Coming up on six weeks...

That's how long it's been since I've checked in over here.

I'm chagrined.

Two words that have taken on markedly less importance in my world of late would be "blogging" and "workout".

But it's time for both to return...not with a vengeance, though. With thought and care.

I know everyone who used to read Taking It On has probably been quite curious about my injection schedule and how my hip is doing, so that will be the first order of biz.

MY HIP

I had my second PRP injection on March 20th. It was amazing. No singing, sadly. But cute, nice doctor same as the first time. Nice, big needle again, too.

 

Unfortunately, that alcohol bottle is not the drinking kind.

Might've helped had it been.

Recovery seemed faster than the first time. While there is still some soreness and inflammation, that is deemed normal as the injection causes an inflammatory healing response. The truly remarkable thing is the ease and smoothness of movement, especially when not bearing weight. The range of motion and increased flexibility is arresting. And I have been cleared to start working on the elliptical...as long as it doesn't hurt. You bet your ass I'll be paying close attention and safe-guarding my investment and progress. The instant it hurts in that not good way, I am off the machine. Interestingly, I'm not feeling driven to jump back on. It's Spring Break over here...the kids are all home...I've got things to do and people to play with. I'll probably get back to things of a workout nature in a week or so. Injection #3 is slated for sometime before the end of the month...no set date yet.

WORKING OUT

None. Nada. Zip. And totally NOT stressed about it. I have so much on my plate right now. While working out might help decrease some of the stress, making it happen might increase it. I look at it as a wash and have let go. It'll all come back when it's time. For now, I'm focusing on feeling healthy and happy and spending a ton of time with my kids :)

Which brings us to...

MY KIDS

My oldest just got accepted to an amazing local high school. I am so proud of him. Of course, it wasn't his first choice and so he's having a hard time getting excited about it. I do wish we could skip this phase, but we can't.

 

Photo taken two days after he received 

the first-choice school's wait list letter...hence the attitude.

Who'm I kidding? He'd have the attitude no matter what.

My big girl is just a joy. Doing great in school. Helpful wherever she is. Lots of harp playing and reading books. Lots of creating cool stuff like wallets made out of found materials and earrings made out of safety pins and writing books and drawing involved fashion pictures. She is really just the coolest of the cool.

 

I convinced her to go on the Ferris wheel at the local boardwalk.

We got stuck at the top...and I took this picture.

My little boy turned 8 since the last time I posted. Still non-stop, he had a bounce-house extravaganza for a party and a cake topped with General Grievous.

And my baby turned 4! She was super duper sick on her actual birthday but did get to share the bounce madness party with her big bro.

I've missed you all. Sounds corny, but it's true.

It's very likely that I'll be around a little more, but no guarantees.

Hope all o' y'all's worlds are treating you well :)

hey. whoa. where'd i go?

Hey, guys! It's been a while.

I've been keeping myself busy so as to not dwell on the limited exercise of interest thing (this eliminates swimming from the discussion, so don't suggest it...got it?).

I know you all are curious about how the injection is playing out and probably all the awesome things I've been up to since I clearly have NOT been blogging.

Bullets...here you go:

• PRP Injection? Two thumbs way UP. For two days after, I babied the heck out of my hip, then I started bearing more weight and being more active. A bit of pain...it comes and goes when I walk, especially when I have to carry a child. But the most amazing thing to ME is this:
• I saw Life of Pi in 3D. Triple snap in Z formation. Go see it. About two-thirds of the way through the movie I started crying for a reason completely unrelated to the movie (which did make me cry in its own right). I was crying because I realized that for the first time in ten years, I was not uncomfortable AT ALL while watching a movie. TEN YEARS, people, of pain in movies. It was a mind-blowing experience to NOT have that. I'm calling Injection #1 a success. I get #2 in three weeks. I can't wait :)
• A couple of weeks ago I offered to help someone out. I don't know her that well, but our daughters are best friends. I'm watching her daughter before school for 90 minutes for the next three weeks. The child is super polite and sweet and EASY. And makes our mornings easy...which is hard. She came over every morning this week. Today the mom paid me! Whoa. I wasn't expecting that! Woo hooo! Now I have money to:
• Mail out the Jingle Bell Hell prizes! I had NO IDEA how expensive shipping had gotten :( But they ARE coming, people. Hope to get them out by the end of next week. So Christmas in March not February ;-) I may need to go buy Jennifer some more powdered donuts, though. Not sure how rich in preservatives these guys are!
• We enjoyed a lovely day and went on a lovely walk...

Except for this one. She ran...

...and kept running...

