One Week Post-Op

Today marks one week since I had my left hip arthroscopy with osteochondroplasty and labral debridement/repair. What a feat! And, today was my best day yet. I am so happy to know that I am not stuck in a fog of pain forever :) I only joke, because I actually know that it is not forever; no pain, no gain.

I had my first physiotherapy appointment today. She did an assessment (ie asked questions, read the physiotherapy referral from the surgeon, etc.), tested my ROM, did some myofascial release on my calf, and then I received an inferential treatment (which did wonders!). She is extremely thorough and I totally trust her. This makes recovering a lot better when you trust your physiotherapist. She is up to date in everything and very well-known in the area. Heck, she even is the personal physiotherapist of Olympic champions! (cool, eh?)

As far as my ROM, I have approximately 70* of flexion, 35* of aBduction, almost normal aDduction, and zero degrees of internal rotation (go figure, since I barely had any before the surgery). We didn't test extension since I was already lying down on the exam table and it would be too much work to help me off the table to test this rotation, and get me back on the table. Yeah, it is great needing somebody to lift your legs onto and off the table. Honestly, I tell my muscles to move my leg but the musculature is just too weak and cannot move my limb. I can't wait to build enough strength up to be able to lift my foot up. Going through this recovery process really puts things into perspective.

So, I have a bunch of exercises to do every day to ensure that I keep moving the hip and to get stronger. Some of the stuff I was given there is no way that I can do now, but we will build up. My hip flexors and quadriceps are still pretty tight and angry. But, I have to say, after my Inferential Treatment on my hip flexors, they actually are less painful. I think I might ask for this on my quadriceps (in particular that darn Vastus Lateralis) on Friday when I go back to physiotherapy. I will explain this treatment modality, but I believe this is worthy of a post on its own, and will not be today since the Oxycodone is starting to kick in.

Well, I have a lot I could write about since I did so much today. Let me remind you that when I write 'much' this is relative; meaning that it I have done more activity than simply crutching from my recliner to the bathroom and back. Nonetheless, I had a big day and I am zonked out.

Currently, this is what my lovely hip looks like:

Showering = Painful but... Pain Killers = Relief

So today I woke up and I actually could say that I felt better than the previous day. This was the first time since having my hip done that I could say I actually did not hurt as much. This was really exciting.

I am home alone in the mornings, so I basically get put into the recliner by my Dad and don't move until my Mum gets home in the early afternoon. So basically I am growing roots in the chair. But it is really nice and comfortable, so I don't mind. My computer keeps me quite busy. I managed to not take a pain pill until late afternoon, so I had the morning on a clear mind. I used this time to watch an open-brain surgery for treatment of Moyamoya on the Internet. Absolutely amazing what those neurosurgeons can do! I watched them suture a blood vessel from the scalp onto actual brain matter with sutures that were 1/3 the diameter of a hair. AMAZING!

On the hip front, I can now go to the bathroom by myself. No help needed to get on or off the toilet. My Mum helped me shower today; which really got me hurting. But it was worth getting all cleaned up. My incisions are looking really nice. I try to take pictures each day for myself (yes, I am a freak and like to have a serial photographical staging of my healing). Maybe I'll post some of them soon.

As far as pain goes, I am totally free of deep groin pain. I can't tell if the hip locks because I can't put any weight on it. All I can get onto the left leg is slight toe touch. It is better than no weight, but not enough to make me happy. The incisions really don't give me much grief. The most posterior incision is the most bruised, although it does not hurt too badly. But the most anterior incision is extremely tender and inflamed. The darn thing still oozes. The anterior portal looks like it won't heal as neatly as the other sites, but such is life. I have yellow bruising that goes from my anterior incision all the way to my pubic bone. Being so bruised and sore in such a tender area makes me very thankful for being under general anesthesia while they performed the operation.

Although the incisions are doing really well, the musculature is starting to tense up. I have slight ability to extend the leg at the hip, and aBduct the hip. But, my hip flexor strength is 1 out of 4. Which is really almost non-existent (for the non-medical folk). This means that I cannot flex my hip or extend my knee at all. They are so sore that any pressure at all really hurts. I suppose the physiotherapist will sort this out quickly.

Speaking of physiotherapy, I get to see her tomorrow morning for an assessment. I really cannot wait to start getting this hip loosened up and starting to move. I am going to be seeing the same physiotherapist that I saw after my right hip scope. So we already know we can work together. She's very blunt and doesn't take any crap, so I am sure she'll want to do something about these hip flexors so as to increase my ability to ambulate. I really hope that she'll do some myofacial release because that technique does wonders on the fascia surrounding the trauma of the surgery. **fingers crossed**

Until next time,

Me

Things that I do when I am bored...

