Payson Scottish Festival

Remember when I thought I was going to the Thanksgiving Point Scottish Festival a week after my surgery? Yeah, totally didn't happen.  To make up for it, my friend George told me about the Payson Scottish Festival.  So I took off work, determined to see some bagpipes this summer.

We spent about four hours wandering around, watching Highland Games competition and pipe and drum groups.  We missed the highland dancing, but that wasn't a big deal.

The best part of the whole thing? I walked around, all afternoon, without limping or pain.  I sat on bleachers, on the ground, and stood for more than five minutes at a time.

It's little things like this that remind me every day why I had the surgery in the first place.

Gigantic root beer bottle!  

Caber toss

Pipe and drum competition

All Fixed!

I visited the doctor on Wednesday for my six-week post-op.  I got new x-rays taken, and it was neat to see my fake hip in there!

This obviously isn't my hip, but it's exactly what my own x-ray looked like.

I still have to follow my "precautions" until about three months (so, another six weeks).  No crossing my legs, no bending the hip more than 90 degrees....etc.  And mostly I do that.  Except that I can now put on socks and tie my shoes!

I'm off all restrictions for work, so I worked my last day of light duty on Wednesday.  Part of me is excited; I miss being able to train my animals and get shit done in the building.  Another part of my kind of liked the variety of light duty and getting projects done that I don't usually have time for.

I still have some muscle soreness in the fake hip area.  Mostly it's on the side, right under my scar.  Which makes sense, given that those are the muscles that had the most invasion during the surgery.  And it's painful and awkward to lie directly on that side in bed.  However, I can lay on the other side without a pillow between my knees with no problem, and I have much more range of motion for other sleeping positions.  I still wake up sore sometimes if I've made a move overnight that isn't quite compatible with the hip.

Conveniently, this coming week is the Felid TAG at the zoo.  Since my boss didn't know my exact "return to work" date, she scheduled me on light duty for the rest of July.  Because my area is already covered, I may be spending several days this week at the hotel, helping with conference stuff.  This means that I get to ease back in to a full work weeks, by spending a couple of days doing regular work and a few days standing around schmoozing with people from other zoos.  Not too shabby!

Back to work...sort of

So we're short-staffed at the zoo, and having me on light duty for six weeks wasn't helping.  Because I'm so close to the end of my six weeks (!), my boss asked if I'd be OK spending the day in Tropics, training a new keeper.  Said keeper would be doing all the actual work, but I'd be there to direct her and answer questions.  YES!  It's been too long since I've spent the day in SAB, and there was some stuff I wanted to get done.

In my enthusiasm for being "back", I think I might have over-done it a little.  I washed windows, squeegied the floor, did some light finishing perching work in an exhibit, and added grass hay to another exhibit. I also went up to Cats and helped them do a practice tour of the area, which included about 40 minutes of walking around.

I'm sore!  Especially in the glutes and the hamstrings.  There's so much bending over in SAB, getting through doors, picking up stuff off the floor...ouch.

On the plus side, my hip its self did great!  No pain, very little "oops that was too much movement" tightness.

My body just has to get used to my workload again.

"Light Duty"

So, I went back to work two weeks after my surgery, which was three weeks ago today.  I didn't want to take FMLA (couldn't afford it), and honestly I was getting bored at home.

But obviously, I couldn't really do my "job".  I'm a zoo keeper, and our days are harsh.  We spend hours  cleaning exhibits, which may mean climbing stairs, ducking into small doors, hauling trash cans of dirt, and standing around hosing all morning long.  None of this is doctor-approved, say nothing about being painful.

So whenever we have someone at the zoo who's compromised in some way, they go on light duty.  Light duty means any number of things; it could mean desk work - filing paperwork, writing emails, updating protocols, etc.  It could mean "diets" - spending time in several areas chopping veggies, sorting fish, or weighing out meat.  Sometimes it's organizing bookshelves, or helping the education department.  I'm just really, really glad they didn't stick me up in Guest Services for four weeks!

So what have I been doing for the past several weeks at work? Here's a list:
Updating guest connections records
Updating keeper refresh records
Working on ZooTech 6
Writing an article for the members' magazine
Organizing the tool cabinet
Updating Tropics protocols and bat diet sheets
Sorting fish for Rocky Shores
Writing a protocol for sorting fish for Rocky Shores
Making Reptile diets
Helping Cats with snow leopard watch
Helping education make "blubber bags" for their programs (this one involved several cans of Crisco)
Stuffing gift bags for the Felid TAG recipients.

Some of this stuff required sitting at a computer.  Most of the diet prep happened while sitting on a stool.  It still required lots of walking between areas, and especially to lunch every day.  I think that's what helped me ditch the crutches so soon...forced PT in the form of schlepping down to the SAB or up to Cats every day.

One more week (hopefully) and this'll all be over!