I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted. I've posted recently on FB and must have conflated the two. Sorry about that.
So 4 months later and I'm in much better shape. I was in a rehab hospital for a month, progressing from movable with the bed to movable with a wheelchair to able to move using the wheel chair (if you see the difference) to able to move with a walker (my least favorite piece of equipment), which is where I was once I got out of the rehab hospital. After that, intensive Physical Therapy got me to moving needing a cane to moving with some assistance from a cane. This is where I am now. I can walk around (slowly) without the cane but faster with it. I still need it for steps, especially stepping down, but that is slowly getting to the point where I won't need it, it will just be nice to have. I have about 2 months left of physical therapy at one session a week and then my insurance stops paying for it. Yay American "health care".
The other issue I mentioned in my previous post was with my hips, specifically where my femur and pelvis connect. My body added bone to my pelvis, extending the socket part of the ball-and-socket joint. This is limiting my ability to move my thigh closer than a 90 degree angle to my body without causing pain or out to the left and right. I have the same issue on both sides, but only the left side causes pain, which is a win. The PT for my neck surgery has strengthened my leg muscles and done some work on my hip, so this issue does not require surgery for the foreseeable future. I'll start some PT specific to that once my neck surgery PT ends.
On top of that, I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, with an A1C of 7.3 in the hospital. So across the line (7.0), but not very far across. This was not particularly surprising to me - I'm a gamer and work in the tech industry so my not so good diet and lack of exercise kind of made this inevitable. I'm now on Metformin, extended release, and have reduced sugars and carbs from my diet significantly. Also, 5 weeks of enforced portion control in the hospital and rehab hospital reset the volume of food I eat to a smaller amount. As of my last endocrinologist appointment in July, my A1C is down to 6.3 and I've lost 20-25 pounds of weight, which is the first time my weight has gone down in quite a while. I need to wear one of those attachable glucose meters, but I have not purchased any yet - they are a bit pricey for me and I have a lot of medical bills now that need paying.
The recovery process takes a lot out of one and my endurance for doing things is still much reduced. I rest often and go to sleep earlier than I used to. My requirement for mid-day naps has tapered off as my recovery progresses and my attention span has improved. I've been playing in a 5E D&D game that was being run while I was out and in July resumed running my monthly game, which was as early as I was mentally capable of. There has been a hiccup in scheduling for the Monday night weekly game as the Other GM and his wife had their second child last week (Congrats Geoff and Emmy!), so I'm running an impromptu game during events the PCs are out of town for in my Sudden Sea campaign. I'm also thinking about starting another campaign using a published megadungeon, but I'm going slow on that so I don't overcommit myself before I'm capable of running a third campaign.
I think that brings everything back up to current as far as how my health goes. I'll resume posting my Tim's Outlanders campaign notes next week. One of the things I'm doing today (after writing this post) is to type that one up.
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