Four month followup

[FlbrkMike]

I had my four month follow-up last week with Dr. Ball (four months for the left hip, three months for the right).  The right hip's recovery is obviously a little bit behind the left, especially since I had the four week "toe touch only" restriction on that one, but the strength and flexibility have come back amazingly quickly on both sides as far as I'm concerned.

It's hard, at this point, even to remember how I was back in January and before, but I believe that my strength is better on both sides than it was, thanks in large part to the regular PT I've had, and the flexibility is amazing.  I can hardly remember the pain I was in, and there's no pain at all now, even from the surgery.  No problem now tying my shoes in the middle, and I can sit comfortably cross-legged on the floor - two things I couldn't even come close to doing before.  I can stand with my feet together pointing straight forward.  I can stand up from a low seated position without pushing off with my hands.  Before, I couldn't even sit with my knees together, I had to cross my feet when sitting in a chair - pretty hard to stand up gracefully from that position.  I can step up on a 24" block wall in the back yard almost like I'm just walking over it.  I still have some residual flexibility issues in my quads and flexors, which I'm trying to work out with stretching.

My doctor removed all movement restrictions.  Still no heavy contact activities, like running or playing basketball, but everything else is cool.  Recovery is not complete but going extremely well.  All in all, I'm extremely happy with the results of this surgery, and feel about 20 years younnger.

[newdog]

Mike,

I know what you mean about not being able to remember the pain before surgery. It feels so good and natural now. Keep up the good work. They say it gets even better.

Steve

[hernanu]

From another bi-hippy, Mike - things do get even better (shamelessly plagiarizing Steve).

I'm at 9 1/2 and 6 1/2 months (left, right), and yesterday I was at my daughter's high school graduation party. I drove the 100 miles to the party, helped the caterer bring in a large container filled with food (up stairs, etc.), moved around the house without thinking about it, helped serve food and wound up dancing to salsa and other latin music for about an hour.

I then drove my daughters home (about two hours) to their mother's, and outside of a little stiffness when I got out of the car at the end, no problems at all. Just a typical recovering bi-hippy day  .

[FlbrkMike]

Sounds like fun!

I spent about half the day yesterday walking up and down hills while operating a string trimmer.  No ill effects from that except that my shoulder is really sore today.  It's nice to have something besides my hips and back be the potential limiting factor.

Long distance driving is one thing I still have some problems with.  An hour or so at a time is OK but a couple of weeks ago I had to go on the road to an inspection three hours away.  The drive home included about an hour driving down a two lane mountain highway behind a slow driver.  I was constantly on and off the gas and brake pedals, and my right hip was definitely complaining by the time I got to the bottom.  I stopped for gas at that point and walked around for 10 mintues or so.

And by the way, congratulations to your daughter!!  She's reached a big milestone.  We went to our daughter's college graduation on Saturday.  She's now at home, wondering (or at least we're wondering) what she's going to do next.   

[AlanN]

Excellent news Mike...keep up the good work and congratulations!

[ScubaDuck]

Thanks for the update Mike.  It sounds like you are doing great.

I have been wondering about the driving bit.  I have a manual transmission that I usually drive because it gets much better gas mileage than my automatic Jeep.  Fortunately I don't have too much traffic to navigate usually.

My real concern is the drive to my girlfriend's house six hours away.  This may be a challenge for awhile.  And I might be less green for awhile.  Oh well, the price of love.

Keep up the stretching and strengthening.

Dan

[hernanu]

Sounds like fun!

I spent about half the day yesterday walking up and down hills while operating a string trimmer.  No ill effects from that except that my shoulder is really sore today.  It's nice to have something besides my hips and back be the potential limiting factor.

Long distance driving is one thing I still have some problems with.  An hour or so at a time is OK but a couple of weeks ago I had to go on the road to an inspection three hours away.  The drive home included about an hour driving down a two lane mountain highway behind a slow driver.  I was constantly on and off the gas and brake pedals, and my right hip was definitely complaining by the time I got to the bottom.  I stopped for gas at that point and walked around for 10 mintues or so.

And by the way, congratulations to your daughter!!  She's reached a big milestone.  We went to our daughter's college graduation on Saturday.  She's now at home, wondering (or at least we're wondering) what she's going to do next.  

I'm ok with driving, I usually had one side that was in reasonable shape and leaned on that. I also used my handy dandy flat ice pack to cool my hip off part of the way, so that helped (don't need it now).

I took a few long drives (5 hours to Bangor, maine with one hip done, New York City - about 3.5 hours, with both hips) and held up ok. I made it a point to stop at several rest stops even if it was just to walk around. Had to fight my 'get there at all costs' mentality, but it was actually nice.

Thanks for the good thoughts, that's my youngest, my oldest is graduating next year and is looking at the same thing. Tough for kids out there right now. She's a real go getter, though so I have a feeling she'll do something interesting.

[23109VC]

Mike -

we had surgery very close to the same point in time.. I had my left hip done 2/23/11.  Although I only needed one hip done....

Your observations are very similar to mine...  glad to hear you are doing so well.. I know what you mean about forgetting what it was like to be in pain...  it's great to not have any pain in the hip!! 

You are in the San Diego area?  I'm in Temecula.  it would be cool to get some So Cal surface hippies together for a lunch sometime.. I know there are a few others in this area... 

keep up the progress.  when we hit six months we ought to have a surfacde hippy fun run... like 1/2 mile or something..   heck.. i'll be jumping for joy when I can run 100 yards!!!   

I know what you mean about long car rides bothering the hip.  one of the few things that bothers my hip is sitting on it for a long time...  car rides for a long way bother it when I first get up.. it feels all stiff.... 

keep up the great progress!!

[Tin Soldier]

I'm the same way.  LBHR 2/22/11 and it feels great.  ROM is not awesome, but no pain, and it feels stronger than the right (8/23/11).  I went for a 2.5 mile hike with family on a coast trail (Ecola State Park - for DGossak) with lots of elevation, the other day and left everyone in the dust, just had to get a little bit of running in and even in my clunky boots and Carhartts I was feeling pretty peppy and strong.  I jogged about a half mile and it was something I hadn't felt in a long time.   Sun was out, breathe-taking, huge trees, and fun squirrely trail.  The family was thinking I should be slow and stove-in because I had a new hip.  Yeah right, Our new hips are like the aftermarket turbos of the auto world.  Highly engineered for performance.  Sort of. 

[FlbrkMike]

Climbed a (small) mountain near my house last weekend with my wife.  It's only 1.75 miles to the top (we actually made about 80% of the way because the wife got tired) but it's a 1,500 foot rise.  We bought some fancy trekking poles beforehand so we'd look like we knew what we were doing.  The really good thing was that the only thing that bothered me was my knees on the steep descent, and the quads got pretty tired.  The hips are golden.

I met another guy on the trail, with his dog, who was out on his first hike 5 months after knee surgery.  The dog was so excited to be out on the trail, he could hardly be contained

Sean, I'm just around the corner from you in Fallbrook (hence my username).  We should definitely get together around the 6 month anniversary for a hippy blowout. 

[ScubaDuck]

That is awesome Tin and Mike.  I did the Grouse Grind this weekend as a baseline before I have my surgery.  It will be nice to be able to hike, walk, run, bike, etc. without hip pain.

Keep the inspirational stories coming for us future hippies.

Dan