Back from seeing Dr. Pollock..

[fajrdrako]

Today I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Pollock at the General Hospital. I was a little worried about how to get there, but it turned out to be fairly straightforward (though time-consuming) to take the #101 from O'Connor and Isabella to Hurdman Station, then the #106 to the hospital. I'd left myself time to go to the cafeteria there for breakfast: bacon and eggs and toast and coffee. I even remembered to bring my coffee cup, since I dislike coffee in a paper cup.

Then there was the usual waiting for appointment, and waiting for the X-rays, and then seeing the intern, then seeing the surgeon. What a sweetheart he is. And though I felt nervous about the appointment, he was actually reassuring. I'd been afraid that I'd have distressing restrictions on the use of my arm, especially since I still can't straighten it. But it turned out to be more interesting than that.

Dr. Pollock said that with a normal elbow replacement, the usual restriction on weight to be lifted with that arm is five pounds. He'd told me ten pounds, in the hospital right before the surgery. But this time he explained that the surgery he did on me was quite unusual and fairly rare, so he didn't think the usual restrictions apply. He said that I should be careful with it, and not to lift heavy weights, but to judge by the levels of discomfort and not feel restricted. He warned against repetitive lifting of heavy objects, but otherwise to not worry about it excessively.

I wish I'd said, "What about yoga?", but I think I can figure that out with common sense. If I stay away from exercises where the arm is weight-bearing (like the Plank or the Crow, both of which I used to like) I should be all right. Downward-facing Dog is out too, alas. But no point fretting about there. There are plenty of yoga poses I can still do, and it would be good for me to be doing them.