Tag Archives: Indigenous

2 Weeks Post Hip Replacement Surgery

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This was originally posted on my Facebook page on December 29, 2015

Yesterday marked the 2-week post-surgery date.

I am using a cane 95% of the time and only the walker when I get tired. My physical therapist added some new exercises onto my regimen, including hip raises and what feels like chair squats. Yay! And I have been cleared to walk short distances unassisted. I had felt like I could walk unassisted for a few days but I also know it will make me very sore, so it’s just short jaunts for now.

I had a bruise at the top of my calf on the surgery leg. Appeared out of nowhere but it didn’t hurt. The PT lady said that type of bruising is normal on the surgical leg, and she was quite surprised that I didn’t have more bruising around my ankle or other parts of my leg. I have been concerned about blood clots so it worried me a little, but glad to hear it was normal.

I am heading to the hospital for my last blood draw to monitor my blood thinners. Hoping to be off of them in a few days.

I really miss my ibuprofen. I had a wicked headache Sunday night that I couldn’t take anything for, except Tylenol or my painkillers, but I had to make sure I took them 4 hours apart. And Tylenol does nothing for any kind of pain I have, even before the surgery.

I’m learning that the level of being positive, or feeling like my emotional health is on the upswing, is directly related to how I feel physically. That headache cause my mood to plummet, and then I slept poorly that night. I felt sick and miserable all day yesterday. I got 11 hours of sleep last night so I’m hopeful today will feel better all the way around.

I am enjoying the downtime. Haven’t had this much downtime since long before I had kids. If anyone has any good movie recommendations, please send them my way.

And I get the 21 staples in my leg removed tomorrow!! Hoping they will let me toss the white compression tights with them. Lol. I’ll be so happy to take a shower without having my hip wrapped in Saran Wrap.

I’m very thankful for all the continued prayers and well-wishes. You have no idea. It gets tough, especially when there are other emotional battles to be fought in addition to my surgery recovery. So we take it day by day. I’m grateful for all my family and friends, especially the ones with me physically everyday: Joe B, my daughters, my parents and my sister and nephew. It’s hard to let others take care of you when you’re so used to being independent and taking care of others. But I truly appreciate it. It makes me all emotional when I think about it, especially the caring and concern they show, but in a good way.

Day 10 Post Hip Replacement Surgery

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Originally posted to my Facebook page on December 23, 2015

Day 10 Post-Hip Replacement Surgery:

The good news – Physical therapy is going well. I got cleared yesterday to start using a cane! I still need my walker, it’s going to be a gradual increase of using my cane. Joe said he’s going to bead it. Awesome. And my PT exercises are getting easier every day, even though I’m surprised how tired I get afterwards. 3 more sessions of home PT and then after the New Year I start out-patient PT.

Today I start trying to cut my pain medicine dosage in half. I can stretch the current dose out to 6 hours between, now I’m back to every 4 hours, but only half the dose. We’ll see how it goes. I have to go to LMH to do a blood draw every 2-3 days to monitor my dose of the blood thinner I’m on. So I get to get out today sometime.

I get my staples out next week!! Then I can get out and about more without so much worry about infection.

I can sleep on my non-surgical side with a pillow between my knees, which is such a relief. I can also cook eggs for my breakfast and bake cookies, with plenty of rest during the process. I can hang out in the living room on the new furniture my mom and Joe B bought me. Little Sara has gotten good at moving my walker up and down the stairs. She is so careful with me. She waits at the bottom of the stairs as I head down, looking like she is ready to catch me if I fall. Lol. And Shelby is always thinking ahead of things I might need. I have very thoughtful and caring babies.

And movies….I’m getting finally watch a bunch of movies I’ve wanted to see for a long time. Finally got Joe B hooked on “House of Cards” so we are starting with Season 1. We haven’t binge-watched anything in years.

We have so appreciated all the meals provided by friends, organized by Makyla King. And Jeri Johnson for organizing the lunch at my house last week, and the early Christmas dinner she is bringing over tonight.

The not-so-good-news:  all the meds and the recovery process are giving me night sweats and occasional chills. I’ve woken up a few times with a damp shirt that needs to be changed. I don’t have a fever and I’ve talked to my home health nurse about it. All of my blood work is fine. It seems as if this is just something to deal with. It messes with my sleep though…I find myself waking up every few hours. I’ve been scrolling my Facebook and my Twitter in the middle of the night, that’s where all the recipe posts come from, in case anyone was wondering what my sudden interest in all kinds of recipes is…..

