Heads, shoulders, knees and....hips!



I thought I'd give you an update on how things are progressing joint wise.

Well, the scar on my shoulder has been quite sore.  It's felt like a graze and the skin feels as if it's stretching every time I move my arm, which is pretty uncomfortable.  I was advised by my practise nurse to use bio oil which would help to soften the skin.  I used twice daily for about a week and I felt it made it worse.  I used bio oil when I had my knee replaced and the same thing happened so I should have known not to use it but I gave it a good go any way.

This all resulted in me going too see the Dr on Wednesday of last week.  He said it was an unusual complaint but gave me some hydrocortisone cream to try.  It made the skin feel better straight away and by Friday I was able to wear a proper bra again.  Up until now I've been wearing strapless bras therefore wearing a proper bra for the first time in two months has been awesome.

Physio is going slowly and is difficult. I saw the physio again on 28th February and she's really pleased with me.  I have to start lifting a light weight such as a half filled bottle of water to build up my strength.  My arm has been completely useless for so long that I need to build my muscles up to help regain the use.  Physio is progressing quickly and I'm finding I can do more and more for myself each day. 

Dressing myself is still difficult for me and I'm still requiring help in the mornings.  I'm told that a shoulder resurfacing is a massive operation, far more invasive than any other operation I've ever had before.  I was also told that it is a long operation so I suppose it takes longer to recover from.

I feel fine in myself, I've been back driving for about 7 weeks.  I don't drive if I don't feel well enough so I must feel ok.

In other news my left elbow keeps swelling up.  I've have had problems with it since last summer and the pain in it is pretty intense.  I have to be careful how much I'm using my arm when using it so it doesn't swell up.  I've been having a few problems with my hands too, they are swollen again and I'm struggling to use them.  I'm trying to keep them moving with my knitting but I can't do too much of that either at the moment. 

Anyway, it's not all bad news as I had my tocilizumab infusion last Friday and so my bones should be feeling better soon.

On Sunday I was turning to pick some knitting up and I felt my hip twist out of it's joint. It wasn't too painful but I knew that if I didn't do anything about it that it could be serious.  I straightened myself up and heard a large click and felt my hip go back into place.  It felt rather uncomfortable and the pain was quite bad over Sunday night and Monday.  I decided, with a little push from my nurse friend, that I would ring the surgeons secretary and she gave me a an appointment for Wednesday morning.

My dad came to the hospital with me where I had an X-ray to check it was all ok and I'm very pleased to report that everything is fine.  He said that it sounded like it had dislocated but that it's gone back in and that I haven't done any damage to it.  My dad and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

This just reminds me that I have to be really careful of my hip and that I must look after it as it has to last me quite a long time.

Feet, shoes and insoles

My new insoles.

In February I had a podiatry appointment at Stafford hospital.  I met a lovely lady called Helen who asked me all sorts of questions about my arthritis and how I cope with daily life.

We then got on to talking about my feet and she asked me if they were painful, to which I replied 'they're fine'.  She laughed and said that I would be surprised how many people with arthritis say that, but in reality they're not fine.  I told her that I have pain in my ankle but that could be from my right knee which needs replacing and has done for quite some time now.  She told me that my right ankle is leaning over to one side therefore I have a high instep which could be why it's painful and swollen.

So she wants me to try some insoles in my shoes but impressed upon me that the insoles could undo the good that my joint replacements have done.  She also said that if they cause lots of pain then I can stop wearing them.

They arrived in the post last week.  I haven't tried them yet but I will let you know how I get on over the next few weeks.

Photography - 16th February - Museum of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

Yesterday my Dad and I went to the Museum of Cannock Chase in Hednesford for the second of our weekly photography course.  The Museum of Cannock Chase is another place I haven't been to before but is only a few miles from where I live.

The museum is an old colliery which closed in the mid 1980's and it describes the rich heritage in the area.  Cannock was a mining town and the landscape is due to mining in the area.  Even the hospital where I go for my treatment boasts ward names of some of the old collieries, such as Hilton Main, Hollybank, Fairoak and Littleton.  Many of the minors donated some of their pay to fund the building of the hospital and the names are a tribute to that.  I still remember Littleton when it was a working mine, I remember driving past it on the way home from the hospital and seeing all the minors coming up after their shift had finished. Now, unfortunetly, it's a housing estate.

When we arrived at the museum the lecturer Steve came over to tell me that my picture of the Blackpool skyline (if you can call it that!) was fantastic BUT and it's a big BUT, I caught a girls head in the picture.  I knew I'd done this but I wanted to ask him if the basic composition of the picture was correct and he said that it was.  He then asked me if he could show the rest of the class my pictures and discuss how he would have taken the picture or if I could have done anything differently, he also wanted to show me how to crop extra bits out of the picture.

Here are some of the pictures he changed:

My photo of Blackpool with this girls head became.....

The idilic landscape of the Maldieves became...

My pool pic became...

and the reason, because I chopped the tow of the flip flop off!

And the picture we all want to walk in and take a seat became...

After this we went for a look round but unfortunately we lost the group because we decided we would stay in the warm and have a cuppa before we went.  My Dad and I ventured out on our own merry way which, to be honest, was better because I can’t walk as far as the others.  This was the first time in about 20 years that I had set foot on Cannock Chase and it felt amazing.  I drive through it all the time but I hadn’t actually be able to walk on it and although I only took a few steps it felt good.

Here are some of the photos my Dad and I took.

