Left hip resurfacing by Dr Chris Whately - Dubai

[brianflanagan]

Hi all,


Quick update after my first week going back to the gym.
I was feeling too good so I decided to work on my upper body with almost the same workout program as before, which means dumbbell bar and weights.
I did not use weights for my low body , only for my upper body, but moving the weights was too much for me. My leg and my butt were painful during 2 days after the session, like before the surgery :-(


So I went back nicely to the gym after this, doing indoor bike, squats (without weights for now) and other balance exercises


It's a good learning. My muscles are still weak, even if I feel good.
I will come back this week to the gym for workout but will  avoid moving weights and will use machines with cables. I don't want to move/carry weights.


I've seen the physiotherapist. She is moving my hip and forcing me to stretch my abductors.

Sometimes, I'm scared that she is going to break my new hip :-)
She has indicated a lot of exercises to work on my muscles and how to stretch as well.
Honestly, this is super painful !
I thought this was going to be easy as I have always been flexible but my body has been also blocking some movements for so many years that I need to work on that.
I just hope that my new hip allows the movements and this is the lack of mobility which prevents some moves.

[brianflanagan]

Hi all,


Update at almost 4 months


I don't feel pain when I walk even for quite a long time. My back is not painful at all.



My muscles are still a little bit weak if I push too much.
This week-end, I forgot the surgery as I was jumping inside of the pool. You know you have water till 1,50m and you are jumping. The day after and for 2 days I still feel the pain.


The physiotherapist keeps pushing quite hard on the moves to stretch my hip.
I have pain when I lay down on the table and she is trying to get my left hip closer to my chest further than 90 degrees.
The pain is on the front side of the hip. I don't if it's the muscles or the tendons, hopefully not the new hip.
To be honest I've been blocked for more than 10 years because of my bah hip so I suppose I need time to gain a larger range of motion.
My PT told me to try not to stay too long in front of my desk and if possible to stretch a little bit during the day. I don't really do that ;-)


I've found the operation report, see what is indicated :
"We then prepared the femoral head to accept a 140-degree angled Conserve Plus hip resurfacing device which is #50 mm in size. ....
We did sequential reaming up to a #56-mm size and then placed a 56-mm outer diameter Conserve Plus acetabular component in 40 degrees of abduction and 20 degrees of anteversion ..."


-> Do you know the range of motion that can be expected with the new hip ? if there is no physiological constraints course.

Thanks !

[John C]

If you look at some of the pictures on this site, especially of the dancers and martial artists, it will give you a good sense of what is possible. I think that the consensus is that the range of motion you end up with after resurfacing is directly related to what you had before the arthritis started. On my first hip, I found that it took about six months to get that range of motion back, but suddenly it was there.

[brianflanagan]

Thanks a lot John !
That's very encouraging !


To be honest it is very painful to try to get my knee to my chest. For now my limit is around 90 degrees when I lay down on my back.
So maybe I just need to be more patient and also maybe ask the PT to go more gentle with the stretches ;-).

[Pat Walter]

It never hurts to be conservative.  If at 4 months you can't get you knee to your chest without pain, then maybe you should consider not pushing it.  When it hurts - don't do it.  Especially while you are still recovering.  It takes a good 6 months to get back to normal things, then 1 year to completely heal.  You can't push your body to heal.  It will heal on it's own time.  If you push, you might end up with problems at this point.  Great to be active, but you are still only 4 months post op.  I don't know how some people healed quick enough to run marathons, ect early on, but everyone is different.  Best guideline I have heard by most doctors, don't push - your body will heal on it's own time. That is one reason why some surgeons don't suggest PT, just walk, walk and walk.

Pat

[John C]

Hi Brian. I will share my own approach to stretching with my second hip which was resurfaced two months ago. Like you, my current flexion is limited to about 90 degrees. If I push hard to get beyond that point, it does get painful. For me, the primary pain is not in the rear which is where my 10 year old resurfacing feels a good stretch, buy the recent hip feels the pain across the front of the joint, which I interpret as a sign to back off. My surgeon is not a fan of PT because he has seen some cases where pushing too hard for early range of motion has caused problems, so he agreed to prescribe PT for me with the understanding that I would be in charge of how hard we push. We are pushing my strength and balance pretty hard, but I have made it clear to my PT that we stop flexion stretching short of any pain in the front of the joint. I can't say if this approach would be correct for you, but it worked for me last time, so I am using the same approach this time.