Wearing these white compression tights is getting old. Really old. And they have an opening in the top of the foot, yet my foot is supposed to stay inside. Shelby bugs me by moving the hole and making my toes stick out, then she laughs and takes off….lol. Smh….

I knew my emotions might feel like a huge roller coaster ride during the recovery process. It was a concern I expressed to Joe and to my doctors before my surgery. And I found I had good reason to be concerned. Had one really bad day where all I felt like doing was crying….for no reason. I had to read up on the night sweats and the roller-coaster emotions, and found out those are normal things in recovering from a traumatic surgery such as hip replacement. So that helped me relax a bit.

I still get tired easily and I go lay down as soon as I feel like that. I used to have a hard time resting when there was always something that needed to be done, but Joe B is doing so much, and the girls and my family are helping, where I don’t feel any kind of way about resting and getting better and stronger. And since Joe B’s area of expertise is health education, I told him that I was glad I married him….lol. He changes the dressing like a pro, monitors my meds, helps me move my pillows around so I can change positions when I sleep, and makes sure I don’t over due anything.

All in all, I’m making excellent progress. I’m glad I’m a homebody because staying at home doesn’t bother me.

Day 3 Post Hip Replacement Surgery

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Day 3 – Morning report:

Last night’s sleep at KCOI wasn’t very restful. Lol. I woke up with heel pain from having to keep my legs in the same position during sleep. Then my ice pack sprang a leak around 3am. They had to change the bedding, then do a blood draw around 4:15am. My room felt nice and cool until the outside temperature dropped and then the cold woke me up at 8am. I have warmed up blankets piled on me now, rolled up towels under my ankles, and I’m drinking coffee. They do have decent coffee here. (*it really is the small things in life….😊)

I have a great nurse in the daytime and a different great nurse in the evening. It’s funny though, the nighttime nurse puts pillows under my knees and lower legs, and then the daytime nurse comes in and lectures me on how I’m not supposed to sleep with pillows like that because of the risk for blood clots. I tried to get rid of the pillows this morning before she saw, but I only got one put away before she came in and busted me. Lol.

It’s amazing how a single digit number can make such a big difference with your hemoglobin. I came in to the surgery with my hemoglobin at 12.2, up from 11.5 two weeks ago. Then it dropped to 8.2 by early yesterday morning. That’s when I felt the worst…cold, shaky, and lightheaded. They checked my blood results today and my hemoglobin is up to 10.6. It went up a little higher than the 2 point gain they usually see after a transfusion. Just 2 little hemoglobin points made such a difference in how I feel. Crazy.

I get to go home today! I’m doing so well with my PT that my doctor doesn’t see a need to keep me here for my afternoon PT session. So my morning schedule is to wait for an hour after taking my thyroid meds to eat and take my 1st round of pain pills today, then do my PT around 10:30am or so. Then I can start with the business of being discharged. Yay!

And later the same day……

Waiting for my pain pills to kick in so I can do my last round of PT here.

I talked to my surgeon yesterday. He said I had several large bone spurs on my hip joint and that he removed ALL of them. I asked him how the hip looked after he took it out and he said it was bad…lol. That it definitely needed to be replaced. I asked if he kept it in a jar to show me, lol, but sadly he said they can’t do that anymore…it’s now considered bio-hazardous waste and has to be disposed of. Bummer…I wanted to see it. Lol. Take it to my diabetes class for Show & Tell. 😳🙈

I told my surgeon that I promised to set my old joint aside for my Tunwin Stephanie and he just laughed. She had dibs on it, she said my bad hip was probably better than the one she had now. Lol.

Still later….same day…..

One trip in a wheelchair down to my van and we’re heading home!! Discovered quickly that I couldn’t maneuver my right leg into the front seat of the van, so I hopped in the middle seat. I made my nurse nervous as she didn’t know how I would manage stepping up on the running board and into the seat….she and Joe B said I was like a cat the way I climbed in with ease. Hahahaha.

