 AM - Noon       Therapist
12:300 PM - 1:30     Pool PT
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM    Fill out and Send Form for prior years disability, and call a friend.
2:45 PM - 3:00 PM    Pick up Revolution For Boo, and schedule Lyme's disease vaccination
3:15 PM - 4:30 PM    Family Doc
4:45                         Hubs and I cook together now!  M hm❣

[Dan L]

Sincere and profound congratulations; you've got to hold the most dramatic before and after story around this, that I've ever read.  Undoubtedly inspirational for many, many people, and seems to have you just a slight bit tickled  ;D.

Thank you for continued sharing, really enjoy following your progress, aside from the vicarious pleasure of hearing of your improvement, it's just darn great reading.

Keep after it kiddo,

[Two4One]

Thank you for such sweet (and accurate ::)) compliments!  No really, Dan, I appreciate you.  Your posts and you as a fellow human have made me feel so good, so often, and have given me that extra bit of gumption when I needed it most.  Plus, I like your writing style too!  Mutual admiration is a wonderful thing.

Through reading your story and all the hippies' stories here on Surface Hippy, new hippies like us have this an enormous asset that I think helps prevent time wasting 'reinventing the wheel'.  This process and this board is getting me resurfaced and undersurfaced too!  God knows I needed to slough off the old 'pretty cool' (thank you Miley Cyrus!) me and evolve into God knows what all. 

I'm a blurter, and that doesn't confront me none.  What can I say?  I let The Universe blow me around because it will anyway whether you want it to or not, and I'm always tickled about where I happen to land.  (Dan, tickled is my favorite way to be; you're an insightful guy!)  I'm alive, I have a 2nd chance, and, bottom line, I have innumerable chances right up until my last breath here on this Earth.

Surprising my Pain Doc this morning was fun.  When I insisted he take my Dilaudid8mg down to 6mg and put together a plan to have me OFF the stuff by April Fool's Day, and I'm not kidding here, his eyes got all round ⊙ ⊙, and he says "Now, I don't want to see you puking and getting a rebound addiction!"  He's a brilliant guy and all, but I know me better than he does, so I reply "Well, then I'll just have an excellent way to pull off some pounds, pooping or puking, I don't care either way!"  Pain Doc just shakes his head sadly.  Poor guy.

Anyway, Dan, Congratulations on your surgery yesterday!!!!!!Please jot down all the inanities of recovery; the esoteric tidbits are hands down the most interesting parts to read in all the differing recovery stories.  I'm so happy for you!

2fer

[hernanu]

So, 'One - this is just a convoluted way to reach your goal weight?  ;D

[Two4One]

Well, Yeah. ;D

[Two4One]

 :P Erg, 'nanu, gurgle.....time to run (yuck!) ;D  You guessed it!  I weigh less today, and that's all that really counts in life, ami' right? *end partial sarcasm*

The part about Doc Pain being right, and I gotta go, gotta go right now, is right!

Have a great day~

'One

[Two4One]

2.25.12 Saturday

Friday
Sleep     (10pm to 1:30) 3.5 Hours + (4am to 7:30am) 3.5 Hours = 7 Hours of Precious Sleep

Ok, it's official, I'm blonde, and I can't count!  Today is really Day 68! 

I'm having a lazy Saturday morning, deciding which way the night and day is going to go.1  Sometimes it's helpful to make a To Do List, but the last time I made such a 'list', I only managed one thing on it!  I'm OK with that because walking my dog Boo twice in one day, which added up to a one mile stroll, was the best use of my time. With my stellar track record, Here's another -

Today's To Do List:
     ✔Land PT
     ✔Pool PT
       Nap
       Return Library Magazines
     ✔Go to the Nirvana of Makeup Stores - Ulta
     ✔Eat Healthy
     ✔1/2 Lay off the tons of Extra Sugary Snacks*
     ✔Add My Weight Stats and Weight Goal to my End Tag
     ✔Be Grateful for Hubs who's morphed back into Mr. Wonderful!
     ✔Be Grateful for EVERYTHING
       Clean out my Hall Closet and put in the Shoe Rack Hubs built
       Listen to my BeMindful Mp3 meditation
       Prepare for my 2nd meeting of my NEW Friday Morning Women's Group!

       Stuff I did instead of or added to my To Do List:
      ✔Prepared my own Breakfast, Lunch (partially), and Dinner!  (Hubs made Sweet Potatoes)
      ✔Walked at least a mile, in a spooky underground garage with the Elevators broken, and the Mall!
      ✔Used the stairs at least 7 times.
      ✔Broke protocol by carrying around stuff weighing 20 lbs, when my limit is ten pounds.


'It would sure do me good to do you good, I can help'2.  It's wonderful to be physically able to be part of a helping group of women, instead of laying about for more years of parasitical confinement!  Man, it feels so good to do good, and 'well, someone thought of healing, but all I really want'3 is all of us Hippies to show the way of full recovery and resumption of our new, improved life.

_____________________________________________________________________________

1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gwf9IF6E-E Peter Frampton - Baby I Love Your Way

2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VZS6XWa-Kw - Billy Swan "I Can Help"

3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLgeTtYwQ7o Peter Frampton - Show Me The Way

_____________________________________________________________________________
Brunch
11am      Oatmeal: w 1/2 banana & 1/2 c raspberries, half cup Skim Milk
              1/2 c Low Fat Plain Organic Yogurt w: 2 packets of Stevia, 1 TSP of
              Real Michigan Maple Syrup, 2 TBSP Homemade Granola, 2 TBSP Dried
              Cherries, and 3/4 c fresh Pomegranate Seeds!  Yum, Yum, Yumster!

