A few notes on physiotherapy

"What do you expect to achieve through physiotherapy?"

"I want to improve muscle tone to help improve and maintain stability around the joint". I don't expect physiotherapy to eliminate my pain. I hope that I can ease a little pain though! But honestly, when it's as bad as this, physio very often aggrevates and enangers the joint. My physio goes by the principle that you 'work to tiredness' not to pain. Most of the time this does work, but psychologically you feel like some weakling who can only repeat 3 times and has to stop as if she ran a marathon. Oh well, that's between me and the physio ;o)

I want to keep my muscles as strong as I can get them (we're not talking olympic status here!) in case I do have to have some form of surgery in the future - could be next year, could be 10 years, who knows. Hip sugery will significantly reduce your mobility for a short period of time and whilst your bones heal, your muscles waste. But, muscle has a form of 'memory'. The better the tone they had prior to any surgery, the faster they bounce back afterwards with exercise.

Sometimes its hard to commit to the exercises due to tiredness or pain, but its so important to do them as instructed. I'll admit, I only ever managed to fit in 2 of the 3 times a day my physio asks of me, I'm not gonna beat myself up about that. But I make sure that when I do them, its quality not quantity.

This is out-patient physiotherapy. In-patient physiotherapy is something else altogether!

Doughnut day

Well I had the CT scan and x-rays today. Two hours down to Birmingham, half an hour in the hospital, and back home again! No waiting at the ROHB this time - turned up a little early for the scans, as requested, and they took me straight in. There was only one other person waiting. Mind you, the longest I've ever waited for an x-ray at the ROHB was 10mins, compared to 1.5hrs elsewhere! This is the NHS, not private, very impressed.

I love the CT scanner, its like a giant doughnut! This time I guaged how high up the bed goes though to get you through the centre - about 4-foot from the floor, wouldn't like to roll off the rather narrow bed you lie on!



It also dawned on me earlier that its been exactly 4yrs to the date of my TPO surgery. How odd to be back there today.

Online Chicken Soup for the painful soul

I have become acutely aware that a pain patient blog can become an uncheerful place, a place to have a moan or rant, a place that might give a false outward appearance of the persons self-esteem or confidence. But its place, by its very nature, cannot avoid the dark that pain creates - but shedding light on it by blogging or joining online communities can alleviate some of the psychological and emotional burden. Most of the time I do not think about my condition or focus too hard on the constant daily waxing and waning of pain - or I'd probably not get out of bed in the morning. Ironically, I'm a pain scientist so I do actually think about pain all day in a different context, but it has allowed me to compartmentalise what I feel into physical versus emotional.

When I was told that surgery was my only option to alleviate the progressive arthritic hip pain, and at that time I could barely walk half an hour before giving up, I spent a lot of time researching all I could on the subject. I also submerged myself in the world of online support sites - HipUniverse, SurfaceHippy, HipsRUs(UK). Some of the people on these sites gave me the most tremendous support and advice - I cannot thank them enough as it made my hospital experience and recovery a much better time. When your leg swells up to double its size post-op not many people will have thought to tell you to bring some knickers a size up from your norm to accomodate it!!

I have great respect for the people in these online support communitites that have taken the time to answer questions and provide insight to what you can expect for a variety of situations. There are far too many out there that suffer alone as they can't communicate their pain with their families and friends, either through a lack of understanding or fear for the future. It does not have to be that way.