I am fascinated with this crazy website on which you can edit pictures and make them look cool. This is a picture of some flowers I took last week (prior to surgery) and I've changed the colouring, and added text and little art snips. It took a long time, but I like it. Plus it passes time :P

Sunshine = Amazing for Incisions

This Has To Be Worth It One Day

I am kind of down since I am still extremely sore and not enjoying the crutches at the moment. I know, I should get out of the "poor me" mode, but I have been doing almost nothing since I got the surgery done. Honestly, I went from putting in 15 hour days to doing nothing but sitting on my butt! Quite a drastic change. I am desperately wanting to start some reading that I had had planned for the summer, but I am still on oxycodone so I don't even have a clear enough head to retain anything. So, I do mindless things like downloading music, going on Facebook, and watching movies. I really need to get feeling a bit better so I don't have to take narcotics, so then I'll be able to do some of the reading I had planned over my summer break. I hate sitting around feeling like I am accomplishing/learning nothing.

Enough of the pity party, I'm gonna go back to downloading more music! At least my iPod will be awesome :)

Pictures

Before the operation....nice clean, scar-free hip:

All wrapped up when I came home:

Four small incisions:

Survived my 2nd Hip Arthroscopy

I have survived my second, and hopefully final, hip arthroscopy. I had my surgery on June 2nd and now, three days later, am well enough to type coherently. The surgery went smoothly, with all guidewires remaining intact. The surgeon removed 10% of the labrum on the left hip, and saved another 10% that was torn (I will check if this means he reattached it with anchors at my post-op appointment). The impinging bump on my femoral head was much larger than he had anticipated and it took quite a long time to shave off all the extra bone, but he managed to get all of the impinging bone and now I have a hip without a frayed labrum and no extra bone. Yahoo!

I was at the hospital at 6:30AM and got changed into a gown. They started an IV (which caused the nurses grief since I had high blood pressure - due to being nervous- and there was so much back flow from the IV port that it bled everywhere. Also, right before surgery, I had to fill out a 25 page questionnaire because my surgeon is doing a study on hip arthroscopy success. To make things more complicated, my school's clinic didn't send the blood work results to my surgeon, so I had to have blood tests and an AP pelvis and lateral hip and chest xray before I could go into surgery. Talk about having many things jammed right before surgery. It was hectic but it worked to keep my mind off of the fact that they were going to cut into my hip in a short while.

Right before I got taken to the OR one of the pre-op nurses showed me how to cut the disposable panties and obstetrics pad because, yes, I thought that it would be convenient to start my period the morning of my surgery. That had to be the worst time to start my period ever. They said that women my age often get their period the day of due to stress...apparently it happens all the time.

Well, after I was all padded up :P they took me to the OR. It was stressful crawling onto that OR table with the large diameter perineal post at my feet with traction boots sticking out of the bottom of the operating table. All I can say is thank goodness I was asleep when they slid me down the table, shoved the post between my legs, and strapped my feet into the boots! Again, one of the scrubbed people reminded everybody that I had on the disposable panties and they would be removed at a later time. Talk about everybody knowing it was your special time of the month! Ugh.

They put me to sleep very nicely this time. I got oxygen and a drug that made me feel drunk. Then they said that they were going to take care of me the entire time and then poof! I was in recovery.

The drugs really affect me. The anesthetic gives me the horrible shakes. I was dizzy for much of the first day. This surgery was much better than the first scope I had on my right hip. I have four small scope incision with (supposedly dissolvable) stitches. The scope sites were extremely well reinforced with bandages because they wouldn't stop squirting out blood/arthroscopy fluid at the hospital - yeah that was great getting up to go to the washroom and having fluid squirt out of my hip...not! Anywho, I got home fine and have basically slept the past three days. I can't take the full pain medication dosage that was prescribed because I it affects me too much. But I manage to keep it under control with oxycodone (short term and long term release), and Ibuprofen. I am also taking Celebrex and ASA. I hate being doped up all of the time! Today, I haven't taken any oxycodone during the day, I have managed with taking 2 extra strength acetaminophen tablets. I am throbbing considerably more, but I have a clear head; so it is worth it. I will resort to my oxycodone this evening.

Today my Mum helped me shower. It was almost a humiliating experience, having somebody literally holding me up in the shower, but it was totally worth it to have clean hair and body. Just have to get some help shaving the legs tomorrow....maybe even get my toe nails painted!! (I can't stand the look of plain toe nails.....waaaay to boring for me...lol!!)

I took off the dressings today as well. I will post pictures on a separate post since this post is getting a bit lengthy as it is. Warning that the pictures are graphic, so don't look if you don't want. I won't put them all up, but maybe just the cleaned up pictures. I can put up more if I decide or if somebody wants to see more.