Better

The last couple months have been pretty depressing.  For the longest while, it has seemed like every day was worse than the one before, and there was no outlook for things to get better at any specific point in time.  Fortunately, in the last week, things have started to get a little bit better.

The day of my appointment with Dr. Dahners, I had no pain, but I was in quite a bit of pain the next day.  I decided I needed to do some experimenting to see if I could replicate my pain-free day, so I started playing with body position, and what I found was that if I avoid bending my hips, I can avoid most of the pain.  I had been sleeping half the night with my knees pulled up and my hips bent, and I think that was crushing the new HO bone fragments like nuts in a nutcracker.  So I started sleeping flat on my back all night, and I found I wasn't in pain when I woke up.

I have also been trying to avoid bending my hips in the wheelchair.  This makes it uncomfortable to sit in the wheelchair, but at least it's not excruciating.  I scoot my butt forward in the seat and slouch way down.  I let my spine do a lot of the bending, and in this way, I can avoid almost all the pain in my hips pretty much all day.  Unfortunately, this results in pain in my lower back, but I have to pick my poison, so that's the one I'm choosing right now.

So using my new techniques, I've been able to continue doing all the stuff I have to do everyday.  I have now survived another whole week since my last appointment, and I'm well on my way to hip surgery.

Speaking of hip surgery, it's amazing how much having a date for surgery has done for my outlook.  I finally have something to look forward to: a date when things should start to get measurably better.  I'm nervous about getting cut on, but I'm excited to finally start moving forward again.

My friend Bert sent me a very thoughtful gift this week.  It's a set of Star Trek The Next Generation Pez dispensers.  Bert is well aware of my fondness for Star Trek, and my LOVE of Pez, so it's a perfect gift.  Ben came over last night to watch some Star Trek and eat all the Pez.

The crew of the Enerprise as candy dispensers

Loading the candy