Walking at 6mths post-op

If you're looking for the videos, well they've gone cos I can't stand seeing them! If you never saw them, let's just say that I walk like a heavily pregnant lady waddling at high speed, but without the bump..... It's going I tell you, that limp is bloody well going!!

The Bionic Traveller

I've decided to keep another blog about my travel adventures with my shiny new hip over at http://bionictraveller.blogspot.com/

In October I'm off with friends to New England and I'm getting pretty excited now as it's the first holiday I've had in a year! Last year I took 7 trips out of the UK and a couple others up to Scotland.....so you can understand my excitement!!

The last year has been an eventful one nonetheless mind. It's been almost a year since I took myself off to my GP to ask for a referral to my orthopod. Who'd have known that a year later I'd be seeing my orthopod for my 6 mth check-up.... 6 mths post-op! I went from having a moderate amount of pain, to hideous pain, to unlivable pain....to NO PAIN! It's been quite the journey all by itself. My hip journey is here for life I know, but let's include some other good schnizel ;o)

Let's talk about Sox....

We're doing it everyday! ;o)

Well, everyday since about 3.5-4mths post-op. Minus putter-onner you understand. But today, nearly 6mths post-op I put on my socks the way I used to, knee up to chest rather than ankle over other knee. I have been trying to do it for about a month now and not quite able to hook sock over foot with my knee up to chest. It means my ROM is increasing, yey!

It's the little achievements.... Today, putting socks on normally, tomorrow hiking up Kilimanjaro!! No, seriously....

Major Frustrations

I was going to write last week, that's how frustrated I felt about it all!

It's taken me nearly a week to shake myself out of a major hippy frustration. Even my lovely physio couldn't say anything to help! I wasn't being mardy, just fed-up-cannot-be-arsed-when-am-I-gonna-walk-properly bleurgh. If there was a pram, the dummy would have been chucked.

I've obviously reached that point. You know 'that point', where you're training for a marathon, writing a thesis, or re-learning to walk (as you do; 3 times over in my case to date) .... and you hit that brick wall, or worse, you think you're going backwards! As Homer Simpson said "Everytime I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain" and it appears to be the same with my ass!! The more I work on it, the less it functions lol

All my muscles ached with the exercise and I think I irritated a tendon which was making the scar tender. All in all, I was officially frustrated. My physio was really nice and he was trying to tell me that I'd improved, I was hearing the words and smiling, but not feeling it. He's given me some new exercises to do and I'm a little happier about that - bit more variety.

This week has been much better, I can actually feel the muscles getting stronger. I still limp. I am not in pain, which honestly, I'd rather limp than be in pain anyday. I think it would be really hard for anyone to expect me to be 100% frustration-free with this situation.

I'll be seeing Mr.O next week too, hopefully it'll be just as unremarkable as last time! :o)))

Backwards?

Saw my physio today and whilst he said some of the exercises I've been doing have improved, I still need to work hard on the same ones, no new ones added to the regime - and I've to start seeing him every 2 weeks, not 3-4! I'm confused. Usually, one gets better at exercises and the time between appointments increases....

I'm sure it's not because I've plateaued on the exercise-front. I'm sure it'll become apparent, I have enough to worry about. I did have a bit of a blip at the weekend. I must have overdone stuff (although, it was only sightseeing and out on the town saturday night? not exactly hard-core work out) and it was painful to walk on sunday. It resolved itself by tues so couldn't have been anything more than a pulled muscle. I suppose after the failed osteotomy I worry that the resurfacing might fail...an understandable anxiety, but something I need to work on.

I showed him the x-ray/CT pictures taken last November at my first consultation that resulted in my hip resurfacing. His eyes just about bugged out at the size of the osteophytes on the CT scan - he said "how were you able to walk! Your femoral head had collapsed and those osteophytes..". He didn't say it insensitively, he was just amazed at how much damage had occurred and I was still walking around and not in hideous pain (last august-september; by january it was a different matter, I was on one crutch by then). And that it explains all the bad unruley muscles we're working so hard on at the moment to get me walking tall again!

It was mentioned that from the next physio session we're going to start working oblique ab's....mmm

Eeeeeeee-xcited

I managed to do a pelvic bridge extension - 3 times!!!! Then I collapsed as my right butt muscles were fasiculating (shaking) lol. Last week I was working hard on just getting the foot off the ground whilst holding the bridge through my right (operated) leg....I collapsed over on one side every time just doing that. Eeeeeeee......perseverance pays off!!

I might add, it wasn't the most graceful, but hey c'mon, happy days!

I had to share.... :o)))))

Rangers & Celtic Therabands!

lol

I'm sure they don't market them that way, but having grown up in Glasgow and now in proud possession of a green (little resistance) and blue (stronger resistance, woo hoo!) physiotherapy therabands, the thought goes through your head! Maybe you have to grow up in Scotland to understand that.....tee hee. I might add that I'm not a footie fan and I don't subscribe to either team, and the strength of theraband is not predictive of club seasonal outcome!

Okay, enough silly's! Physiotherapy is going well (note the increase from green to blue theraband) :o)

This is never going to sound right whichever way you try to say it, so - my arse is looking so much better! lol My gluteus maximus that is, is bulking out quite nicely. I had lost a lot of muscle there on the right side that I don't think I even got back after the osteotomy. It, and the lack of core strength, is the root cause of my 'hippy limp'. So in addition to eliminating the limp, my arse is not so lop-sided!

I love my physio, he's quite good fun and is very good at targetting specific little muscle groups prior to moving onto others. I saw him on thursday and it had been 4 weeks. At the previous session I could barely do side lifts lying on my side (ankles together, pelvis stable and not rotating) and it was great going back on thursday and showing him that I can get the lift to 50% of my ROM - in a month, that's great!! I had also reached the target of 30 rep's of getting into the bridge position (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-form-the-pilates-bridge-position.html), staying there and stretching theraband that's been tied around my knees. Not small feat eh? Now, suddenly, I have to do 50 rep's (pesky physio goal-post shifter!).

A lot of the exercises I do are based on pilates, which is great cos I was an avid practicer prior to the pain stopping me doing, well anything. He's not cleared me to go back to pilates full-time though, just what we're working on. To be fair, the routine I have takes about 30-45mins a day to do, so I'm lucky to get the recommended two times a day in (between you and me, that only happens a few times a week! mostly once a day). But it's working so I'm happy. I feel SO much stronger.

I do honestly forget that this hip is bionic! I have random moments (like in Tesco) where I think "ooh, it's metal, my hip's metal!".

Right, time for physio! Now.....will it be Celtic with increased rep's, or Ranger's with decreased rep's ?! Oooh, who will the Red band be when I get there? lol