Post-op question 1: How important is Aquatic Therapy as an integral part of PT?

[LindaRacine]

Hi Mary...

Little victories... right?

I purchased THIS gadget, but would definitely not recommend it. I ended up just living with horribly dry and itchy legs.

As for picking up the hair, there are some grabbers that would probably work OK. I have 2 different grabbers. Some work better for different tasks.

--Linda

[mabeckoff]

I am totally fused from C2 to my pelvis. I am about 9 months from my big surgery and I am finally able to put cream on my lower legs. Before that I was using a clean bath sponge , on a stick to apply cream.

Congratulations on your latest victory

[Confusedmom]

I am 4 weeks post-op, T4-sacrum. I can put my right ankle on my left knee and thereby put on lotion, socks, shave, or whatever. However, I haven't been doing this because I am afraid it is a big "no-no," like no BLTS. Thoughts? It would make life easier if I could just do it.

[Confusedmom]

Also, the two remaining mysteries to me are the laundry and the bottom drawer of the dishwasher. I think I can coerce my children into helping with the dishwasher, or else just wash that stuff by hand. But the laundry? I can't really even wrap my head around that yet.

[LindaRacine]

I am 4 weeks post-op, T4-sacrum. I can put my right ankle on my left knee and thereby put on lotion, socks, shave, or whatever. However, I haven't been doing this because I am afraid it is a big "no-no," like no BLTS. Thoughts? It would make life easier if I could just do it.

I would definitely not do that, as I think it puts a LOT of strain on the L5-S1 joint (depending on how loose your hips are). If you don't feel any pulling, it might be OK, but I personally wouldn't do it until 3-6 months postop.

Also, the two remaining mysteries to me are the laundry and the bottom drawer of the dishwasher. I think I can coerce my children into helping with the dishwasher, or else just wash that stuff by hand. But the laundry? I can't really even wrap my head around that yet.

I did laundry within maybe 3 weeks of surgery. I just used my grabber for everything. I also used my grabber to load and unload the top rack of my dishwasher. I discovered that grabbers don't do a great job on knives, but I got around that by grabbing the entire flatware basket, loading it from my countertop.

I think it takes some time to get creative in terms of solving all the problems of every day living, but I definitely came away with the belief that necessity is definitely the mother of invention.

--Linda

[mdtaffet]

I would definitely not do that, as I think it puts a LOT of strain on the L5-S1 joint (depending on how loose your hips are). If you don't feel any pulling, it might be OK, but I personally wouldn't do it until 3-6 months postop.

That's what I had been doing to get my right footie sock on (though not in the beginning), but I do feel some discomfort doing that. I didn't realize that what I was feeling could be stress on L5-S1 (definitely one of my problem spots before surgery). Now that I've learned from you guys that I can use the hospital-supplied sock puller to put on my footie socks, I should just switch to using it for both of those footie socks.

[Confusedmom]

Okay, thanks Linda. I will try to behave myself. Sometimes it's easy to forget, surprisingly.

One more question, is it bad to just squat say 3-4 inches with your hips/knees to get something that's just a little out of reach?

[Roxjanine]

I started aqua therapy at 2 weeks post op. It really helped not waiting so long to get moving again. A lot of people on the forum thought it was too soon, including me. But now I see the results and I am glad I began aqua therapy early on.