Coming off Crutches

So I have been hesitant to write an update these past few weeks because coming off crutches for me has been extremely difficult.  I have never had such issues getting off crutches with all of my scopes, but I have to keep reminding myself that this surgery is nothing like a scope surgery.  I have yet to be able to see my surgeon for a follow up because of life events as well as the weather (norther Michigan in the winter, not fun).  But hopefully in April that will happen.  I thought that my strength would easily come back to my hip within a week or so of walking with just one crutch, but it has taken about 3 weeks of walking with one crutch to finally get to a point where I can walk without any aid around the house.  Outside of the house I am still using one crutch though.  It does not help that with spring on its way, everything outside is a sheet of ice.  I cannot wait for summer though.  Swimming and walking I think will help improve my overall demeanor and spirits.

I am still participating in PT, although I am only doing about 2 times a week.  Its been very helpful though in making me feel like I can start doing things.  I was able to pick up our apartment and do some household chores that I had not previously been able to, so there is definitely improvement in my everyday life.  I still am struggling with pain and limited ROM though.  I get intense pain very deep in my glutes as well as my knee, which constantly feels swollen and stiff with acute pain that wakes me up most nights.  I also have intense hip flexor pain and still cannot lift my leg up without intense pain in the front of my hip.  The combination of these things has been very frustrating for me and I feel like its holding be back from a 'normal' recovery.  I still have the lingering issue of my femoral anteversion which I think is playing a large part in my knee pain and hip flexor pain.  I expect at my next appointment for Dr. Buly to talk about femoral osteotomy surgery, which is a big bummer considering this was suppose to be the end of the right hip surgeries.  But I also knew that this was a possibility, so I just have to keep moving forward.

The nice part about moving back "home" to be with family is that my husband and I have a lot of support to help me get to and from PT, doctor appointments and also help provide me with some entertainment at times.  On Friday I got to attend a talent show that my younger sisters school was hosting and tomorrow is my Grandpa's birthday so we are all getting together for dinner.  I don't think that I could have done this surgery without having moved back home, as hard as it was, I am very thankful for all of the help and support that me and my husband have here.

So I guess overall, not much of an update.  Things keep plugging along.  It seems that within the next week or so I should be able to get off crutches completely, which its certainly about time, seeing as this week I am 4 and a half months post op!!  I thought that at this point I would be much further along in my recovery, but all I can do is take things one day at a time and hope that spring is right around the corner :)

6 Weeks post op PAO

Hey Everyone, so this past Thursday I was 6 weeks post op.  It seems crazy that its been that long, but here was are!  Excuse me if this post is cynical, after 4 right hip surgeries and 6 weeks on crutches. my ability to stay positive all the time is waning a bit.  So, not much has changed in the past 2 weeks, I still have a good amount of pain, still taking pain meds regularly.  I got to stop taking my asprin for blood clots though, so thats good, one less thing to take.  I had an unplanned hiatus from PT because of the holidays and one day I was not feeling well, so it was about 2 weeks between appointments.  On Friday though I had a reevaluation and it made me realize that there are some things that have gotten a lot better since surgery.  On Tuesday I get to start in the pool. which I am super excited about!  I think that it will really help me with my confidence about getting off crutches.  I am not suppose to get off crutches until I am cleared by x-ray, which should happen later this week.  I am nervous about it though cause most of the time my leg does not feel ready to take on more weight as of yet, so I guess we will see what the xray says.  This is all so different than my scopes, but because bones were broken this time, obviously we have to make sure they are healed before adding weight.  It seems like by 12 weeks most people are off crutches so I am about halfway there!!  As much as I want to just be done with the crutches,. I know that my hip is just not ready yet.  I have been able to lay on my operated side again, which feels soooo good.  I am a side sleeper so this has made my nights much more bearable.

My left hip has been acting up more and more though which is frustrating.  I know that eventually I will need surgery to fix the impingement and labral tear, but its so hard to imagine needing more surgery at this point.  My other fear though it that this PAO has opened up the proverbial 'can of worms' regarding my malalignment issues and that eventually I will need a femoral osteotomy and a possible tibial osteotomy before things will be correct.  But at the same time, worrying about these things will do no good, so I just keep trying to concentrate on whats in front of me.  I hope that this PAO at least gives me the opportunity to start working again.  I miss it greatly.

