March 11, 2012

I’m happy to say everything went over and beyond my expectations.  I just got back and woke up in the middle of the night, so I thought I’d check in with you guys to let you know.  I have plenty of information to give, which I will later.  What I will say now, is I walked in the hospital with a painful limp and started walking using a cane in 3 days post op.  A couple times I got out of bed and walked (hobble) without it to use the washroom.  I now use 1 crutch to get my proper walking form back but I can tell I will be walking free in less then a week. 

I will share my thoughts on why I believe I’m having a rapid recovery and also share some  “why didn’t my friends at sufacehippy tell me about this”  kind of info.   Also, I will share any warnings I can think of which I wish I new before going into surgery.As of now I’m ear to ear happy. No doubt in my mind I will be running again.

April 28, 2012

I’m about 8 weeks post op and walking without any assistants. However, I do have a slight limp.  Its not a limp from pain like before surgery but just muscles being weak.   If my head was in the 90 degree position when walking the limp has improved to about 85. When I stopped using the cane it was about 70 degrees.
On my hip were the scar is and upper ligaments feel really stiff and the inner thigh muscle is very weak.  It was so weak about 3 weeks ago, I would get groin pains. Groin pain is gone, but the stiffness is still there. I still can’t roll on to scar in bed or on floor do to pain. Almost like the muscles haven’t healed.  My questions:

1.  Is the muscles under the scar still healing and thats why it feels stiff and tender to the touch? If not, what is going there?

2. How long will it take to loosen up my hip muscles?

3. I was told by PT that I should be doing a lot of  lateral leg raises because it hits the muscles the surgeon cut, but when I do them, I can’t walk without a limp for 3 days so I stopped doing them.

April 30, 2012

Just of the top of my head WORK OUT!!! 

Practice :  Dips, push ups, chin ups etc.  Anything with arms, you’re going to be using them as soon as surgery is over. I remember moving from surgery bed to hospital bed (side by side)  how happy I was that I trained on dips, because those were the EXACT same muscles I  need to move from bed to bed. Or even to get out in and out of bed. I saw other patients and they were struggling really bad just to move into bed.

For your legs, do the exercise on this site, but what really helped me was the “leg press” machine. If you’re strong enough, use 1 leg with no weight  to start.  If not, just use booth legs with no weight.  About a week before, do squats as well with lite weight. (50ibs)  for example.  They don’t have to be deep, just go down as far as you can where you can still get back up. 

Balance on bad leg before bed.  Make a game out of it. Do it in front of the TV. I would use the clock and try to break record. Your hip will hurt a little when you relax immediately after.

Cardio:  I used the elliptical. I was told its better then the bike, because its a weight bearing exercise.

START EATING PROPERLY!

If you haven’t stored any of your own blood for surgery, if you still have time, do it.. One of the problems you will notice is a weakness do to blood loss.  Nurse even told me, patients that have there blood replaced recover alot faster.  I wish I did it.

   Things to eat:

Liver
Spinach
all greens.
Fish;  tuna, etc
oatmeal
chicken breast

Much more, basically anything clean.

STAY AWAY FROM..

SALT, SALT, SALT. 
Alcohol
Smoke
recreational drugs.. 

TAKE VITAMINS.

I was taking a super multi vitamin called “Animal Pak” .  Its a little over the top, but you should take something with calcium, Iron, and basic amino acids, if you can.

The Hospital.

Epidermal, Epidermal, Epidermal. Did I mention Epidermal?  IT WAS GREAT, compared to what others go through,feeling sick puking after.  My doctor said this is the best way, and I said, just make sure I’m sleeping. “I don’t want to hear anything”.

BRING SNACKS!!!!!!!!!!!

The hospital for some reason try to starve you to death the first day.  Its by far the worse part of the experience..

I was prepared. After reading some threads on the site, I brought some dry snacks like:

Protein bars,
Meal replacement bars,
Dry fruit, “Pineapple OH MY GOD”  like candy

I even brought protein powder with a couple shaker cups.

About a 3 hours after surgery, the hunger pain kicks in. GASSSSS.  It feels like a really bad hang over.   So this is the important part.  If you eat to fast, you will make it worse, and want to throw up.  I would take a small bit of a bar, burp about 5 times, wait about 3 -5 minutes before taking another bit.  With in 4 hours, I was feeling great and other patients that had the same surgery minutes apart from mine, were VERY sick.  They kept complaining of feeling like throwing up.   That night at about midnight, I got a nurse to sneak me some soup and crackers..

THINGS I WASTED MONEY ON!!

Because I didn’t listen to my doctor and took some advice from others.

Reacher..   Never needed it.
Elevated toilet…..  Never needed it
Walker…   Never needed it. Went right to crouches.
Wedge Pillow…  WHAT A JOKE. $100+ FOR A TRIANGLE SHAPE PILLOW..   Never used it (My girl friend and I found other uses for it)
Lace less shoes…   Never needed it.. Foot doesn’t swell, put laces in shoe, then push your feet in like sleepers.

THINGS NEEDED.

Crouches
Cane
Shoe Horn,  long one if you can find them.
Sock Helper,  Get molded kind. looks cheap, but it does work. I was a little surprised.
Shower mat

For PT exercises, ankle weights, roller, exercise tubes.

SHOWER..

Didn’t take one for about 10 days. Spent 5 days in hospital.  The day I got my staples out, I took a shower.  You will be strong enough to get in and out of the shower on your own by 10 days.  Good leg in first, use wall or top of toilet for balance if needed, bad leg in next.   Getting out was the opposite.  The hospital will teach you this stuff any ways. It really wasn’t a big deal.

June 23, 2012

I was told in 6 months, and 2 weeks ago during my walk I did a little pitty pat jog up a steep path. Then the week after, near the end of my walk on the same path, I jogged up the hill and walked down 3 times…. A couple days ago, at the same hill I jogged up and walked down 5 times and the last time I didn’t want to stop so I jogged home with a BIIIIIGGGG smile on my face.. It will be 4 months next Monday post op. I’m not recommending it. It was very small short strides.. The hill is a pavement bicycle path that use to take me about 5 – 7 seconds to sprint up hard. So its pretty long. I find walking up hill helped tremendously for me. Also, I walked down hill. For some reason, it feels like my hip muscles used to go down are weaker then the ones pulling me up.. It works different muscles going down then going up.

September 24, 2012

About 4 months post – op i was able to jog about 2 miles. In 5 months I was doing up to 4 miles. I’m at my 7 month and very confused. My miles are reducing. The first time I only made it for 3 miles and had to stop I didn’t think to much, but now its a struggle to even finish 2 miles. It feels like a combination of tight IT band and weak abductors. The muscles around the scar and glutes are extremely tight and sore after.

I stopped doing the physio exercise about 3 months ago, because I thought , if I could run, it would be enough to strengthen the hip. Can I be wrong? Can my hip gradually get weak again from running and normal gym workouts using leg press, etc?

I’m going to go back to the bridges, 1 leg squats, leg lifts, etc to see if it makes a difference.