Resisting The Urge

[Mudpro]

Today I celebrate 7 weeks since surgery, and yesterday I did something really stupid!

I felt so good now that I'm well on the mend that I decided to BBQ dinner for the family that's been taking such good care of me now for nearly two months.  I'm walking with out a cane and the little bit of shuffeling around to do the cooking was no big deal, or so I thought...

About 2 minutes into searing some nice juicy steaks, the fame on the BBQ goes out, I ran out of propane.  The beautiful pieces of sirloin are cooling down and soon to become as rubbery as shoe leather unless I can get this thing back up and running.  So I rushed into my garage and pulled a spare tank out from its cradle and swung around as I would normally ahve done to carry it quickly to the back yard.  Guess what, I not only twisted, but I tripped.  Spraining my good side foot and giving me a twinge in the hip I haven't felt in weeks.  DUMB! 

So how do we resit doing what seems normal as we return to normalacy?

This evening I'm feeling better, but had a sleepless night and skipped going into work today.  Good news is the ankle feels OK and it doesn't appear I did anything serious to my hip, but I did give myself a great big wake up call.

BTW - the steaks were ruined, but the family ate them anyway and without complaint! 

[Bionic]

That was frightening to read.  I'm glad nothing was permanently damaged.

[Todd]

Sorry to hear about the fall, Mudpro.  Good to know that the hip structure is still intact and you don't have any major damage.  Better stick to brats on the grill next time--they aren't as costly when you ruin them.    Hang in there!

[obxpelican]

I never knew that grilling steaks was a contact sport.


Chuck

[Pat Walter]

Glad to hear everything turned out ok except for the steaks!

Take it easy!

Try take out for a few more weeks!

Pat

[obxpelican]

Us Dr. Gross patients are not allowed to grill outdoors for the first 6 months


Chuck

[Mudpro]

Well we had an ice storm here in the DC area last night, so I decided it wasn't my day to go get the newspaper... 

Guess I'm wising up, huh? 

[Tekka]

Thats sounds like a close one.

Glad to see your ok, but as you point out...this is how easy it can be, we need to be really aware.

So you pulled a sicky eh

[Barbara]

Glad you're OK.
I spoke with my PT about that exact thing last week. I have very little to no pain now and am walking without a limp and feeling better than back to normal. I was taking a photograph and dropped down on to my knees. It was extremely painful and difficult to get back up. I was 6 weeks and 14 weeks post op. I had completely forgotten about my surgery for a minute. My PT said this happens quite often and people hurt themselves.
 Barbara

[John C]

Okay, so here is my entry for post-op "brain dead" moves. At seven weeks, I decided that I needed to change the ceiling light over our bath tub. I ask my dubious wife to stabilize me while I try to balance up on the slippery edge of the tub. I start to step down off the edge of the tub, realize part way down that my new hip is not strong enough to create a controlled landing , I start to fall back into a heap , bounce off my wife's attempt to save me , and end up smashing into the toilet . My hip immediately sent out all kinds of signals that this was really stupid, and I spent the rest of the day worrying about "what have I done". Happily all was well by the next morning, but I swore off any other "brain dead" moves for six months. I guess that some of us need a good scare to get our attention.

[Mudpro]

I guess that some of us need a good scare to get our attention.

I was thinking the same thing...  and how lucky I was not to have hurt something.  I'm a relatively intelligent person, I've read all the data about the odds of fracturing the femoral head is higher in the first 3 months -- what were we thinking?!?

As they say in basketball:

"No Harm, No Foul"

[Todd]

I cringe just reading about your falls.  I can feel the pain myself.  I hope I never have to contribute a "brain-dead" story, but chances are....

[stevel]

Today, I'm 4 months post-op, and I've fortunately avoided falls or lifting too heavy loads.  The urge I need to resist is returning to impact sports such as downhill skiing and racketball.  I need to wait 6 months post-op.  I otherwise feel great and work-out daily doing low impact aerobic exercises and hip strengthening and stretching exercises.  When we get about 12 inches of fresh "champagne" powder, the urge is intense, but today the weather has switched to rain, and I have avoided breaking the post-op protocol.

[wayne-0]

After reading the stories about everyones falls and everything surviving just fine I'm thinking maybe our new hips/bones are stronger than we think?

Wayne

[Barbara]

I spent the entire day yesterday cleaning out my clothes closet and trying things on. To cut a long story short I pivoted and have had pain in my groin and throbbing in my knee since last night. I'm 7 1/2 weeks post op on the Left side and 15 1/2 weeks on the right. I was at PT today and the source of the pain is once again my hip flexor muscles. I did the exact same thing on the right side when I was 7 weeks post op.
I had to actually take pain medication today which I stopped weeks ago and have been told by my PT to rest and ice the muscle for 48hrs. It's very frustrating, especially after all my bragging to my husband yesterday about how great my new joints are and what I'm going to do when I hit the slopes.
My PT reminded me once again that I had major surgery and that it's going to take a few months to get those muscles strong and even apparently benign movements can cause strain in the muscles. At the end of last week my PT told me I was doing extremely well and was ahead of all the goals. My Surgeon told me on Mon that i don't need to go back for a year and today I can hardly walk.
I think all of us on this site are relatively young and have been active and are just raring to go and it's easy to forget that we are healing. My husband is constantly telling me to slow down and stop overdoing things but it's difficult because I'm so happy with my new hips and just full of energy and enthusiasm for the things I'm going to be able to do again, such as skiing.
I haven't fallen but have hurt myself a few times doing something then realizing I shouldn't have. I think Johns terminology of post op brain dead moves is very apt.

Barbara

[Grimbo]

Us Dr. Gross patients are not allowed to grill outdoors for the first 6 months

Crikey! His list of do's and don'ts seems very specific!

[takilasunrise]

Been there, done that..........twice!  The first time was about a month after my surgery...I decided to go down into the basement for something (I think it had to do with laundry) and when I hit the 4th or 5th step from the bottom, my foot slipped out, I sat right down on my butt, and sledded all the way down to the bottom.  Thank goodness I was wearing my nylon athletic pants, so they were slippery.  Didn't really hurt myself, except maybe my arm from trying to catch myself.  I had to call for my husband because I didn't know how to get back up!  The second time was probably a couple of months after my surgery.  The front screen door doesn't always close all the way and we have a dog that will escape whenever she gets the chance.  I let her up from the backyard and saw her run straight towards the front door, which I could see was open!  I started to jog towards the door (yeah, like I'm going to beat a Jack Russell Terrier to the door) to hopefully shut it, but instead I tripped where the kitchen floor meets the carpet.  I "dived" through the air and landed on the right side of my body, you know, the new hip side!  I hit the ground so hard it knocked the air out of me!  My husband heard it from upstairs, he came running downstairs asking what happened, and I couldn't talk for a minute or so, so he was all freaked out.  He helped me back up and I was expecting major pain to my hip or leg, but nothing!  And the dog?  Well, I scared the you-know-what out of her when I fell, so she ran the opposite direction and never made it to the door!  I guess our hips are more durable then we think!  Thank goodness!