Tuesday 8 March 2011

One year

Today, exactly one year ago I had my hip resurfaced!

Today I was back at the Royal Ortho for my first yearly check-up.

Thankfully I can say that it is unremarkable news, the implant is EXACTLY where it was put one year ago. I have no pain or issues in my everyday life....in fact, life is very very good! Which is one of the reasons I haven't blogged in a couple of months.

I do still have unresolved muscle weakness in my abductors. I have been working hard in the gym and in physio to try and get my abductors to kick-in and start working properly. Without them, I'm stuck with this hippy-limp.

Last week at physio was a bit of a turning point in my treatment. My physio, who is a MSK (musculo-skeletal) physio, took me to meet some neuro physios (i.e. those that deal with people who've suffered neurological injuries or diseases that affect their muscles). The idea was to check I haven't suffered some nerve injury during the surgery that might be causing this muscle weakness and to see if they had any other exercise ideas that might trick my muscles into working correctly.

Four physios manipulating your body at once is both confusing and tiring I can tell you! For an hour and a half!!!! The short story is that everything is 'firing' correctly and as it should. But that my body has effectively forgotten how to co-ordinate it all properly. Chances are, I'm probably a long way off getting them to behave, but it should happen in time, with hard work and patience *sigh*. Somehow we're going to try and incorporate the exercises the neuro-physios did with me, which is no small feat considering it involved two other people! My physio said he's going to sort something out but to keep up my other exercises the now for the next couple of weeks. I'm curious as to how I'm going to do this.....

This was discussed today in the orthopod's office. The surgical team would like for me to have an ultrasound scan done on my leg to check that the muscle hasn't actually detached itself from the bone. Recall the nasty staples holding the abductors to the bone in the x-ray?! Yeah, ouch. Wouldn't that hurt though???? I can't say I'm in hideous discomfort any more than the average person after a session in the gym. I would have thought you'd feel something if a muscle had detached itself - that being said, I didn't feel the full whack pain of osteoarthritis at the moment of diagnosis. Mmmmm. Let's just say, I'm hoping it's not detached itself, because that would mean reattaching said muscle.....and as much as I like anaesthesia.....

Anyhoo, it's all good! Life is good! NO pain = good :o))))))

I love my hip. Can't believe that one year has gone by already!