* I let myself sleep "however" last night, instead of propping my leg on pillows. Doing that made me stiff, and I don't sleep well flat on my back, and it was hard to get comfortable with my leg in an odd position. I think I slept a little better, though I was sore when I got up from having my leg bent overnight. I might try sleeping on my left side with a thin pillow between my knees to cushion the bad one.
* I loosened up after getting up, though, and seemed to have less pain and walk more easily today, and I even taught my class partly standing up and was able to walk around a little. I think much better on my feet and I teach better. I really hope I do continue to improve so I can stand more while I teach. And I hope the orthopedist releases me to start PT soon. I'm at about 75% mobility, I'm hoping that's good enough to avoid surgery.
* I miss getting exercise so I hope the doctor clears me to do more walking and start PT. I've been being very careful (so I don't re-injure or overstress the leg, or interfere with healing) but being sedentary gets very tiresome when you're used to being active.
* When I got home, I did 20 minutes of piano practice. I had not been doing any since first I was very immobile (when I was on the crutches) and then I just was hurting and cranky and didn't feel like it. I've gotten rusty but maybe I can build it back up.
The other thing limiting practice time and knitting time is that things take longer having to be careful of the poor leg - even simple stuff like laundry. And I have to take an extra half minute when getting out of a chair, I hesitate because I fear pain or injuring the leg again and feel like I have to have everything positioned "just right." The fear of pain is a very real thing; I don't always know if after sitting for a while I will hurt (because of having been immobile) or feel OK (because of having rested for a bit) and I have to kind of psych myself up for that.
* I do think I'm getting better. The pain now is more "ouch, everything is stiff and I feel like I can't stretch my leg well enough to undo it" rather than "ouch, everything in there is tender and raw" though I do have some skin irritation under where I've worn the brace - it has latex rubber in it (for stretch) which I have a mild skin sensitivity to, and even wearing tights under it it still irritates. And I have a few ingrown leg-hairs courtesy of having worn a brace so much on there, and that's part of it.
* I did manage to change the sheets on the bed again tonight (it had been two weeks). It was easier and less painful than before but still it's more of an effort than when I'm perfectly well.
* My house is a mess after this past month. I picked up a FEW things (until I ran out of steam to) and I put the curtain on the tension rod back up in the doorway between the kitchen and the back hallway - I caught it with the tip of the crutches one day when I was on them and it came down, and I was hurting too much (and then too worried about reinjury) to put it back up. I have been keeping up with laundry but that's about it.
* I need to go in tomorrow (grading, and to take up the herbarium sheets - I had a student who had been out sick who wanted to come in this afternoon and do them, I gave him a quick run through of everything - and oh, that was more time walking around on my feet.)
* One thing I hope the orthopedist says is that I'm cleared to try stairs again. It would be nice to be able to park in my normal spot (even though I will probably gripe about having to drag down the stairs at the end of the day when I'm tired). My building is really not very accessible at all; parking in the back puts me on the same level but it's a long walk to my office; parking in the front puts me close to my office but there's a flight (or maybe even a flight and a half) of fairly-steep stairs to get there and NO elevator
It's 85 steps from the back door to my office; I counted it one day. It's about 30 from the front door to my office if you count each step on the stairs as one.
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