3.5 months out

[podgornymd]

I have been doing pretty well and had a LBHR 3.5 months ago. There are some days where my hip feels great and i feel as if i could go out and run. No pain,no tightness in the groin,no soreness,etc but  then there are days where it feels like it did at 8 weeks,real sore , tightness in the groin, feels shorter than the other leg. Is that normal at 3.5 months out? Thanks for any advice.

[hernanu]

Normal, I think podgornymd.

Your muscles are still recouping both from the OA and the surgery. I think if you're doing things with muscles that are rested, mostly healed then the days will be good; if you do things that are new, putting more pressure on than before, or your muscles just get tired, then you'll have aches.

If it lasts too long, talk to your surgeon, you want to pay good attention.

I used the aches to fill me in on what might need some more help through exercise. At one point, when I was about five months along, I noticed weakness and soreness on my right hip when balancing. In normal walking, there was no visible problem.

I heaped on balancing, juggling and using a slide board (simulates ice skating), that seemed to strengthen the hip so that it became less of an issue and by the time nine to ten months rolled around, the issue was gone.

The way I see it, we have incremental improvements ahead of us, and have to use our experiences as a guidepost on what we need to strengthen. I'm still doing it at almost three years, increasing and modulating exercise to get the best of my hips.

[chuckm]

Hey Podgornymd! I used to have some really cranky days too. Then I discovered the foam roller. Actually I knew about it all along but started to use it at about 4 weeks post op.

Whenever you think you are having a bad day or stretch of days, get on the foam roller and really work all the muscles around the hip and thigh. With some practice you can get the roller to knead out almost every muscle including the groin.

You would be surprised how you can completely reverse that bad day in five minutes some times.

Chuckm

[hippy hippy shake]

Podgornymd,

I am also at 3.5 months and have similar conditions.  I feel great for a while, and do some yard work and other activities, and then I have tightness (especially in the flexors).  Sometimes there even might be a little swelling in the incision areas.  Overall, the trend is definitely improving, though.

Just hosted a pool party with 40+ people, and one of the best parts was that I could do it at all.  Last year, with the OA hobbling me, I just couldn't do it.  One of the hardest parts now is when I look at an item that needs moving, and I have to get someone to help me do it, solely because it is over my weight limits--but that's better than pushing it and risking a setback or worse.  Although my back is thanking me... ;)

Keep up the stretching.  (Note to self, also).  Dr. Su said you want to break up the scar tissue now--you won't be able to a year from now.  The strengthening will come.
Reading Chuck's post, I guess I should probably get a foam roller....

HHS

[Elsie]

Greetings, this is my first post!  I don't mean to hijack this thread, but figured my story can lend you even more support.  I am about five months out.  LBHR by Jeffrey Davis in Birmingham, AL--love the irony of that!  I have hesitated to post my own fears (now diminished) because in reading so many queries as to cranky resurfs months out know that most of them are within the normal range.  Early on--a month post-op--I was hauling and spreading 50 bags of cypress mulch from Home Depot myself, mowing, bush trimming and other assorted work on my acre property, and two months out, opened my pool and took care of manually vacuuming it, etc.  For several months now I've been biking 8 miles several times a week on hilly terrain and hiking steep hills, all followed by swimming in my pool.

For me, exercise then taking it easy the rest of the day, seems to make my hip better the next day, but exercise on top of hours in the yard tends to make it worse.  My lesson's been to exercise but not to overdo.  That said, sometimes I have a little groin pain, sometimes a stitch of pain deep in the left buttock muscles, and sometimes I still limp a little, especially upon startup after sitting for awhile.  It's been so supportive to read that this is all pretty normal stuff, in fact, this knowledge has obviated my running back to the surgeon's office to get their take on it.  I have xray pics of the resurfed hip and in comparing them to optimal placement pics, I know that my placement is spot-on.  Of course I know there are numerous other anatomical details that go into a successful resurf.

Since you are behind me a couple of months, I can also attest to your situation being quite normal!  There are up and down days and up and down hours, and sometimes even minute-to-minute.  Like others have said, it really does take a considerable amount of time for many of us to iron out the kinks which can be as variable as the weather.

By the way, I did not have the option of traveling outside of Birmingham, AL to one of the more renowned surgeons.  But having surfed this site once the surgery was set, possessed the knowledge to ensure Dr. Davis had a considerable number of resurfs under his belt.  I was his 200th.  He's had two failures--one guy fractured his FN hiking a month out (Dr. Davis said they both were being cocky as that was too early to be hiking and he, admittedly, notched the guys FN--how is that for lack of surgeon arrogance, to admit it?); another, a small-boned woman, dislocated.  I am a lean, small-bone 58 year old woman and I have fallen several times early on, on the resurfed hip--once off my bike and other times working in the yard, and I was very impressed by how hard it was to hurt it even early on.  That said, I am even more careful now, knowing that the consequences of a FN fracture or anything else would be nothing short of devastating.  Although I have no problems hiking steep hills (as long as I limit the duration to about a half hour), I do have issues with walking up slight inclines.  There's a weakness or something, in drawing my leg up--a tightness kind of feeling, feels muscular.  Might be that psoas thing I've read about?  Still, I'm not that bothered by it, small problem to bear considering that after a huge labral tear last October running my bike up a steep hill I was in excruciating pain until surgery in mid-March.

Another interesting note: with my labral tear on top of significant degenerative arthritis, another surgeon who reviewed my MRA at the same sports clinic as the surgeon who performed my resurf said I would *only* be considered for a resurf, not a THR.  Not knowing a thing about them, my initial reaction was oh no! They have such a high failure rate!  Well, clearly I had initially read the NYT media piece. 

Sorry for being all over the page here, I guess I weaved my introductory post into this reply; but I hope my own experience can lend more support to anyone who fears their healing is a little bumpy or slow.  This site has saved me so much anguish fretting about the healing process.  My other hip will need replacing at some point and very likely a knee down the road (I seem to have drawn the osteo gene card) but for now, I am so happy to be riding, hiking and swimming again.  They are my opium!  Thank you Pat for creating, hosting and maintaining this incredibly wonderful resurf site and, along with all the posters, a sense of kinship in a club none of us join by choice.  That said, "it is what it is" and how fortunate most of us are to have the choice of a resurf.

[hernanu]

Welcome Elsie and nice post!

It is a work in progress, although I have to say the 'work' is less and less as time goes.

[Elsie]

Thank you, hernanu, and you are absolutely right!  Sometimes, days or even weeks seem to go by without much improvement, especially as compared to those first weeks post-op, but then out of nowhere it just happens.  Today is one of those days for me.  No startup gimp, all day long.  Woo hoo!