Energy level: playing opossum
Pain level: meds and friends help to ease the pain
Jack and Jules are two of my oldest, dearest friends and together they are like a walking Wikipedia. The know everything! Being my oldest friends they can get away with greeting me with “How are you? Are you constipated?”
Wow! It’s like they are mind readers. How did they know that? And… how is it even possible given that I’ve only eaten bananas for an entire week?
Finally, some practical explanations for what has been going on.
My inactivity and fight with gravity has caused everything to stay put. Apparently simple things like being upright and moving put the “movement” in bowel movements. Wow. Who knew? Jack and Jules!
This explianion makes sense and I also find a few more reasons at about.com
Did you know that anesthesia not only paralyzes your arms and legs during surgery but your intestines too? Without muscle contractions to push food along the intestinal tract there is no bowel movement.
Fascinating!
Then… the missing piece of the puzzle is revealed. The cause of fire flooding my foot is due to the fact that all of pumps that keep blood moving in and OUT of my foot have been severed.
This is why post surgery has been so much more painful than the initial break.
The surgeon’s knife had to slice though critical veins and tissue to work on the bone. The miracle of the human body is hard at work reconnecting vital networks. When my foot is below my head, the heart and force of gravity pump fluids into the foot. Too much fluid aggravates the repair work going on down there and causes everyone to hit the alarm. And they hit that alarm hard.
Swelling also causes pain because too much blood and fluid pooling in the foot places pressure on every cell. The skin reacts like a squeezed water balloon and can only stretch so far. When the skin can no longer expand the pressure goes inward causing every cell to scream out in agony.
Elevating the foot is critical to draining blood and fluids away from the foot that would normally be pumped out by the circulatory system.
Elevating the foot - such a logical, simple solution but works like magic!
Jack and Jules also give me a lecture on the importance of massage to keep lymph circulating.
The network that normally caries lymph throughout the body runs complementary to the veins. Where as blood has the heart to pump fluid though veins, the lymphatic system relies on lymph vessels to carry lymph throughout the body. Natural motion of the body promotes absorption of lymph from tissue for drainage back to the circularly system.
Since I’m not moving very much these days it is critical to massage my legs to get the lymph moving around.
Amazing!
This may explain the “stiff” feeling just above my ankle -about four inches above the joint. It seems like a random spot because there are no moving parts. I’ve been feeling like there has been this stuck lump – not quite like a muscle – just hard and stiffness - like something that should be circulating is not. Massage does break up the stiffness.
Massage – not just a good thing – a healing necessity!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment