June 26, 2008

Surgery was successful and I am now an official surface hippy.

I reported to the pre-admission center at 5:30 am Monday morning. Luckily I do not live too far away about 30-40 minutes. Needless to say my wife was not completely overjoyed with the time, however she was quite unwilling to entertain my offer to take the train We waited until about 8:00 before they took me back and started preping for surgery (shave the leg, rub the orange stuff on it, etc,etc). Incidently, they shaved almost the entire leg, however left about 12″ of hair above the ankle so I now look like I am wearing a tube sock, great look for summer I guess. I was in surgery by around 9:30, anesthesia went well and I was a little surprised that I was more excited than nervous (kind of like the anticipation of going on a roller coaster) I “awoke” around 11:00 and soon thereafter found out that everything went great. It took a while though to be released to my hospital room because my body temp was way down (I didn’t feel cold though). Anyway I do not think my wife finally got to see me untiil about 3:00 pm. I truely believe she got the worse end of the bargain, I much prefered to be me than her on that day. God Bless my wife

They tried getting me out of bed that evening, I made it to the chair (about 6 feet) where I got dizzie and was about to lose my chicken broth (I thought of Dev, fellow surface hippy) Even after that pitiful display they wanted to “fast track” me. It took two more tries on Tuesday and I was cleared to leave.

I came home around 9:00 pm Tuesday evening but foolishly declined the pain killers from the hospital before I left. I think that I was warned about that on this site which makes me double stupid. Recovery so far is going well I think. I am swollen, walking on two cruthches but trying to put full weight on the new hip. Thanks to everyone on this site I have a good idea what to expect and I am not discouraged with the muscle soreness / weakness and I know that each day it will get better.

My decision now is to set some goal for my recovery (I am a goal oriented type of guy, no pun intended Dirk / John). I am thinking about a bike ride in Septemebr which I did a couple of years ago called the “Savage Century” It was a beautiful ride and you do not need to do all 100 miles. My hockey season also starts in late Septemebr, but I doubt I would be cleared to play in 3 months so I will have to figure something else out for hockey. Any suggestions ?

If any of you endured to read this far, I wanted to sincerely thank you all who have offered your experience and especially your well wishes for me and I hope for your continued healing.

P.S. City2South, congratulations on your new hip and thanks for informing me that it was the morphine that made me itchy after surgery

June 27, 2008

I just received a resurfacing from have scheduled a resurfacing with Dr. William Hozack in Philadelphia, PA. HE is associated with the Rothman Institute and Jefferson Hospital. on Monday. I was his second of that particular day the other was on a 51 yr. old male.

So far things are going great. No problems with the Doc except he seems to be stretched pretty thin, in other words I did not get alot of face time with him, although that might be because I was not a very difficult case. I wouldn’t say that he is a staunch advocate of resurfacing at least not when I initially consulted with him back in February. Don’t get me wrong though, he was on-board with the procedure at the time. From what I understand he has done quite a number of resurfacings since February as they are growing in popularity due to the information that is out there (Thanks Pat !), so he may be more of an advocate by now. I did not get the impressions that he was a “bait and switch” doc, just that he didn’t go out of his way to suggest resurfacing.

July 10, 2008

Well it’s now 2-1/2 weeks post-op I am making steady progress although a little slow for my taste, but I kinda figured it was going to be that way from many of the other posts on this site. Today I started walking without any assistance and it was just in time as I think I was losing a little patience with myself. I went for a walk, not far, about 1/5 mile but it had hills (darn hills). It went well but I could feel my muscle fatigue, not much pain so that was good. We will see tomorrow if I over did it

July 21, 2008

I am also a triathloner, although not nearly as experienced as you both, I,ve been doing them for 3 years with thel ast one being Iron Man Lake Placid 2007.

I had my right hip resurfaced on June 23rd, so I am 4 weeks along. I have been on a stationary bike for about 15 min last week and everything felt good. I can definitely tell that everything is getting stronger to the point where I sometimes forget that I had surgery. I want to try my trainer but haven’t had the chance yet. I think the only challenge would be mounting / dismounting. I also want to get in the pool maybe this week to see how I do.

August 5, 2008

I  am now 6 weeks post op and was on the ice for the 1st time last night during my son’s (7) practice. Took it real slow and cautious but everything felt pretty good.

October 28, 2008

As far as my recovery. I feel really good. My glut strength is increasing and I think maybe 1 more month and it should be back to full strength. I am a little concerned about my flexibility which I think is still be restricted by muscles and/or tendons located in the gluts. I am still having difficulty getting my head towards my knee, but it is getting a little better every day. I have been on the ice several times helping out at my son’s hockey practices. No real problems skating and I am starting to push it a little. I think I will still wait to get clearance from my doctor before I feel comfortable in strapping on the pads, but I am dying to give it a try.

I did not do my planned ride which was last weekend. A combination of fearing a fall and our kids sports schedules. I have done a little very slow jogging for a very short distance maybe 100 yds tops. Felt good.

December 3, 2008

I actually started skating again at about 3 months post-op. I started slow, but now I have no problems or concerns regarding skating around and helping out at my son’s hockey practices. As a former goalie, I even tried strapping on the pads a couple of weeks ago, nothing serious, just wanted to see where I was at. That went pretty well, I still have some flexibility restrictions, but I am hopeful that I will continue my progress and get back to the net by the beginning of next year.

I started some light jogging last month and have no real problems biking or swimming. From what I remember, the first month after post-op was a little tough but not that bad. Do be careful with the pain killers, I took them for about a week and when I stopped I believe I had withdrawl. Otherwise, I think the fact that I knew mentally that I would get better every day (instead of worse every day, pre-surgery mentality) really makes recovery a positive experience.