My clean bedroom before surgery.

I have become intimately aware of the details of my bedroom. For over 30 days now, I have spent at least 20 hours ( if not more) laying on my bed praying as time passes, my new hip heals and the pain subsides.  Not that we are going to focus on this today (because we aren’t) but many of you know elderly friends and relatives that were walking right after a hip replacement.  Because of my non-elderly age, my hip prosthesis is not glued into the femur bone.  My new titanium femur and hip socket (all seven inches) was forced placed into what was left of my femur bone above my knee.  Over time bone will grow around the metal and be way more stable, but in the meantime it is a slow go.

View from my window on this cold day.

My animals have been great companions,although the poodle sometimes wants to have a closer relationship than I really desire, wrapping his big self around my head or laying across my chest with his friend the cat.

Poodle hat?

Poodle Cat?

Enough of that.  I am headed back to work in one week.  Pretty frightening right now as I have not done much of anything for weeks.  Last few days (New Year’s Res and all that) I have pushed myself to get up and get going.  Jordyn has been protégé for much of my new workouts and attempts to get my life back to normal.

I heard once that it takes many weeks to build muscle but muscle starts to deteriorate in as little as ten days.  I am a poster child for deterioration of muscle.  Wow.  I headed to the barn intent on cleaning and clipping my mare Kalani that broken-heartedly I have put up for sale. I just will not have the ability to work with her or to ride for a couple more months.  I guess my dreams die first as Lauren and I have agreed we must pare down the horses we own.  I hope to find her a terrific home.

Anyway, on unsure legs, I headed to the barn.  Kalani is a very quiet mare.  Even so I needed help getting her halter on.  I approached her with the clippers and had difficulty keeping my balance even with this simple task.  Lauren takes over and it is easily completed.

Lauren left for the evening and Jordyn is stuck with me to get the horses hayed and watered for the night.  Jordyn is seven, tall for her age and knows her way through the barn chores.  Together, (okay it was mostly her) we get a bale of hay into the wheelbarrow and head to the barn.  We had some precarious balancing acts as we tried to get the wheelbarrow up into the barn and down off the concrete to the next barn. But we did it!

Before we went in for the night we put all 13 buckets of freshly made morning feed (in order by stall) into the wheelbarrow and left it in the first barn. This morning, 45 degrees and a howling north wind greeted my first breakfast feeding of the horses since the beginning of December.  As I shambled out along the drive to the barn, Jordyn ran on ahead and had all the first barn fed before I even reached the gate.  Together we moved the wheelbarrow with the eight remaining buckets onto the next barn.  I really did not do much feeding but getting up and out accounts for something!

I have to admit I got a little overwhelmed with the thought of getting all the horses out to their respective pastures.  Jordyn can handle many of the horses, walking them to their daily destinations, but the thought of holding and walking a horse with my unsteady legs conjured up immediate thoughts of me lying face down in the cold mud with hoof prints on my back or me flying airborne behind one of these magnificent steeds as he scampered off for morning grass.  Either way, I was too scared to try.

Lauren, followed shortly by Ally, Luke and Kendyll, took over the morning chores as we waited for 70 bales of hay to arrive. I guess this was a pretty usual day on the farm, but it is the first one I have participated in for some time.  Linda and Richard came to deliver the hay.  It was good to have company and be part of the chores even if I did not really participate much (okay, I sat in a chair the whole time).

Getting up and around is a whole lot more fun than hanging out in my room.  It is all about small steps toward getting fit again.  Lauren got FitBits to measure our walking, sleeping, etc.  Lauren set her goal at 12,000 steps per day. I set mine at 150 steps.  Seriously, I have not walked anywhere but to the bathroom for a while.  At the barn last night, I was startled by my wrist vibrating.  My FitBit was telling me I had reached my goal!  Wow, 150 steps!

When I got back to the house I moved my goal to 1500 steps a day and I think I just might make it. Step by step, day by day…getting back to life.

As always, thanks for riding along and another big thanks to all of you (especially my boarders) that have helped out this month.  Lauren, Ally and especially Jordyn have helped keep the farm running smoothly!