Welp, I think I overdid it

Yupp, I definitely have overdone things. I always do this post op and always pay for it. Yesterday and the day before I felt pretty good. I did all of my exercises and made great progress. Now today, every time I move my hip angrily protests. Ah well, this is a normal occurence post op, although it stinks to have to do it.

My body is desperatly protesting being on crutches. My shoulders are not happy. They are all clicky and painful. I know that my shoulders can dislocate very easily and I have to be careful, but I am pretty sure that I have some sort of rotator cuff tear on both sides. I test positive with the physical diagnostic tests. Normally my shoulders don't interfere with my daily life, but now that I use my arms to help walk they are very angry. I have troubles combing my hair and grabbing things out to the side. It is a bit worrisome since they are so sore, but I assume they will settle down once I get off these crutches.

Impressive Efficiency

Yesterday was an extremely busy day. I am not complaining about that either as it was welcomed after being cooped up in my living room, only leaving for physiotherapy. Mentioning physiotherapy, I had a session yesterday and he was very adament that I let the doctor know that I still had an infection in my incision. Yes, I don't seem to be able to shake this thing, although it is getting better. So, I called to see if I could still do all of the exercises I had been doing since it was infected. This started a rapid cascade of events which ultimately led to a trip to the clinic and new antibiotics. I digress though. After I called and left a message, it was 15 minutes before they had called back, I had emailed them a picture of my hip, they showed the picture to the doctor, called back and made sure that either I go to a clinic that day and get some Bactrim or they would call in a script to a pharmacy near me.

I still can't get over this efficiency. In a quarter of an hour I had had my hip looked at by a doctor more than 2000 km away from me and figured out what to do about it. Impressive to say this least. This is in stark contrast to what would happen here at home. Basically, after surgery you are left hanging. Literally, after my previous surgeries I was told, weight bear as tolerated and good luck, see you in 6 weeks (where they always told me that is was too early to tell anything regarding the surgery). Not that the surgeons didn't care, but they simply are too over-worked and too busy to go the extra mile to ensure that every single concern of my was met. To email a picture of my hip to the surgeon to have him take a look at it is unfathomable, let alone to do it within 15 minutes! It is just not heard of here. Having this prompt care ultimately enhances my trust in my current surgeon and helps me believe that this may be the end of my hip struggles for several years.

Lacking all stitches!!!!

Today I got the remaining stitches out of my hip. I am thrilled to have those whiskers removed. Now I can wear tighter pants (provided my pooch of swelling in hip/buttocks fits). There will be no jeans yet, but I am thinking that maybe yoga pants that can stretch to accomodate the swelling may work.

I am convinced that I hate getting stitches removed. I almost passed out from the pain today! I tried to play it cool, but when I started to profusely sweat from the pain, we decided that it would be better if I lie down (I was originally seated while the doctor took the stitches out). I hated being like this, but my goodness it hurt. He had a very difficult time getting the stitches out since they went so deep. He said that he had never seen stitches on the skin go that deeply. I guess it is good that they kept so much tissue in place post-op, but, compared to all of my previous surgeries, these hurt the most. I now have stabbing pains into my hip every time I move. Not cool. I'll prolly have to re-take some more Tylenol.

I have checked into going to a pool to get some aqua rehab into my schedule since both the PT in CO and my PT at home both are on my case. I really don't like swimming at all, but I am going to do it since it will be good for my hip. I need to do everything correct and follow my surgeon's protocol to a T since I am tired of having surgery after surgery. I was going to go this evening, but now that the doctor had to literally cut my skin to get the stitches out, I don't think that it would be smart to go swiming with small cuts all over my hip. So, it will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day. Also given the fact that things are pretty painful now, the extra movement probably won't be well tolerated.

As of now, no more stitches. No more narcotics. And...I am now 50% weight bearing (I increase to full weight bearing next week...I have a loooooong way to come before I'll be able to weight bear on this hip, but slow and steady wins the race).

Happy hip thoughts to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Narcotics

These past two nights are the first consecutive nights during which I did not take any pain killers. I am happy since this means that things are slowly but surely improving. Although I did take a muscle relaxant both nights, I still didn't have to take the heavy stuff. Come to think of it though, the muscle relaxants are probably not the best thing for me to take since everything is so loose to begin with. hmm...

There are certainly many ups and downs when it comes to recovering from surgery. It is incredible how one day I can do my exercises and feel great and the next day I don't feel so great and I have trouble doing anything. I think it is so important to be patient and not get discouraged. I've been battling this over the last week. Some days are great and I think 'wow, I am going to get better' while other days (well, most days right now) I feel much worse than pre-op and can't really feel any difference. To say that I can't feel any difference is a lie since I do believe the deep aching groin pain is gone (which has nicely been showing up on my other side, I know just due to compensation, but this also worries me since I have also had it debrided). But it really is too early to tell at just over two weeks. I just can't help being paranoid about the success of the surgery though. Being that this is the third surgery on this side I hope it is understandable.