Here is my Dad walking through the chase.

Everything is so gloomy this time of year.

I wonder how long this has been there.

Forcing myself to read more

My friend told me the other day that his English language skills have improved greatly since he started reading more.  I told him that I've always struggled with the English language and particularly with writing.  This is maybe why it was such a massive deal for me to start this blog and why, at times, it can be such an effort for me to post.  Words don't flow even though I know what I would like to say.   Lecturers used to say 'you know what you want to say Sally, you just don't know how to say it,' and that is absolutely true.

I'm not sure that even my friends realise how much I struggle and that I'm actually rather embarrassed about it.  I suppose the general consensus is that, 'you got masters degree, you can't be that bad,' and I don't think I am that bad.

What I tend to forget is that my degree was in Music Performance and I got it because I was good at it. I wasn't necessarily good at writing about it, but I was good at the performing and that's what got me through it.

I'd love to get back into reading and maybe it will help with my English.  Don't get me wrong, I do read, but not as much as I used to.  It's commonly known that once you start knitting you stop reading and this definitely happened to me.

Therefore, following on from my conversation with my friend I've downloaded a few of the free classics on my kindle app.  I'm going on holiday next week and I'm going to make a real effort to read more whilst I'm away.  I've already started reading Little Women which is a book that I have always wanted to read so I will let you know how that goes.

Between reading, knitting and photography I won't have time to do much else, so here goes.

Photography - 9th February 2012 - Marquis Drive, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

What most locals, like me, forget to remember is that we live almost on top of a wonderful area of woodland called Cannock Chase which was given Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty status in 1958. (reference www.cannock-chase.co.uk)

Cannock Chase is a haven for many people who live in the area, cyclists, walkers, adventurers and not least photographers.  So, why not make use of this magical place for a photography class?

Last Thursday my dad and I went off to Marquis Drive Visitor Centre on the Chase for our first photography class.  The first thing I learnt was that you don't have to have a fancy camera to make photos look good, anyone with any sort of camera can take good photographs.  We learnt how to create a good photograph by looking at the composition and how to frame the photograph.  I don't think I captured this very well but here are a couple of photos I took on a cold and gloomy day on Cannock Chase.

www.visitcannockchase.co.uk

Photography Class - The new Lord Lichfield...obviously!

A few years ago I bought myself a digital SLR camera and have been looking for a class where I could learn how to use it ever since.  So imagine my excitement when my mum saw a free class advertised in the local newspaper.  My Dad phoned up and signed both him and myself on the course which was, what we thought a one off two hour session.

So we arrived at Poplars Landfill in Cannock on a cold Thursday morning a couple of weeks ago.  Now I know a landfill site doesn't sound like a good place to take photographs but Biffa (the company who own it) are trying their best to make it look as good as they can by planting over it and generally trying to make it fit into the landscape of Cannock Chase.

We soon realised that this session wasn't the one off class we were expecting but it was the last week of a six week photography course.  So after a few conversations we signed up for the next six week course when it was running.

Meanwhile...The lecturer is a guy called Steve who is really nice and a great photographer.  He's obviously really passionate about what he does.  Steve came straight over to talk to me about photos I'd like to take, and what sort of experience I've got.  He soon realised I am a complete beginner when it comes to photography and he asked me if I would get together some photos that I'd taken and bring them to the next meeting.

I wanted to share some of these photographs with you. They are some of my favourites from over the last two years since I've had the camera. See what you think.

These two photographs were taken on a cold and rainy July day at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland where some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.  July 2010.  Alnwick Castle is a lovely day out if you are ever in the area. www.alnwickcastle.com/

This was a day trip to Blackpool on another cold and blustery day in October 2010.

Our trip to Maldives in January 2011.

This is taken at the Green Grocers in Mill Street in Stafford in February 2012.

Losing weight and a dress size

As you know I've started using My Fitness Pal.  I started in December 2011 and I'm happy to announce I've lost 9lbs and am already wearing clothes that are a size smaller.

I'm feeling a lot better in myself and my joints are benefitting too.  Obviously the last month has been difficult and I haven't done much exercise but when I have managed to do a bit my joints have felt a little more comfortable.

The only exercise I've been doing is on the Wii.  If I exercise at home I can do a few minutes and then sit down which is a lot better for me than going for a 30 minute walk, which I couldn't do anyway.  It's worked well for me so far, some days I can't do anything and some days I can manage up to 10-15 minutes split up into small manageable chunks.

I find My Fitness Pal easy to use because it has a website (myfitnesspal.com) and an app but the best part is that it's free.  After adding a few details, height/current weight you can add in how much weight you want to lose, either 1 or 2lbs per week 2 lb per week, and it calculates how many calories you should be having each day.  The friends feature is also good as you can help each other along the way.

Adding food into the app is easy as it has a barcode scanner but there is also a search facility, then all you do is you add how much you've had and it tells you how many calories is it in.  The only problem with that is that due to the website being American people have put things in lbs, oz, grams, cups, all sorts of different measurements so I've also downloaded a free converter app so I know how much I'm having.  And no I haven't got a clue how big a cup is!  People also put calorie values that are totally wrong, either too much or too little so you have to double check.

The app also shows your projected weight loss if you continue eat like today, for instance if I've eaten 1350 calories it tells me 'if everyday were like today you will weigh so many lbs in 5 weeks'. I think this is good because it gives me something to aim for and doesn't leave me disheartened.

So will I continue to lose weight? Well I certainly want too so watch this space and see!