So later this week I will know a little more about my weight bearing status.  On the personal front, my husband and I have moved into our new apartment in our home town (about 8 hours from where we were living).  I am enjoying having a smaller space to get around and clean!  We went from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment!  As much as I loved our house up north, trying to clean and do housework in such a large place was just awful on my hips.  Its odd how these hips have effected so much of my life.  I am enjoying being close to my family though (yet not living with them haha).

Two Weeks post op

Hey Everyone!

So in a few hours I will be 2 weeks post op.  It seems odd that I am so far out from surgery in some ways as I am still stiff and sore, but in other ways I see how much I have improved.  The two days I was in the hospital I could barley push myself upright!  Now, I move in and out of bed pretty well, I can lay on my non-operated side for a bit as well as my stomach.  It feels sooo good to be able to move around a little bit.  I had my first physical therapy appointment yesterday and that went well.  The PT just covered basic stuff like ROM, health questions, etc. and then gave me some isometric exercises to do.

Other than PT, I do not do much.  I do the basic after surgery, at home alone, protocol, which is watching Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond (who does not love the classic sitcoms!), as well as some reading and keeping people updated on my surgery.  So far the pain is not too bad, although the last day or so has been worse than normal, but even these 'bad' times are manageable.  I got my surgery report and I got 5 screws put in.  Dr. Buly was able to change my anterior central edge (CE) angle from 11 degrees (normal is 25-40 degrees) to 37 degrees!  I was lacking a LOT of anterior coverage, so hopefully thats all fixed now.  Other than that, the surgery report did not say much other than they had a hard time getting my socket loose to move it, but after some extensive cutting, it came loose.

So I just wanted to do a quick update.  Things are going well and pain is well controlled.  I should be getting a CD with my images from the hospital soon and once I do I will post before and after pictures of my hips.  Hope everyone else is pain free and enjoying some nice winter weather (ie, snow!).

Edit:
So yesterday I got my CD from HSS with my images, so here is my post op x-ray

If its not one thing, its another!

Today is 11 weeks post op!  I am in shock how fast the time has gone.  Physical therapy is still going well even though I have not been able to attend as much as I would like.  Recently my stomach pains have become the real issue, preventing me from going to physical therapy as much as I should.  Last week I was only able to attend one day.  But during that one session we really pushed the hip hard.  I did lounges on the treadmill for 2 whole minutes!  I thought that I was going to die!  I am doing 3 sets of 10 of lounges on the ground with 2lb weights as well as side leg lifts and back leg lifts.  Its crazy how much I can do and the progress that I can feel.  But I can also still feel a lot of weakness.  My pain has been minimal for the past 3 weeks, which is really promising considering I cannot take any NSAID's.  I still have numbness along the outside of my thigh and under my knee cap.  My scars seem to be healing up well, but I can feel a lot of scar tissue underneath my outer most scar.  I have been using Vit. E oil on them and massage to break it up.

My stomach on the other hand seems to have a mind of its own.  I have been taking Prilosec now for 2 weeks at the increased does yet on Thursday I had horrible stomach pains again.  Is a combination of nausea and actual physical pain.  I am not sure if anything sets it off in particular but it usually starts in the evening after having dinner.  I have tried taking Pepto and Tums but both of those usually just make things worse.  I was in pain for about 6 hours until some pain medication I took finally kicked in.  Friday was not much better, although I was able to sleep a little more.  I had a low grade fever all day which had me worried.  I called my doctor but he was out of town and the fill in doctor only suggested that if the pain got worse I got to the walk-in or ER.  Well Friday night the pain got worse so I went to the ER.  They were not able to do much for me, they basically just suggested that I call my primary care doctor about setting up an appointment for a scope of my stomach.  They were able to prescribe some antibiotics in case it is an infection, plus some pain pills to take when the pain gets really bad.  So for the past few days I have just eaten toast and drank water because of the nausea.

So overall, the hip is feeling really good, minus some aches and pain here and there but this stomach thing has really put a damper on my progress.  On Wed. I have a follow up appointment with my doctor regarding the stomach issues so hopefully then we can come up with a game plan for the next step.

9 weeks!

