6 weeks post op with tight psoais muscle

[michelleg]

Hi,

My name is Michelle. I am 40 and I had a BHR L Hip 6.5 weeks ago.  I had severe pain post op which diminished over 2 weeks.  I did not walk well for the first 5 weeks, but went from one crutch to walking without a limp in the last week and a half.  Prior to surgery I my left hip was riddled with arthritis and I had two large bone spurs on the head of my left femur. I was in agony daily prior to surgery. To be honest, I am not doing load of rehab currently and that seems to be working very well for me.  I am walking 20 to 30 minutes twice day, stretching and some strengthening excersizes. I am pain free except for a very tight psoais which my PT is working through with me 3 times weekly.  I still notice lots of improvements daily.  And feel almost normal except for groin pain due to my overly protective psoais.

My question is "has anyone experienced a tight psoais and does it settle down"?  I guess I should preface my question by saying prior to surgery I was surfing, big mountain skiing, sledding, rock climbing, but unable to hike or mountaineer due to the arthritis, but I still did all my sports, which resulted in overusing my psoais and leg muscles prior to surgery.

And my other question is this:  How long are athletes waiting to get back into sports?  Five days ago I had pain walking and 2 days ago my pain was gone...no limp and my flexibility is returning daily. Feel comfortable moving side to side, twisting etc....  My PT and DR. are keen for me to recover 100 percent and both support my wanting to surf, ski, sled, climb and mountaineer without fear of crashing, or wiping out in waves, snow etc.....

Just want to take it easy, get strong and recover well, but also need to keep the dream alive.  Very very happy I had surgery!

michelle

[hawaiieric]

Aloha Michelle,

I am at the same timing as you, but not familiar with that pain your having.  My issue is the strenght(50%) in my leg, (leg lifts are what I now concentrate on due to its my last muscle to come back for me).  I am 6 weeks post op tomorrow, and yes, I also want to get back into my sports like surfing, kite surfing, hiking and motorcycles in the mountains.  The good news for me is that I have been swimming without fins and I am walking the beach for hours at a time no pain anymore.  My limp is almost gone, as I do my PT which ranges from 1-2 times a day for round an hour and that is 6 days a week now from the 7 days a week at first.  I am at the stage where I feel WAY BETTER then before the surgery, don't notice much of the pains, just the missing my sports and activities.

I know for my activities though it might be 6 months till I should be doing them and longer for the ones that might risk injury to my surgery.  Guess we just need to be patient and let the healing run its coarse on us and then we can get back to what we love, guess its only been a month and a half since surgery.  LOL it is flying by too.

Eric

[B.I.L.L.]

Hey Michele, the biggest turn around for me was right at 9 weeks. That was the time when I could start pushing myself a little harder without paying dearly for 3 or 4 days.  Your looking at a year before you are 100% and still healing after that but I think it will go by quick.  I'll be at twelve weeks tomorrow so only 40 weeks until I can surf and race motocross and do all the stupid things people my age shouldn't be doing ha ha      Maybe we should all get together for a BBQ at Eric's house.....




















 

[John C]

Hi Michele,
I will post more on this under the "Skiing" topic, but to answer your question, I just got back on skis at one week short of six months ( I was supposed to wait a full six months, but what is a boy to do when you wake up to 18" of fresh.) My doc (Gross) said that I could start skiing at six months, and build up the intensity. So far I am pretty happy with how skiing is going, and will post more details in the "Skiing" section.

John

[bothdone]

Hi Michelle

My first thought when reading your post was "where is the psoais muscle?"    A quick trip to Wikipedia produced this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major_muscle

I see they have a different spelling.   I had a go at their indication test and seem to be OK.

Before my op in March this year I was in the gym three times a week doing exercise bike, light weights and concept two rower.    I got back into the gym two months after my op and got back to my pre-op fitness within about six months.   But.... I can now walk 6 miles without pain (probably more but six is long enough for me) and I've started light jogging again - so far up to 2.5 miles.    With the running I've got the odd tweaks around both hips which is to be expected after 7 years no running. (I had the other hip done in 2004).

I hope everything goes well for you.   In my mind the most important thing is patience.

Ed

[hawaiieric]

Michelle,

Just checking in with you to see how your rehab is going and are you stretching your psoas and is it working?

I have just finished my 6 week post op and was given the opportunity to work past my restrictions.  I was tight on my squats so I started to work on that right off the back, with a good support, just going down nice and slow and back up seemed to help, but better was to do the squats in the water to make my weight lighter, I could hold longer and even rock it slightly to get more and then get back to up position.  After my sets, I did rapids and that got me even more loose.  Then after I would stand by my truck and lift my ankle and then stretch my quad and it is supposed to work the psoas, holding for 30 seconds and repeating.  Just in my 24 hours of this, I can bend down farther then yesterday, so I hope this might help you in yours.  I looked up psoas on yahoo and just put that to use to how it affects me, and believe me, before surgery, tying my shoes was a problem, it still is, but I know that I can work on it and get it to loosen up and I will look forward to the days that my left is the same as my right or that I forgot that I used to be broken and now I am better.

Eric