Dancing with My Disabilities!

Title: Dancing with My Disabilities! I had my shoulder and both hips replaced, and I am changing things up a bit on this blog! I began belly dancing in 2010! Yes, you read that correctly!! I am going to be blogging about my experience as a woman with several joint diseases and conditions who had her shoulder and both hips replaced who now belly dances, dances hip hop, performs, teaches dance to children of all ages and abilities, teaches belly dance fitness classes to adult women, teaches chair belly dance movement classes to people with mobility issues and disabilities, and takes a Pure Barre class as well! I still have pain, but I want to blog about how I have fun too! Please read Chronically Mommy (chronicallymommy.blogspot.com) for info on health/pain and being a mom to a 13-year-old son. I have avascular necrosis in my shoulders, hips, and knees, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondylitis, Sjogren's, fibromyalgia, hEDS, POTS, MCAS, vascular/ocular/hemiplegic migraines, pseudotumor cerebri, trigeminal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, endometriosis, and chronic shingles. I found out that I have autoimmune arthritis in my cervical spine and a bulging disk in my lumbar spine. Fourteen years ago, my spine orthopedic surgeon told me I had a small amount of inflammatory arthritis in my SI joint. The question was if the spinal involvement was due to Psoriatic Spondylitis, which is a more severe form of Psoriatic Arthritis or is it a new diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis? Now, they have an updated term, Axial Spondylitis, which fits my symptoms and diagnostic proof. Whatever the diagnosis, the treatment will remain the same. I had my left hip replaced in 2003; my right shoulder replaced in March of 2010. I gave my right arm to be ambidextrous! LOL! Lastly, I had my right hip replaced on May 10th, 2012, and I began belly dancing two years prior to my right hip replacement surgery. Yes that's correct! I began belly dancing in 2010, just after my shoulder replacement, before my son was born. I performed for the first time in 2012, five days prior to my right hip replacement surgery. Pain is still another part of my life. It is just a question of when, where, and how much, but I would like to use this blog to write about my experience as a woman with several joint diseases and conditions who had both hips and a shoulder replaced and now spends her free time dancing, teaching, and performing! I began dancing with a troupe in February of 2014, Seshambeh Dance Company. I now take a Pure Barre class on Monday mornings, teach ballet, tap, and creative movement on Monday evenings to children of all ages and abilities, take a hip hop class with all adult women on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, teach a belly dance fitness class on Thursdays to all adult women, and teach a chair belly dance movement class to people with mobility issues and disabilities as often as I possibly can. Join me in my journey! At times, I take 16 to 20 pills a day. I give myself an injection each week on Fridays for my autoimmune/autoinflammatory arthritis diseases. Just when one thing is doing better, something else goes downhill! My attitude, however, is always going uphill! I am 49 years old, have been married for 24 years, and my husband and I adopted Mick in Dec. of 2010! I have a lot on my plate right now, but I take it one moment at a time. I believe that God will never give me more than I can handle. However, I do need to learn to ask for help sometimes instead of always doing it by myself!

Blog Title: Dancing with My Disablities!

Formerly Now Read My HIPS, and before that, I Already Gave My Right Arm to Be Ambidextrous.
Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these daya are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.

Dancing with My Disabilities

Dancing with My Disabilities
Asmara "Beautiful Butterfly"

Blog with Integrity

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Pain, Fatigue, Sleep...


I must admit that the medication that I'm taking for pain is really controlling the pain. I begin to feel the post-surgical pain 4 hours after I take my pain meds. They are prescribed every 12 hours and every 6 hours. The pain that I feel after 4 hours is not the same as the pre-op pain that I felt from the AVN where the joint collapsed.  It is where there are bruises and at the incision.

The deep bone pain is completely gone!  The same thing happened when I had my hip replacement. The deep bone pain was gone immediately after the hip was replaced.

So I must say, overall, I would say that I'm happy with the pain control.

I am very tired and fatigued. I really need to use this week to get plenty of rest and caught up on my sleep. I'm sleeping well at night as well, which has been a long while since I did that.

I was due to have my IV infusion this Thursday, but have to wait another week to give my body an extra week to heal. That will be kind of tough because my body knows and feels it's ready for the infusion.

I see my surgeon on Monday, and I get my bandage taken off and my order for PT.

Until then, I will continue to wear my sling while I sleep and go out and take it off when I'm at home.  I'll do my exercises 3 times a day that were taught to me at the hospital.

I am getting a little better every day...

1 comment:

Angie Carter said...

Hey there Dana,

I wanted to tell you about something I have been doing for the past two weeks. I started doing Brain Wave Intertainment or Binary Beats. They are the best!! Like you, I have Fibromyalgia, and Sjogen's Syndrome and I also have Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis and my pain levels would soar so high that I would lay in the middle of the floor and cry. I was taking Savella for the fibro pain and Tramadol for the arthritis pain and Amitripaline to help me sleep. Now the only thing I take for pain is the Tramadol and that is only 150 mg. for the whole day. I also no longer take the Amitripaline to get me to sleep. Instead I use the Brain Wave Entertainment or Binary Beats.

Your brain has different frequencies and the binary beats mimick those frequencies and helps to reprogram your brain.

The only thing I know, is that since I started using them my pain levels have deminished and I now sleep all night and wake up with no pain and high concentration levels. I also have energy to do some of the things I have had to quit doing because of the Fibro pain. I have gone from a size 14-16 down to a size 10. I will get back with you on the website where I found the free downloads or you can do a keyword search "brain wave entertainment".

The key is to use them before your pain levels are to high, and that may be only once a day or 5 times a day. The more you use them the better the results. From the reading I've done about them it can take up to six months before there are permenant results.

2012

2012
Performance 5 days before my Hip Replacement Surgery!

2012

2012
Performance 5 Days Prior to my Hip Replacement Surgery.

Belly Dance

Belly Dance
Before the Performance 5/6/12
Watch live streaming video from arthritisfoundation at livestream.com