Well, the showering problem was solved. My dad sells medical supplies, and one of the things they have is a bathtub transfer bench, which looks like this. The side with the back support goes inside the tub and the other part outside, and the person is meant to sit outside the tub and slide into the tub and shower. Well, I'm using it for my needs now. We didn't put that back support on it and the entire thing goes the long way in the tub. I also put a shower stool into the tub. Then, I get in and slide down onto the stool, and my leg is on that bench. I put a towel under my tibia to keep it from sagging. This way, my leg is straight and I can shower. Fortunately, I'm also relatively flexible, so I can shave my legs like this also, I just avoid the areas with the steri strips. I also haven't figured out how to shave the back of my legs, so I'm sure that I probably have a stripe of hair running on the back of my legs, but oh well. When I take the brace off, it actually looks really funny because my lower legs and thigh are all nice and smooth, but the area around my knee where all the incisions are I don't shave over, so there's this random path of hair between the streristrips. I know, I know, I'm crazy. Of all things, to be worried about hairy legs. But I hate hairy legs. I got a wax before surgery because I wasn't allowed to shave and didn't want to walk in with hairy legs.The other problem was the toilet. It's really uncomfortable having my leg hanging there. So I fashioned myself a support with a couple textbooks. Robbins Pathology and Harrison's Medicine together are the perfect height for a foot rest.
Of course, if you go and purchase those books just for a foot rest, it will be a very expensive foot rest, hardly worth the money. However, if you also suffer from insomnia, read the first page of Robbins and you will be asleep within 10 minutes.
The issue of what to wear on my interview was solved recently as well. While away on another interview, I arrived a couple days earlier and happened to go to the outlets near the hospital, where they had a Kaspar outlet. I ended up finding a suit for $60, the jacket which would look fabulous with my very wide leg black pants. And as fate would have it, one of the other shoppers that day used to be a job recruiter, and overheard me explaining my predicament to the sales girl while I was deciding between 2 suits. She steered me towards the one that is more professional, and assured me that black pants with a suit jacket is very professional, and is what she will be wearing on upcoming job interviews since she is planning for a career change. If by some small chance she's reading this, thanks!
The other thing is my puppy. OK, she really isn't a puppy anymore, but she's still my baby. She will be turning 11 in April, and we've had her since she was 2 months old. Poor dog can't figure out what's going on with me. She stares at the crutches like they're evil. And she is terrified of them, every time she hears them, she bolts out of the way. Now, this is a dog that would never move if she was sleeping comfortably, we used to have to step over her. One of her favorite places for a nap is the entry into the bathroom, and if you called her name and asked her to move, she would snore in response, so we all just got used to stepping over the sleeping dog. But she runs when she hears the squeak squeak of the crutches. I'm sure some of you are saying I'm nuts for not making her move, but could you really make this dog move?
 |
| Cute puppy |
That is one fancy shower chair! I have a walk in shower so I borrowed lawn chairs that a friend's daughter used after her ACL surgery. I'm jealous of yours :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everything is going so smoothly for you. And your pup is super cute!
A walk in shower would be so much easier. Getting in and out of the bathtub is really hard, especially because we have the sliding glass doors instead of a shower curtain, so only half of the bathtub is accessible at any given time. I was also told I can't just let my leg hang there without the brace on, so a regular chair wouldn't work as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost waiting for the other shoe to drop as it were, because I've heard from a bunch of people that had problems with the PCL, and I'm almost nervous that something is going to go wrong. It's like, either my surgeon was really good because I had minimal swelling and virtually no bruising, and already a good amount of knee bend, or my surgeon was terrible and didn't tighten the ligament enough and that's why I am able to bend the knee so much.