Hip (and dinner)

[beowabbit]

I mentioned in a recent post that I was having trouble with my hip. Well, it was awful; it kept me home from work for two days. An anecdote will give you an idea of my degree of immobility: I woke up in the middle of the night Monday night desperately needing the bathroom. It took me about five minutes and two excruciating missteps to figure out a way to get out of bed. Inching along with my cane, it took me about ten minutes to get to the bathroom. Just as an example, after I washed my hands, it took me about 20-30 seconds to turn in place 180° to get out the door. I had woken up Chickenfinger (cathijosephine’s cat) on my way down, and she was on her way upstairs, and I was very worried she would come up to my room and end up leaning against my leg while I slept and doing me injury, but of course there was no way I could beat her up the stairs. When I got to the top of the stairs I found to my dismay that I had left the door open, and she had gone in. I spent about five minutes trying to persuade her to leave without injuring either one of us, without being able to bend over, and needing my cane for balance. I eventually gave up and spent two minutes getting back into bed. (Getting in was easier than getting out.) Sure enough, within a minute after I lay down, she jumped up onto the bed and ran across my leg. On the bright side, she ran out of the room when I screamed, and I was able to get out of bed and close the door before she came back in. Poor kitty. Poor human. The rest of the night was less eventful.

Anyway, Tuesday was noticeably better, Wednesday I went in to work (after working from home in the morning on a time-sensitive project), and by the evening, when I met plumtreeblossom for a yummy and happy dinner date near my office, I felt basically normal. Today I can tell I’m a little stiff but I feel basically normal. I’m still going to drive to the T station and take my cane with me; no sense tempting fate.

The dinner with plumtreeblossom was a lovely little celebration of returning to normal life after being stuck in the house for a couple days, and we shared our geeky amusement at Google’s new stalk-your-sweetie service, Latitude. (Mind you, that sort of thing has civil-libertarian implications, but nation-states are going to be using it anyway, their citizens might as well get a little benefit from the same technology, and at least having it visible in public life makes people aware of it.)

While I was home immobile, cathijosephine was sick with the flu. She seems like she’s over the worst of it and on the mend now, though. Don’t have time to upload it right now, but I have a great picture of Chickenfinger taking good care of cathijosephine by keeping her in bed. :-)

Have had some fun games of Munchkin with cathijosephine and darxus over the past couple weeks.

PS — Many thanks to freshly-minted nurse ddl (who doesn’t have a LiveJournal) for giving me some advice about my hip on Sunday night.

Comments

[jasra]

Oh wow, that sounds awful. :( I hope that you can get some help/relief for your hip soon.

[beowabbit]

I was basically out of pain as long as I was careful when I posted that, and I’m pretty much back to normal now! Sorry for confusing people with my post. But thanks for the sympathy! *Hugs.*

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Poor my wuzzle's hip. But you seemed much better last night, and I delighted in our geeky date. :-)

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I've had hip pain before and it's really painful. But this sounds worse than anything I've experienced. I hope you start feeling better very soon. Hugs.

[beowabbit]

Basically all better, thanks! I was mostly better by the time I posted that, and I’m pretty much the rest of the way better now. (Note past tense, but I did spend more keystrokes on how much I’d hurt than how much better I was feeling. :-) Thank you!

I had this happen once before (except that it was worse and I didn’t get over it as quickly, both mostly because I didn’t take it seriously at the beginning). I wish I could remember for sure if it was the same hip. I think it was. Come to think of it, I’m sure my LJ archive knows. :-)

[keyne.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I'm glad you're feeling so much better now!

[beowabbit]

I bet you hear me! Thank you!

[drwex]

I hate to ask, but given that level of pain have you seen a doctor?

[beowabbit]

Nope, but I did talk to a nurse (a hot nurse!) who told me that if it wasn’t showing signs of getting better the next day I should probably get an X-ray, but otherwise it was probably one of those “it’ll get better in 48 hours with prompt medical attention, but could take as much as two days if you just stay off it and let it heal” things. (It did show signs of getting better the next day, until I slipped slightly and strained it more and the cat jumped on it. And the following day it was clearly on the upswing.)

The last time this happened I did talk to my doctor (or my doctor’s nurse, I don’t remember) about it, who said the same thing, and then I talked with my doctor in person about it after the fact at our next appointment.

I am plenty stubborn and inertial, though, so thanks for the nudge. :-)

[eisa.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're in so much pain.

[beowabbit]

Oh, I’m not any more! It was only really bad for a bit over two days. Wednesday I had to be careful but was back to 90% functionality, and today I’m almost completely fine. (You’re not the only person who read that in the present tense; I guess that’s what I get for a couple long paragraphs of sob story and a couple short sentences of “fine now”. :-)

Thanks though!

[eisa.livejournal.com]

It might be worth seeing a skilled PT regardless, having something go out that badly can be an indication of structural weakness. I say PT because I've personally had much better luck with them than with doctors at actually correcting pain related problems.

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Ow, that hip thing sounds pretty rough. I'm glad you're on the mend.

[lishablog.livejournal.com]

Good to hear that you are feeling a bit better. Get the rest of the way better fast!! :)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds awful :( I'm glad it didn't last longer, but I'm sorry to hear that the previous incident wasn't a one-time experience.

The folks at Spaulding have a lot of expertise at dealing with funny body issues involving bones and muscle and all that, especially when normal doctors don't have anything useful to say or do about them. And frankly I don't think much of medical people who dismiss that kind of crippling, incapacitating pain by saying, "Well, if it gets better on its own, there's no need to do anything about it," when there's a history of previous such problems.