So today is 9 weeks post op!  Its crazy to think about how far out from surgery I am now.  This past week I have been feeling better and better each day.  My pain has been minimal and my range of motion is better as well.  On Saturday I walked my dog with no problems and no pain (other than I slipped and fell in my driveway, luckily nothing serious!).  I am very excited about all this!  But of course when one thing is going well, something else falls apart.  I have been experiencing intense stomach pains for a few months now and on Saturday night my stomach started giving me intense stomach pains.  It was horrible.  Nothing was taking the pain away.  So today I made an appointment with my primary care physician to see if he could help me figure out what the problem was.  I had a feeling that it was an ulcer because of my high use of NSAID's for the past few years.  So today I went to see my doctor and the end result is that tomorrow at 8 am I have an appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound of my stomach area as well as blood work.  The doctor is concerned that I may have a gallstone as when he did the physical exam on me, I was really tender more toward my gallbladder than anything else.  So, worst case scenario  I need my gallbladder removed, best case scenario, I have an ulcer and will be taking lots of Prilosec!  I have had to stop all NSAID's though, which in the past few days has made my hip ache a little more and give me bad headaches.

Physical therapy has really picked thing up a lot this past week.  I started doing the elliptical, which has felt good as well as adding some 2 lb weights to some of the exercises that I had been doing that have gotten pretty easy for me.  It feels good to start strengthening things and see some progress and things get easier and easier with each physical therapy appointment.  The best part is the pain afterwards has been minimal (except in the past few days, when I have had to stop taking NSAID's).

Hope everyone else is doing well and pain free :)

EDIT (3/28/13):  So I wanted to edit this to update the results of my ultrasound and blood work.  Everything came back normal so the likely culprit of my intense stomach pains is an ulcer.  I am on Prilosec, 40 mg's for 2 weeks and then I go back to the doctor to reevaluate to see if its working.  Its really early in the morning here but I cannot sleep because of my stomach pains so I hope that this regimen of Prilosec works fast!  Most likely the ulcer is from my NSAID use all these years in dealing with the hip problems.  I was taking about 600 mg every 4-6 hours for about 2 years straight so its no wonder I developed an ulcer.  I would recommend talking to your primary care physician if you have been or will be on NSAID's for any long length of time and see if you can get one a Prilosec as preventative measures for ulcers.

8 weeks today

Sorry its been a while since I have updated my recovery.  Last week my husband and I had to go back to our home town for a week for some family things.  I was suppose to have my 6-8 week follow up with Dr. Philippon but had to cancel to be able to go home this week.  Currently my appointment got rescheduled for April 21st.  Today its 8 weeks out from surgery and I wish I could report that things are going really well, but I can't.  My hip has been really painful and sore for the last 2 weeks.  I am having increased groin pain, pinching in the front of my hip when bending, and the infamous deep ache that is relentless.  I am having a hard time walking up stairs, doing stretches that had not been a problem, and in general, a feeling of instability.  I keep getting a feeling like my femur is slipping in the socket and all my muscles and tendons are sliding around and snapping when it does this.  Its happened a few times and each time its really painful.  I am afraid to walk far as I feel like I my leg will give way.

All of these things have me really concerned but I am trying to keep a positive outlook and not assume the worst, but thats becoming harder and harder to do with each surgery that fails.  I am assuming that part of my pain is from sleeping on a pull out couch and over doing it last week while at home, plus not having any PT, but part of me keeps thinking, its 8 weeks out and I cannot go a week without PT?  My mind keeps screaming that its the femoral anteversion causing these problems, but I don't know for sure and I am trying really hard not to assume the worst.  I have PT today for the first time in a week so I will let them know of these problems and see what they say.  This is becoming harder and harder to accept that things may never be right and I will always be in pain, but I am hoping thats not the case.

Well, I wish I had a better, more optimistic outlook for this post, but maybe that will be next time.

Edit 3/20/13:  So I just wanted to edit this post quickly because I called Dr. P's physicians assistant yesterday about the pain I have been having.  He recommended that I change up the physical therapy protocol to focus more on the outer hip muscles and glutes.  He said that once your off crutches, the muscles in the front of the hip are baring the brunt of the weight load and don't really need the focus of strengthening this far out from surgery.  So I am going to start using the elliptical before PT for 10 minutes instead of the bike, focus on strengthening the side and back of the hip muscles (which I started on Monday as my PT is great and on top of this stuff), and I am going to start trying to make it to the pool 5 times a week.  Getting to the pool that often will probably be difficult, but I love to swim!  So as soon as the weather cooperates (we are getting a snow storm at the moment) I will be heading to the pool much more often.

I had a rough night sleeping last night, but mostly because of pain in my left hip.  Its becoming more and more concerning, but I really hope that with time and strengthening it will settle down.  I am also going to look into some ART massage therapy to see if it can help break up some of the scar tissue that I have.  More updates to come!