As if butt scooting isn’t enough to humble you, now comes Hobblemeister. That place between returning to a normal routine and where you are at when you are post op several weeks and starting physical therapy. There is a temporary abyss you fall into when you can no longer be a patient and must relearn things that have changed as a result of surgery.
Hobblemeister in my case is the result of a combination of limping and hopping. It’s what happens when you start attempting to walk again after 11 weeks of “do not walk on it” mentality. Physical therapy wants you to get on with the process of walking and bending properly all joints again. Your brain has other ideas and it’s sort of like being possessed because you want to return to normal, but you cannot manage to convince your appendage it’s alright to start putting pressure back on it. After all, you have convinced yourself that you cannot walk on it during the post op phase and as a result of the pain and discomfort you suffered prior to surgery. You want to continue to protect the limb. “It’s going to hurt so let’s not do this!”
It’s kind of like when your foot goes to sleep and you stand up to walk with the result being either falling over because you can’t feel it or tingling pain which makes it difficult to walk without some limp or lack of ability.
So the push pull of trying to make everything work again causes you to Hobblemeister around as you regain your strength, balance and agility. You are Overcome By Events when you want to walk but your body isn’t helping you very much initially….instead you Hobblemeister around!
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