10 days after surgery with De Smet

[JanVerdeyen]

Hi all ,
as I am new here and had the surgery 10 days ago, this was the right opportunity to post something :-)
I had a bilateral resurfacing by Koen De Smet in Ghent on October the 17th.
It all went very well ...without any complications.
Second day I started walking with that thing (don't know the word in english, walker ?) , and from day 3 on with crutches and doing stairs ...
That all went very well without any problems ...
My worst concern were/are nights .. as I am not used to sleep on my back and not able for the moment to sleep on my side(s) due to pain ...
Sitting is getting better too, I can easily sit for an hour...
I don't use a physical therapist, i'm just doing my own exercises on a hometrainer without using any resistance, doing some leg muscles exercices such as lifting feet, bending knees and so on and some walking with the crutches ...
No problem what so ever ... I'm just not overdoing anything (as I would be able to do a lot more)...
I have plenty of time ;-)
Stitches will be removed a the end of the week.
Of course I am (was) in a very good physical shape, and that helps,  with lots of sports such as mountainbiking large distances until a couple of days before surgery.
I was looking forward to the surgery coz last months I got problems in my lower back and of course needed painkillers when training for cycling ...
I was only suffering from 1 hip, the other one was degressing as well and a valid candidate for a surgery in a year or so.
Dr. Koen De Smet suggested doing them both together in 1 surgery, and that was fine with me.

Anyway, good luck to you all !
Greetings from Belgium
J.
 
 

[Pat Walter]

Hi Jan

Congratulations on the new hips!   I am a De Smet hippy too.  Glad you are having an easy recovery.  You feel like you could do more, but you are smart to limit yourself during your early recovery.  Some people have pushed too hard and then ended up with swelling and problems.  So the best approach is to go slowly in the begining.

You can already tell what you will eventually be able to do. 

Good Luck and stay in touch.

Pat
3/15/06 LBHR De Smet

[JanVerdeyen]

Hi Pat,
thanks for the reply !

(11 days after)

Well,

A couple of things I noticed immediately after surgery ....
- the pain in my lower back is gone
- I'm able to bend my knees completely (just to experiment) :-) without opening my legs, something totally impossible before ...

I am sure I'm able to drive my car and walking without crutches for a short distance (eg. when taking hot drinks)  is not causing problems ...
I'm off painkillers since yesterday ...

It's all going very well (except for sleeping but improving as well ), but as I said before ..I'm not pushing things ....
I've plenty of time to recover as training for cycling and running starts after winter period somewhere in Feb.

Good Luck to all and courage !

gr
jan

[JanVerdeyen]

Hi all ,

an update after 7 weeks post surgery (bilateral resurfacing by Koen De Smet in Ghent on October the 17th) :

I started working after 4 weeks
Driving car (manual gears) after 2,5 weeks
Daily 1 hour on a hometrainer with low resistance up till 6 on a scale of 8 now
I can walk nearly as normal (bye bye penguin)
Able to run distances for 30 minutes without any problems
Did some dancing for a couple of hours (fun)
Went to a rock concert 3 weeks after surgery  (more fun)
Had a first medical check-up after 6 weeks, all perfect, can skip next planned visit in 3 months... in 2 years is ok to come back I'm told :-)
Got a green light for skiing, snowboarding in Feb and preparation for running long distances, mountainbiking and cycling mountains in France, Italy !

In general, I can say I feel great, I'm almost able to do all things I used to do before surgery without any pain ...

Going for resurfacing seems to be 1 of the most important decisions in my life, and glad I did it ...
Many thanks to Koen De Smet !

Good Luck to you all
greetz from Belgium
Jan

[Pat Walter]

Hi Jan

Glad to hear everything is still going so well for you.

Dr. De Smet is one of the best surgeons in the world - of course I am a bit biased since he was my surgoen too.

I hope your recovery continues to go well for you.

Keep in touch and enjoy those new hips!

Pat

[stevel]

Hi Jan,

What did Dr. DeSmet say about skiing and snowboarding in February?  I heard he allows his patients to do these activities at 3 months post-op.

[JanVerdeyen]

Hi Steve

after check-up (photos etc ...) all seemed to be perfect and I asked about skiing in feb, almost 4 months after surgery .... and having a bilateral ..
No problem at all he said !!!

Great news of course ...

:-)

Greetz
Jan

[stevel]

Hi Jan,

That is great news!  We just had a dump of 10 inches plus (and more coming) here in Juneau, Alaska.  The ski area hasn't opened yet but may open this weekend.  I am 10 weeks post-op and doing great.  I need to check with my doctor about returning to skiing.