Tuesday 15 May 2012

Muscle Repair - My Perspective

10.5 months since I had my abductors re-attached to my leg.  I'd like to say that I had wild dreams of strutting down the street in high heels by now, but I think we all knew that wasn't going to happen!  My more modest dream of just walking without my stick is yet to materialise too.  I'm still hopeful though.

I think the recovery from the muscle repair took much longer than any of us thought.  Six weeks on two crutches and then a further few weeks on one crutch did nothing for my residual muscle tone (and metabolism!).  If possible, I seem to have lost a little more function as my quadriceps muscle has taken to doing EVERYTHING and now I can't stop it from taking over.  After 10.5 months I cannot lift my operated leg from a lying position and I was just able to do so prior to the muscle repair.  So.... I don't know what happened there?

The way I see it, right now, I am no better or worse than I was prior to the muscle repair surgery.  I'm hoping that in time, with continuous exercise, something might improve.  I've already accepted my stick as one cool accessory (I can get the last packet of pasta from the back of the massive supermarket shelves with that bad boy lol!).  My funky walk is something else - I'm disappointed that it doesn't seem to be evening out, but as long as I don't catch my reflection in a window or mirror, I'm mainly okay with it.

Anyways, as is becoming my mantra - I am still in NO PAIN.  That I am so so thankful for!

I have heard that some muscle repair surgeries can actually induce pain in the muscle due to scar tissue formation.  I either have massive nerve damage and just can't feel it (possible considering my (in)ability to notice how far advanced my osteoarthritis was?) or the repair did go well and scarring was minimal.  I'm going to go with the latter, psychologically more optimistic... ;o)

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