Hi!
I had my right hip resurfaced with a brilliant surgeon on the NHS, six weeks ago. In 2005 I had my left hip resurfaced by Mr Mcminn, which was and still is excellent!
It is with great pride that I can say I took my dog for a 2-mile walk on our woody lanes, using two Nordic walking poles this morning! There is no pain, and the only warning I get is lumbar backache when I have overdone it, and stiffness in the right hip, but that dissipates after moving about.
At the moment I tend to have one walking stick with me, but keep forgetting to use it for the last week now!
When I started physiotherapy four weeks ago I was very apprehensive about the stretches, especially "knee to chest", and bending forward over knees while seated,
as the lumbar back muscles have shortened so considerably over the years of degenerating hip joints
! Doing the stretches on a daily basis has proven excellent, especially as the range of movement is improving daily too
! So, it's really worth persevering! The other scary bit was daring to put my full weight on the operated side when going upstairs, and bending the operated leg and placing the "good " leg on the next step down! Now I don't think about it, except for a little stiffness which reminds me NOT to run down the stairs!!
Something I would like to share with everyone is that I follow the postural principles of Esther Gokhale, who wrote the book, and has a very straightforward/back to nature approach, called "Eight Steps to a Painfree Back" (remember when it didn't hurt?). It has helped enormously with the pain I suffered from a very lordotic lower spine (inward curve which makes bum and tum stick out) which occurs as a result from worn cartilage in the hip joints and then in turn affects our musculature, which will then pull our skeleton out of alignment.
My other discovery is that I am improving a lot faster this time than six years ago simply because I was able to train my muscles and keep as good a posture as possible prior to the operation. Six years ago, I had been in total denial about the left hip, thinking myself too young
to suffer from osteo-arthritis until the left leg muscles totally atrophied (wasted), and they then took over two years to re-build their strength
Well, I've already written too much and bored you enough now!!
I'll go and relax in the sun
Nadia