...until she found this tree, upon which she stopped and pointed

and loudly proclaimed,

MOM!!! THIS TREE HAS A PENIS!

I do believe that the entire horde of tourists visiting Muir Woods on that beautiful Sunday morning then noticed that, indeed, the tree had a penis. 

She looked up and saw this...

and delightedly shrieked,

(I say 'delighted' because she's my child)

These trees are SO BIG! They're THIS BIG!

and she jumped to show me how big.

That's why the picture is blurry.

This one got mad.

I don't remember why, 

but I remember that he worked it for a good, long time.

Then we let him take our picture.

He was so excited that he tried to grab his own face.

It was beautiful.

And kind of loud because we were there.

• We followed up with lunch at In N Out, which I think was the kids' favorite part of the experience. Even though I made them all share a shake. 

Hope all of you out there have a lovely weekend!

Anyone doing something fun?

– we have soccer and birthday parties and piano tests and housework to look forward to :)

Not Pimp Rock Palace (photo warning for the squeamish)

Yesterday I experienced PRP for the first time.

And that doesn't stand for Pimp Rock Palace.

In this case, PRP stands for Platelet-Rich Plasma. My own platelet-rich plasma was injected into my hip joint as part of a treatment series attempting to regenerate cartilage in there. You can read about it here.

In case you're new here, I was recently diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis and told that my hip joint has degenerated to being a bone-on-bone situation.

I'm following the ranks of A-Rod, Tiger Woods, and Kobe Bryant...as one reader said, "Without the hookers." (Cant' remember who gave me that gem...speak up because I love it and want to thank you). These pro athletes (and others) have had success with this form of treatment.

The top yellowish part is the plasma. The next whitish layer contains the platelets.

These two layers are what he injected into my hip joint.

I went to see the cute doctor. I filled out a bunch of paperwork and then went into the inner sanctum. After chatting a bit about my hip's history and filling my husband in on what was about to happen and how it worked, we got down to the real business. After drawing my blood, he numbed my hip with two injections of something. This was the most painful part of the procedure, and it was more a stinging pressure than pain. The first one was more superficial while the second went deep.

This is the third time I've used "singing" as a coping mechanism when undergoing an 'uncomfortable' medical event. I've found this way of distracting myself to be extremely effective and recommend it highly. I began during the first numbing injection with a sort of humming with my mouth open and so was kind of loud. It changed in volume and pitch as the injection proceeded. Then with the second one, I sang an actual song.

I'm singing....

I'm in a doctor's office and I'm singing....
I'm in a doctor's office and I'm SINNNGINNNNGGGG!!!!

The doctor started laughing and joined in.

And you're my dad... and guess what?
I love you!
I LOVE you!
I LOVE YOUUUUUU!!!!!

I am completely and entirely serious. I now know with absolute certainty that I picked the right doctor for ME. Unfortunately, my husband had not yet begun filming when the musical portion of the procedure happened :(  The film he did take isn't all that interesting...just me getting a shot with the needle shown below...

Yes, that's my hip.

And now you've seen my underwear.

Another angle that makes the needle look even longer.

Now just imagine that above vial of PRP hooked onto the needle 

and being injected into my hip.

It didn't hurt really. A huge pressure sensation more than anything. It made my hip feel "juicy" inside. It made things feel different right away...but of course, my hip was numbed so there was that :P The doctor and my husband stood on either side of me as I tried to take my first step. Thank GOD because it felt like there was a huge THING missing...oh, yeah...that would be my numb hip! And I almost went down. But within moments, I was able to sort of shuffle with help.

It got sore about 30 minutes later, just an achy, beat-up feeling. This lasted for several hours. I was able to walk around the house slowly and go up and down stairs holding onto the railing. I'm probably more mobile than I think, but I am being paranoid and allowing the treatment to "settle in" and do it's thing. Sleeping was no problem.

This morning I feel fine. It's a little sore but not bad at all. I admit that I am afraid to even slightly test it. I'm going to spend the day alternating between shuffling and lying around. I go back in a month to do it again. The doctor feels we're looking at 5-6 treatments...maybe more, but he is optimistic that this will help a lot. I'm in Running Moratorium for at least that long, and no elliptical for 2-3 treatments. I can bike, row on the rowing machine, yoga, do some easy weights, perform rehabby exercises, and walk around. We don't want to disturb any possible cartilage regeneration process!

I'll be taking a fistful of joint supplements...MSM, glucosamine, and chondroitin. Additionally, I'll continue my anti-inflammatory way of eating and doing my meditative work. It's time to make the healing, restorative work a major priority.

If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask! I am completely fascinated by this process.