As far as physiotherapy goes, I am trying to do everything in the protocol given to me. It is pretty intense and I do manage to do almost all of it every single day. The thing is that it is very difficult for me to keep up with the progression as outlined in the protocol. I know that this doc really knows what he is doing, but I find it hard to imagine that I could keep up and rehab the same as somebody with a surgery that included substantially less work done in and around the hip and I am expected to follow the same protocol; exhausting. I certainly am doing everything as of this point in the protocol. I just have to find a pool because apparently the aqua-rehab program is also very beneficial in rehabilitation. Problem is, I dislike swimming. But, as per my physiotherapist here (and in CO), I will look into gaining access to a pool where I can get my swim on and rehab even more. I swear this PT is becoming my full-time job!

I don't do puss

Really. I don't. Purulent discharge is one of the most stomach-churning things for me. I just don't do it. Today I had to get the one stitch removed from where the graft was taken from my IT band and, unfortunately, it is horrendously infected. I had no idea. I had steri-strips on the incision and there was no oozing whatsoever. As the doctor took off the steri-strips my incision area ripped open, and, it was green. I really thought that I could have taken this stitch out myself since I am a medical student, but there was just no way. She initially thought that she couldn't even get the one reinforcing stitch out because of the infection. But, she managed to wiggle the stitch loose and pull it out. It....hurt...so...much...:( Getting stitches out really doesn't bother me, but this was horrendous. In any event, she cleaned it out, and put a dressing on it and sent me on my merry way. I have to keep an eye on it, if it doesn't start to granulate in or if it is still oozing in a couple of days, I have to go back. I just so happen to start my doxycycline tomorrow (for cartilage formation); so we'll be using the antibiotic effects as well now.

I haven't ridden the bike yet today and I am very hesitant as I am afraid that the open wound on my hip will rip open. I am extra afraid since the entire area is numb and there would be no way for me to know that I had done so. Maybe I'll take it easy today? I dunno. This stinks (not literally, thank goodness). I have a picture, but I'll spare the gruesomeness.

Also, I can't sleep! I sit around worrying about my future and just lie awake. I think it is a combination of that the fact that I am researching for programs in which to do residency as well as the fact that I simply can't get comfortable. This coupled with the fact that I really want to completely eliminate my narcotics sends me into an insomniac state. Not cool.

So, I have four more stitches left in my hip which will be there for 1 more week and then I'll officially be stitchless! woot woot.

What has my body done?

I was riding the bike today during my routine ride when I thought to myself, 'holy cow! how have things changed for me.' Seriously. Today I was trying to do this:



But I could not put that much weight through my hip. I realize that I am shy of two weeks post op, but it is terribly sad to think that 5.5 years ago I was doing triple jumps on the ice and running 5 km road races under 25 minutes. Absolutely insane what a couple of years full of surgeries can do to one's body. I know that I will never get to skate or run again. But one thing I do know, is that I am going to make the best of the body I am given. I will get my hips feeling the best they can and deal with the other aches and pains as best I can.

I now have a LOT more time on my hands since I am off school for a while, and I have really noticed my hypermobility. I really notice this as I have to scoot on the bed/couch with my upper body while somebody moves my leg to get situated in place (only a couple more days of complete hip flexor rest for me!). I fear that I am going to dislocate both shoulders and clavicle every time I move. Also, when I get help to go from sitting to standing I fear my wrist is going to pop out. UGH. Frankly, it scares me. I hope that everything holds up considering how much abnormal movement I have in my knees, shoulders, wrists, etc. etc. ;(

Nerve Pain

My swelling and bruising are dissipating nicely. I am extremely happy at how the bruising is decreasing. I have been going to PT every single day and we have been taping it up in a web-like pattern and it really has cleared up the bruising well. =)

I could, though, do without the nerve pain. My femoral nerve and lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) are EXTREMELY irritated. The LFCN's area of hypersensitivity and pain has quadrupled to what it was pre-op. Since my last surgery I have had an area about the size of a deck of cards on my lateral thigh that was hypersensitive and paresthesias. Sometimes I used to think that my cell phone was buzzing in my front pocket! But now it is a huge area that is so sensitive, anything that touches it makes me cringe. Even light touch with fingertips (during effleurage sessions) makes me have to hold my breath. Also, the femoral nerve irritation has led to an empty-end pain in my rectus femoris. I can't wait for the nerve to heal up (fingers crossed this occurs sooner rather than later)

I am feeling much better than this past weekend though. Saturday was a wreck. (I even had a meltdown) But today, I rode the bike for 40 min and only had minimal pain at the beginning of my cycling session. My knee flexion doubled from Saturday! (both the PT and I are ecstatic about this). Overall, I am heading in the right direction. I can't wait to test out my hip once my ROM restrictions are lifted.