By the way, I am not liking the pain meds. They upset my stomach on the drive home. It was very windy, plus I’m not used to sitting in the back like that. I thought I was going to be carsick for the first time ever, but we made it home without incident.

And it feels wonderful to be home. 🙂

Day 2 Post-Hip Replacement Surgery

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Day 2 Post-Hip Replacement Surgery:

Today was kind of an eventful day. My blood count went down, which is expected after surgery and usually not an issue, except that I have anemia (just a touch). My surgical team elected to go with a spinal block and sedative to get me through surgery because they said the spinal block results in less blood loss for reasons they haven’t figured out yet, as opposed to a general anesthesia. But my hemoglobin count went down to 8.2, so I needed a blood transfusion, 2 units of O positive. At least I know now what my blood type is. It took about 5 hours for 2 units of blood.
I was feeling lightheaded, shaky and cold this morning. I feel much better now.

Aaaaaand, I had 2 sessions of PT. My muscles are strong from all my weight training and I’ve impressed my PT lady and my doctor with my progress. I can walk the very short set of stairs right around the corner from my room, I can walk bearing all my weight on my formerly bum hip leg. And I can do leg raises in all directions except across the center plane of my body. So I got cleared to move around the hospital room and my floor without the safety belt and without having to call a nurse to assist me. It still has to be with the walker, but at least I have some independence.

I don’t mind the IV, or the daily blood draws (except I wish they didn’t have to do them around 4:30-5:30am), but the drain near my incision is kind of freaking me out. I have to clip the little flat cylinder to my gown whenever I get out of bed, and they empty it once a day. Yuck. But the drain is far preferable to having a hematoma, which is a swollen spot under your skin where the blood has pooled near the surgical sight. I had read about some hip replacements that were done several years ago and the patient described feeling like they were sitting on a golf ball. That would be much worse that this freaky little drain.

One more night and morning here and headed home! Thank you again for all the positive stuff headed in my direction. I got flowers today from Jeri and Cadence and Christian, and I had students take Snaps of flowers and send the snaps to me. Lol. And I really appreciate the visitors, texts, phone calls, inboxes, tweets, etc. 😊

Post-Surgery Update: Day 1

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I’m going to turn my FaceBook updates into blog entries since they are long enough to do so. I’m starting with the day of my surgery, Day 1. I’ll post the subsequent updates soon after this, so it’s like 2 weeks of blog entries all posted in one day. Lol.

2.5 Hours Post-Surgery

I am bionic now. 🙌🏼💪🏼

😂😂 Everything went well. I don’t have any nausea, I ate some soup and crackers and took my first round of pain meds. Spinal block is starting to wear off, I can wiggle my toes and move my left leg. My surgeon was very pleased with how smoothly everything went. And they tell me I’ll be up and on my feet sometime today.

Can’t thank everyone enough for all the prayers, good thoughts, texts, inboxes, tweets. Everyone from my students to friends and family. Hated the worry it caused for my family and friends…glad to report that I am doing great within 4.5 hours of my surgery. Dr. Scott Cook is amazing. Another day or 2 here and I’ll be home. 😊

And later the same day…….

So this just happened. 5 hours post-surgery and they got me on my feet and I took a stroll down the hallway. 🚶🏽
With my walker assisting, of course.

I feel like Rocky now. 💪🏼Hahahaha. Maybe that’s just the pain pills.

So thankful for my lifting partner – my sister Sharon, the two trainers I’ve had in the past year, Travis Barrett and Dustin Kinsey. The PT lady was surprised at what I could do in my 1st PT session. I have muscle strength that they are not used to seeing in hip replacement patients. And no nausea or light-headedness. The incision area is a little achy, but the joint area just feels like a very sore muscle.

I seriously thought she was crazy when she said we were going to stand up. Lol. So I’m ready on my way to recovery!

Bringing Back an Old Pow-Wow Traveling Tradition

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Powwow Food Prep

When I was little and my mom took us on vacation, she would always pack a cooler. Sandwiches, fruit, crackers, chips, etc. We looked forward to stopping at this rest area north of Grand Rapids that had a creek, lots of trees, and picnic tables. We had our lunch there and then continued on. When we started traveling to powwows my mom would bring a cooler as well. She would surprise us at some powwows by bringing out a package of ring bologna and crackers and some sliced cheese.