[brianflanagan]

Thank you Pat and John !


I think you are right.
I trust my PT but she might push too hard and my body might need more time to go on this direction.


John, the pain seems to be similar to yours : located on the front side of the joint in the hip. Not sure if this is the ligaments of the hip or the anterior iliac spine, but this is this region :-)


It's difficult for me to be patient on the stretches as I've always been flexible and all the other directions for the moves of my hip are now free to go.


I agree with you and have a lot of stretches/exercises to do by myself. Hopefully this is just a question of time.


Thanks a lot !


I will post some updates later then :-)

[lazylad64]

Hi Brian,
Really interesting reading about your recovery. I wish I was a swimmer as it's excellent all over exercise and great for resistance training plus giving support. I may try just walking in the local pool when the incision has healed to wake up the muscles.
Sounds like your doing great. I'll check in to see how you're are doing 💪🏻👍🏻
Take care
Graham

[brianflanagan]

Hi all,

Some update before my 6 months post-op which is exactly next week-end :-)

In a summary, I am very happy with the results.
I've stopped seeing the physiotherapist after my 6 sessions as the doctor thought she was pushing a little bit too hard.
I'm doing some moves she has advised, but for sure I don't stretch enough.

I am going to the gym between 3 to 5 times a week. Everytime, I will do either bike, elliptical bike or incline walking (8-10%) on the treadmill. And then I will do my workout : upper body or working on my glutes, butt and legs.

I can see the results. I now have my butt back ;-)
I can't wear some of my trousers because they are too small now, which is good as I gain muscles.

I walk without pain and without limping. That's great !!!

My only concerns is that I have a pain when I raise my left knee, even if I am sitting on a chair or already standing up.
The pain seems to be on the tendon and is exactly located in the inguinal fold. I don['t know the name of this tendon.
I've checked and I already mentioned this pain at 3 weeks after the surgery.
The pain will go away if I take muscle heated creams. I like baume aroma and it works well . (The cream Baume Arôma is used for Muscular and Tendino-Ligamentary Pain. It is made with Methyl Salicylate, essentials oils of cloves and of jamaïca pepper.)
I used it a lot when I was doing martial arts and then the other guys used it because it was effective ;-)

I think there is an inflammation which doesn't go away.
I suppose I should see the orthopedist.

The pain is like the pain I had when I started to feel the pain in my hip when I was 20 years old.

I will start running next week as this will be 6 months after the surgery and I will give you an update.

[Pat Walter]

Thanks for your update.  I have read a lot of stories and sometimes it takes longer than 6 months to get back to normal.  Some surgeons say a full year.  Sounds like you are doing well.  If you are still having pain after activities, maybe you are being too aggressive too soon.  We all have different rates of recovery.  Only the body controls it and it takes time to completely heal.  Ask you surgeon about it.


Good Luck and I look forward to your future updates.


Pat

[brianflanagan]

Hi,

Thanks a lot Pat for your reply.

My surgeon is back in Dubai on November, so I will check with him for this pain on the front side of my hip on the tendon.
Maybe I need to be more patient.

Update after 6 months :
I've run 2 times this week, done elliptical bike and bike.
The first day I've run was maybe too much ... 10 minutes walking with incline walking (8-10%), then 6 minutes of running then walking again then running 5 minutes then running, for a total of 30 minutes.
-> it was painful for 2 days after the running :-(     In fact this was painful on the scar and on the front of the hip. It was sore, I mean like having aches. I suppose this was normal and too much for the first try :-)

I've run 2 days ago only for 5 minutes and I had no pain after, so I will just go slowly and increase the time of running gently.

No problem at all when biking and going to the gym almost every day. Also this is fine when moving the weights and dumbbells.