Worried about my flexibility

[mikebaker]

Hi all,

I am a bilateral hippy and doing pretty well. My first BHR is five months old and feeling very good and supporting my most recent addition on the right side on December 6, 2011. During my first recovery I was very careful as I was worried that I may have a femoral notch. As it turned out everything appears to be fine but I did not let my PT put me into any type of flexion as I have read studies of femoral neck fractures from aggressive physio. Well now I am healed for the most part but I still can't get my sock on and my flexibility is terrible. Now I have never had great flexibility and that contributed to some very tight hamstrings and may accelerated the progression of my OA. I have read some posts that many of us may never get flexibility back due to scar tissue etc. I am just wondering how many others are dealing with this issue.

Thanks Mike

[obxpelican]

Mike,

My ROM was horrendous pre-op, I will tell you that I continue to surprise myself as time goes on, now keep in mind I am 3 years + post-op.

You need to beware and protect your hip for the first 6 months, that tends to be the time where you might fracture your femoral neck.

Now that you have two good hips under you follow your doctors orders but if he allows you to by all means stretch stretch stretch.   You will get your ROM back, you may have to work hard but you will be good in the near future.


Chuck

[wayne-0]

Hey Mike, My ROM was as bad as is gets pre-op. Then I started stretching and doing lite yoga for about 20 -30 minutes every morning post-op and my ROM improved dramatically. Well I stopped stretching and doing yoga about a yr and a half ago and my ROM isn't doing as good as it was when I was stretching every day.
I keep telling myself I am gonna start again but laziness is winning out. I think we are all getting a little older and i believe if we stretch every day for 20 or 30 minutes it will be the key to being flexible or being stiff.

Wayne 

[jon]

Hi all,

I am a bilateral hippy and doing pretty well. My first BHR is five months old and feeling very good and supporting my most recent addition on the right side on December 6, 2011. During my first recovery I was very careful as I was worried that I may have a femoral notch. As it turned out everything appears to be fine but I did not let my PT put me into any type of flexion as I have read studies of femoral neck fractures from aggressive physio. Well now I am healed for the most part but I still can't get my sock on and my flexibility is terrible. Now I have never had great flexibility and that contributed to some very tight hamstrings and may accelerated the progression of my OA. I have read some posts that many of us may never get flexibility back due to scar tissue etc. I am just wondering how many others are dealing with this issue.

Thanks Mike

Mike:

Bump to your original post.  Hope others post additional input.  Like you, I believe that my OA problems were amplified by lousy flexibility.  Hoping that through surgery and post-op rehab can improve greatly.

Jon

 

[Dannywayoflife]

Hi guys my surgeon said rom is normally the last thing to return. And tgat you shouldnt do strenuous stretching in the first 6-8 weeks because soft tissues are still healing.

[hernanu]

Hey Mike, I'm a bilat too, and the ROM came back eventually, but it did take a while. I started with some extremely light stretching exercises about three to four weeks after the surgery, it was supervised by the PT, and it was extremely light - no resistance, just moving the leg up as far up as I could.

I started doing the actual stretching about six weeks after the surgery, using a band to bring my leg up straight as I could (again, no real resistance but to move the leg as much as possible). Eventually, at four months or so I started putting some resistance, and my ROM got better.

A couple of things - I did martial arts for 35 years, so I had very good ROM before the OA. Everything I did was under supervision of people experienced with THRs, so they were extremely conservative with any stretching.

It'll come, Mike, but the important thing is to be conservative and let the body heal, and if you do stretch, try to get a professional, preferably one with experience at least with THR to help you. I think for most people, after 6 months is good.

[mikebaker]

Thanks all for the advice. I am due to see my doctor in just over two weeks so I will discuss with him and then get back with the physio to get going on the stretching. I am going to rehab a bit harder this time and get on the stationary bike right away and do more swimming. I am looking forward to going for long walks, bike riding and maybe a bit of golf in the summer!!

[Tin Soldier]

I noticed a big improvement with leg strengthening, like cycling.  Eventhough the ROM is not huge when cycling, it still strengthens the muscles which is good for increasing the stetchability of the muscle.  That's all great, but I always go back to the hip capsule (tendony stuff) and how long it takes that tissue to regenerate, up to a year or more.  Regaining ROM will be slow.  I do notice little gains here and there.  I clipped my own toenails this morning, first time in a long time.  Still sort of difficult though. 

[Dannywayoflife]

Tin is right about the capsule taking up to a year or more to heal that's one of tge reasons I believe surgeons here in the uk have a more conservative approach to returning to high level activity.

[Dan L]

My ROM and flexibility improved slowly but consistenly during the first 6 weeks of at-home exercises;  including these laying down ones (ankle pumps, glut flexes, moving leg sideways lying down, ankle slide back towards the butt with a towel assist, and most importantly, bending the leg up towards your chest as far as you could go without pain) and the standing exercises -- hip abduction, leg swing to the front, leg marches, leg swung backwards).  I did these 30 times each, 3x per day; I believe these are the ones the Birmingham Docs use (my surgeon trained with McMinn and Treacy).  There was gradual and constant improvement each day, that was noticable and a morale boost.  I did not do them on a couple of occasions due to pain, and I saw no progression when I missed them.

By the 3rd week I could do socks and such.

Hope it helps.

[tedroberts]

I'm 3 plus years out on my bi-lat resurfacing.  My physical therapists spent quite a bit of time manually
loosening up my hip capsules.  By manually adjusting I mean getting on top of me and bearing down with
all their weight/strength.  This went on for a few weeks.  I'm sure I could not have gotten some of my
flexibility back without outside help.  Of course there was a lot of stretching and strength building for
me to do too!

[mikebaker]

Thanks Ted, when did you do all this hard PT work ie how long after surgery? I really want to get some flexibilty back but I do not want to risk my implant. I appreciate the input!!