Over the years as we camped less and stayed in hotels more, we relied less on coolers and more on food available at powwows. The usual fair: Indian Tacos, soup with none of the fat trimmed off the meat, and Ndn dogs. Now we have walking tacos, cheeseburger, Ndn burgers (cheeseburger in a piece of fry bread instead of a bun), funnel cakes, chicken strips. A plethora of fried foods, white flour, and saturated fat. And not to mention the casino buffets that we frequent now that casino powwows are well-attended. I know from research that the reason many people gain weight is because they overestimate the calories they burn through exercise and they underestimate the calories they consume. I think this is common during powwow weekends where we think we are burning more calories that we actually do when dancing. I know several people who feels its challenging to maintain their healthy habits during powwow weekends.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, preparing for powwows this summer is my priority. I wanted to get back to bringing my own food like my mom used to, and when we used to camp. There was nothing better than a sandwich and fruit (and maybe some chips) at our camp after a session, and fresh fruit always helps during the hot afternoon sessions. I did my powwow prep a few weeks ago when we traveled 7 Clans Casino Powwow in Thief River Falls, MN and it worked out great. I made smoothies and the kids had all kinds of fruit. No one gained weight that weekend and we actually saved some money.

So here is my #HealthyPowwowFoodPrep for this weekend. Shelby and I stayed up late last night making whole grain muffins and shredding chicken I cooked in a crockpot. We are staying in a hotel where all the rooms have refrigerators. I’m packing the following in my cooler.

  • Lunchpail Muffins
  • Lean deli turkey
  • Diced chicken cooked in a crockpot
  • Chicken salad with diced celery, apples, almonds in low-fat olive oil mayo
  • Boiled eggs
  • Sliced apples
  • Grapes (in 1-cup portions in zip-lock bags)
  • Whole wheat sandwich thins
  • Nonfat vanilla yogurt
  • Plain nonfat greek yogurt
  • celery
  • What is left of the blueberries and strawberries in my fridge
  • Thin sliced Colby-Jack cheese
  • String cheese
  • I have cherries washed but they didn’t make into the picture. They WILL be in the cooler

My girls are learning nutrition through Kurbo Health (I’ll write about our experience in a separate blog entry) so making these preparations has become even more important. If we can make 90% of our food choices over the course of a powwow weekend healthy choices, then I won’t have any problem with splitting a piece of fry bread with someone and enjoying.

Our friend Grace Pushetonequa asked for suggestions on healthy food to bring to powwows on FaceBook and then she posted a picture of her food prep today. I’m going to encourage people to do the same….take pictures of their healthy powwow food prep and post them on their social media. You never know who you will positively impact just by sharing your experiences.

Some Thoughts on “National Day of Running”

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Today is the “National Day of Running”. I assisted in getting a couple of my friends/relatives running several years ago, and we helped found a local American Indian running group called The Smoking Moccasins. Some highly motivated individuals then created a youth running group for local Native Youth called The Mini Mocs.

I miss running. So I try to run a little bit with Shelby now. I have to accommodate my hip arthritis by changing my stride and my foot strike. Where I once had a mid-foot strike, I now have to focus on a fore-foot strike, so that my feet and ankles will absorb most of the impact. Then I have to shorten my stride to accommodate the new fore-foot strike and also to keep myself low to the ground. I can’t bound like I used to, again in an effort to minimize what impact I can on my hip joints. So I’m running. It’s not pretty and it’s not fast…it’s not even continuous. I feel like an agitated turtle at times. But I am running.

I had some thoughts on running yesterday and updated my FaceBook status. I decided to turn that update into a blog entry since it coincides with today’s running holiday. 🙂

I remember dancing at Prairie Island Wacipi in 2007, the year after I had Sara. We had to contest Sunday afternoon in the blistering heat. It was so hot the heat from the ground just burned right through the bottoms of our moccasins. Our brother Clay Crawford said to me, “Do you and Joe run outside in that Kansas heat? It really must help. Everyone else looks like the heat is getting to them except for you two.” Lol.

What I remember from my running days is that yes, training in the heat (not in the hottest part of the day, but when the heat was still high) helped with my powwow conditioning. Also running outside on the cross country trail. The combination of running outside and on grass or gravel was very effective. When you run on an uncontrolled surface, it strengthens all the little helper muscles in your feet, ankles, and knees in order to keep your joints stable. Ideal training for shawl dancers and fancy dancers to prepare to dance on grass. It kept my ankles from rolling as much they used to even after I had my kids.