Lunch
1:30pm   1/2 small Panini: roasted ham, grated 4 cheeses, chives, greens, 1/2 TSP
              Olive Oil, Roasted Sweet Potatoes: w onion, pecans, maple syrup, red and
              yellow sweet bell peppers, and dried cherries, 1 c Steamed Broccoli,
              1 Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice/Vodka, 1 Hershey Bar, 1 skim milk.

Dinner
7pm        One Frozen Smart Ones, followed by Plain low fat organic yogurt, 2 TBSP
              Granola, 2 packets of Stevia, 1 TSP of Agave, 2 TBSP Dried Cherries, and
              1/2 cup fresh raspberries.  Water all day long.

Sugary Snacks* - With TWO Yogurt Parfaits, A Hershey Bar, and One Mixed Drink cocktail,
                           I think somethings gotta be sacrificed to lose some blubber!!

8:30pm    I'm done for the day and ensconced in my Turret Room, resting comfortably in
               Bed, and kicking back with a magazine or two.

Today's Withdrawal Symptoms:   Weakness, fatique, several hot flash episodes,
                                                       cold sweats, and various little aches, are a small
                                                       price to pay. I'm actually doing quite well because
                                                       I'm gently weaning me of off narcotics.
             

[Two4One]

2.26.12 Sunday

Saturday
Sleep     Asleep at 10pm and awoke up at 4:30am = 6 1/2 Hours of Sleep     
             (I stayed in bed until 7:30am, holding my pee with my legs pressed tightly
             together like the silly kitty in the magazine print ads for Kitty Litter, so Hubs
             wouldn't hear me in my bathroom and wake up.)

8am      I cried this morning, and it wasn't helping that my morning pain pill was taken
            at 7:30am.  I didn't stop softly crying until just before 9am, when finally the
            Dilaudid 8mg pill kicked in.  I guess it also wasn't helping that yesterday I started
            my Dilaudid taper and had reduced Saturday's dose by a measly 2mg, and I wasn't
            prepared emotionally for a bit of push back pain. 

            This morning, my pain level was only a '7', and I didn't understand why emotionally
            it was hitting me hard enough to drive me to tears.  After all, a '7' was my normal
            pre resurfacing pain level for two and a half years, even with my daily ingestion of
            enough pain medication to stun a large elephant into unconsciousness.  My conclusion
            is that for a few weeks now, I simply wasn't used to pain over a '5' anymore!  So when
            that bit of extra pain hit, it seemed worse than it actually was, the '7' level pain pushed
            me back on my heels, and that's why my tears flowed.

            After weeks of lessening or least easily bearable, minimal type pain, have any of
            you well on your way healing Hippies had a crying jag over some completely
            unexpected, out of the blue, pain surprise?  Would you mind to please tell me what
            happened, and how you responded to your pain surprise?  I would surely appreciate it.

            Thank You,
            'One
           
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2kxlZDOHeQ Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-The Tears Of A Clown

[obxpelican]

Two4,

I am glad to hear you are weaning off of the narcotics.

Couple of questions, how long have you been on narcotics for the pain?  And, were the narcotics for your hip pain always?


Chuck

[Aerial]

I see all that you are going through to get off pain meds and you are to be commended.  Perhaps your response to extra pain is related to the fact that you are so consciously trying to get off meds.  In other words, are you in more pain "mentally" or in a true "physical" sense".  Please don't take this as cruel but could it be like a placebo response, you know you are less pain meds so you "think" you are in more pain.  Remember the glass is always half full, if it is truly physical pain, perhaps it is related to all you can do now!  Yippee, glass half full because you are active.  After a full day working in my yard a couple weekends back, I needed to take Alleve for a couple days afterward.  I hadn't been on any pain relief for a good month.  However, the yard looked great, my hip was sore but I know accomplished things I hadn't attempted post-surgery.  Invoke your inner yogi and take the "half full" route....it is knowN to relieve tears  :) Just a couple thoughts....keep up the good healing work!

[Two4One]

Hi Chuck,

I have been on narcotics since August 24th, 2009, the next day after my undiagnosed bilateral bone on bone OA cut and tore both my labrums out.  My bilateral pain was intractable on the spot.  From Day One, I could not walk one step, so I was placed on Percocet 40mg/Day, and within the week 40 to 50mg Oxycontin/Day.  My misdiagnosis at the time was bilateral femoroacetabular impingement and torn labrums because, it turns out, I had the rarest and most painful form of hip OA, located on all the tests and every films' blind spots.  My films were read as normal and arthritis free by over a dozen surgeons in these past two and half years plus.   

After my failed arthroscopies of 12/09 R Hip and 2/10 L Hip, I was referred to my pain management doctor in March 2010.  Pain Doc placed me on 100mcg Fentanyl Patch and Dilaudid 8mg/4-5xDay, Ambien 10mg, and Promethazine 25mg for the side effects of nausea.

(My OA was on the center top tip of my femurs and in the center deepest recesses of my acetabular sockets.)  After my 7am bilateral hip resurfacing, Dr. Schmitt told Hubs December 20th, 2012 that my hips had beautiful, normal cartilage, and no degenerative changes whatsoever all along the sides of my hip sockets and femurs.  He further described my hips as sort of "looking like an upside down capital L".  Dr. Schmitt described the top of the "L" as being shorn off & flattened.  I believe he told Hubs something like he saw my acetabular sockets were so thinned from my femurs being too deep into my hip sockets that my femurs had protruded and nearly broken through my acetabular sockets, and that I had been bone on bone since August '09, explaining my excruciating hip pain.

Yes, Chuck, the narcotics were for my hip pain always.  Thanks for replying and any insight you may offer.

'One