I’m seeing videos and snaps of young powwow dancers running on treadmills. My strong advice: If you have a safe place to do so, get outside and find some grass or gravel to run on. If you live somewhere blistering hot then run early in the morning or in the evening before dark. If you run races and train on grass, you will be able to fly when you race on a controlled surface. I noticed the difference when I started to rely more on treadmill runs than cross country trail runs. One of the first times my sister ever beat me in a 5K was because she trained on grass while I ran on pavement or on a treadmill. When we got onto a controlled surface, she was just fast.

Running on grass or gravel is better for your joints that running on concrete or a treadmill, (unless you have existing knee issues, then running on an uncontrolled surface may not feel so great). But if you don’t have access to a safe place to run on a soft surface, running on any surface is better than doing nothing.

That’s my public health PSA for today. Thank you. Lol.

Encourage, don’t discourage

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I am always happy to see others succeed in their quest for health, especially those who have been unhealthy for most of their adult lives. It’s gratifying and encouraging when our Native people (or any group of people who suffer from similar health disparities as American Indians) find the motivation to learn about nutrition, physical activity, and how to incorporate both into their daily lives. However, I take issue with those new to the health scene calling others down for their lack of knowledge or motivation. I am thinking of specific examples where I’ve read about people on social media sites bragging themselves up and simultaneously putting others down for not being “on their level”….whatever that means. And the same people bragging themselves up and putting others down have just recently discovered their own good health.

Those people who engage in that type of behavior don’t realize that we remember how unhealthy they were 5 minutes ago. They are not in a position to judge others and their efforts, or lack of efforts. I also take issue with those who make condescending remarks or belittle those who are trying to be health and/or active. People don’t realize how fortunate they are to have grown up with sports or active families…..or to have grown up with parents/caregivers who cooked all the time and had basic healthy eating knowledge, and access to healthy/whole foods. I see kids in my own community whose parents don’t feel that sports are important, or they don’t get out and engage in activity with their kids. Also people don’t realize how fortunate they are to have healthy, fully functioning bodies….bodies without arthritis, without chronic injuries or illness, bodies that don’t prevent them from doing anything they want to do.

I will admit to being a running snob towards one or two people that I didn’t care for back in the day….I remember thinking and making a couple of comments about someone I had seen running for a few years, that with all their running you would think they might be a little faster or look a little lighter….the epitome of a running snob. But since then I’ve seen that there is no excuse for that type of behavior and snobbishness. We don’t know by looking at someone what their story is, or what their challenges are. Maybe that person whom I saw running at a snails pace for years has managed to keep from gaining 50 pounds and prevented diabetes with that activity. Maybe that person has some health issues that keep their running from looking like what we believe to be a runner’s pace/gait/form/body. Maybe the person NOT running and just walking is a former runner who physically can’t run anymore. Maybe the person who expresses their pride in running 3 miles has just done something they never thought they were capable of.

We don’t need to put others down in order to elevate ourselves. And we are in no position to judge another’s journey towards health.

We, as Native people, need to encourage others in our quest for health. We need to model the behavior that we want others to emulate. We need to do this so the generations that follow will be healthy and ensure our continued presence on this planet. And the people most secure and sincere in their own quest for health are the ones who are most encouraging to others. Be that kind of person. We can’t have too many of those in our communities.

Why Culture is Important to Health

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This is the original, unedited, version of a newsletter article I wrote that was just released today. I wanted to share this on my blog after it came out in print.

One dictionary definition of “culture” is “the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.” Indigenous people are rich with culture. Not only because each sovereign nation has its own definitive and unique sum total of ways of living, but because cultural knowledge is seen as valuable…priceless. And cultural knowledge is deemed necessary to our way of life as Indigenous people.

Dakota/Lakota/Nakoda people have a term for “healthy lifestyle” or a “good way of life”. Wicozani is not simply a state of physical health, but a world-view, a philosophy practically applied, that attends to a person’s physical, mental, social and spiritual wellness. Wicozani encompasses all that contributes to our wellness, our good way of life, which for Indigenous people begins with culture.

Indigenous ways of life prior to Western contact included our own food systems, healing traditions that included knowledge of medicinal plants and spiritual practices, plenty of physical activity, and strong social support amongst our tiwahe (immediate family) and our tiospaye (extended family). Our gender roles were strong and equitable and contributed to the well-being of families and society. Our adults taught children what was expected of them to become strong, healthy, productive individuals by example. All generations were considered valuable to society and were cared for accordingly. Tribal and family history was taught with stories. Our Indigenous languages offered explanations for environmental and universal phenomena that cannot be wholly translated into English, but recently have been found to be in –line with prominent scientists and theorists. We continue to transmit this knowledge to younger generations today.

We were once some of the healthiest people on the planet. We lived and practiced Wicozani. It was normal to us to pay attention to and take care of all aspects of ourselves.

Life is not easy today. Stressors abound with personal and family finances, job insecurity, limited access to affordable, healthy food and exercise outlets. There is social stress from living as an Indigenous person in a Western world. Contemporary society pressures us to believe that one aspect of our wellness is more important than others, whether it be education, job success/material success, or physical health. When life’s stressors start to pile up and make us feel overwhelmed, or when we start to notice our own mental, emotional and physical health failing, or that of our loved ones, our biggest asset in the search for Wicozani, is being able to tap the innate cultural knowledge that exists in all Indigenous people. Remember how strong your people were at one point. Know that you already possess the knowledge passed down from our ancestors. And know that you have everything you need to be strong and healthy once again.

Something is Working…..

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So far this end of summer/fall season has been extremely busy. I was asked to up my hours at work and I received a contract to be an adjunct instructor at the tribal college where I have taught a diabetes class for years. I’m also taking a nutrition course online at through K-State Distance Learning. But with the hectic schedule, I’ve been making time to do something everyday, even if it’s just a walk.

Over the summer I noticed that I was developing a forward lean in my gait. The lean was due to hip joint pain and stiffness. I would get very stiff sitting at my computer at work, and even getting up and walking around didn’t relieve the stiffness. It was painful to stand straight up and walk, so I compensated with the lean. After gaining 5 pounds during our summer travels at the end of July, I came home with determination to change things. Attending an obesity conference at the beginning of August for my work did wonders for my motivation. So, August 1, I focused on consistently taking my Omega-3 supplement and a glucosamine/condroitin supplement. I also started taking turmeric regularly again. I had always heard that the glucosamine helped arthritic joints feel better and needed to be taken for about 2 weeks before you could feel a difference, but I had never taken them long enough to notice anything.

We went to a powwow in Oklahoma the first weekend in August and then traveled there again for another powwow 2 weeks later. By the third weekend that month, I noticed that I was standing up straighter. My joints weren’t as stiff and I could walk fully upright with no joint pain. I also noticed that when my joints would get stiff sitting at my desk, that they loosened up with a short walk around my department. I danced pain-free for the first time since the beginning of June. 🙂

I have worked out with my trainer Travis for 8 sessions now. I’ve more than doubled the number of regular pushups I can do (went from 3 to 10) and yesterday I pushed a prowler (sled) with 110 pounds on it, 6 times, each time in under 2 minutes (the prowler weighs 75 lbs by itself, for a total weight pushed of 185 lbs). I find myself sitting up more straight at work, and standing taller. I am beginning to see definition in my arms and more definition in my legs. Walking around campus at my job is much easier than a couple of months ago. And my heavy white beadwork feels slightly lighter now….not as light as I would like just yet, but I am being patient and know it will continue to feel lighter as long as I continue to put in the work.

I ask my diabetes course students to keep a food journal near the middle of the semester and I am required to keep one for my nutrition course at K-State. So I began last week to journal in earnest, and I have been consistent. It helps remind me to get my veggies and fruits in and to keep an eye on my carb count. The week before school started, I began to double the amount of dinners I cooked and freezing one batch. That has helped immensely on the nights where I am too tired to cook or don’t have time to grocery shop. We just have to thaw and heat and we can eat a homemade meal.

So something is working….lol. I feel better, I am walking upright without pain and I am getting stronger. I set a beginning goal of losing 18 pounds and I have lost 6 of those. My clothes are fitting better. I feel better. I just need to stay consistent.