Weeks 2 to 5 Post Op

Really week 2 to week 5 were pretty much of a muchness. I find it difficult to think back and separate them. For week 2 and 3 I stayed on 500mg paracetomol and 60mg codeine 4 times a day. The pain was ok, no more than a 3 or 4 out of 10. My back felt great, sitting around for 5 weeks  in the past would surely have sent it into spasm. There was the expected post op surgical pain, but my pain killers kept it pretty well under control. My hand hurt the most, from using the crutches! I ended up a padding them out with soffban dressings and tennis racket grip over the top.

There was a set of rules to follow for weeks 1 - 6:

 

1) Toe Touch Weight Baring only on op leg

2) Hip movements allowed.
Hip flex passively to 70 deg.
Hip abduction to 30 deg
Hip extension to neutral (ie. Lying supine or prone)

3) Hip movements to be avoided
Hip Adduction beyond neutral so no crossing ankles
Any active hip flexion or abduction.
Avoid powering up hip abductors.

My husband did the following passive exercises for me twice day.

1) Passive adduction, not more that 30degrees - 10 times

2) passive flexion, not more that 70 degrss - 10 times

These two exercises are important to maintain motion between the hip capsule and labrum (well, what bit I have left!) and to avoid adhesions forming 

I did the following exercise 3 times a day:

1) static quad sets x 10

2) static glute sets x 10

3) ankle pumps

4) ankle rotations

5) Some Pilates exercises for my other leg, like single leg raise, flexion , adduction

The first 6 weeks after this surgery there are a lot of restrictions. You are not allowed to flex your hip beyond 90degrees at all, so it's important that all chairs you use allow you to stick to this rule. It also means a raised toilet seat is required. I was glad of mine, and I also had a shower stool and perching stool for sitting at the sink. I wasn't able to get in out shower for the first 3 weeks. I just felt unsafe getting in, even with my husband there to help, so I stuck to washing at the sink sitting on my perching stool. Washing my hair wasn't easy and was a right old rigmarole, so I only washed it once a week, leaning back over the sink as far as I could for my husband to wash it for me. I used dry shampoo in between.

Daily life 

I spent the days alternating between sitting in my armchair with either with my feet up on the foot stool or flat on floor, lying on the downstairs bed or sitting at the table doing a jigsaw puzzle. obviously following surgery like this there is a risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis. My surgeons protocol for avoiding this is 150mg aspirin once day, TED stockings and doing the ankle pump exercises regularly. I was glad that the DVT injections I had in my tummy in hospital didn't have to carry on, they were quite sore, like a bee sting.

Getting about at home

It was really a pretty boring 5 weeks, I could do very little for myself. I mean, I could wash and dress myself - with the use of a grabber/helping hand and the a long handled shoe horn with a hook on the end. But beyond that, the fact that I was on two crutches meant I had no free hands  to do anything!(a back pack came in handy for carrying things between rooms, even flasks of tea or noodles/soup for lunch!) Also, with the toe touch weight baring only, getting around was really hard work. My non op hip would burn if I was on it to long, especially standing still making lunch or standing at the sink, I would almost feel like it would give way if I didn't get  to a chair quickly. The stairs were really hard work, going up was the worst and seemed to take for ever going one at a time and taking a break after 2 or 3! to start with I only came down in the morning and up at night, I couldn't have gone up and down more times than that. By week 4 though, I could do a it a couple of extra times during the day but it was still hard work.

Going to bed

Going to bed seemed to take ages, I would generally go and get myself into my PJ's in the downstairs bathroom at 8pm. At 9pm I would collect together my ipad, phone, book, pills etc in my backpack then climb the stairs one by one to bed. Then my husband would do my passive exercises and change my TED stockings. Then I would do my active exercises. whilst Paul came back downstairs and let the dog out, gave her her super, locked the house up and washed my TED stockings by hand ready for the next night (I only had 2 pairs). It doesn't sound like that much, but the same thing night after night seemed like ground hog day and Paul was knackered by the time he got into bed.  

I was  not allowed to actively abduct or lift my leg, so if I needed to move my leg onto the sofa, foot stool or into the car, I had to have someone do it for me or use a dog lead to hook around my foot and lift it.

Going Out

I didn't go out much in the first 5 weeks, we had borrowed a wheel chair as walking far on 2 crutches was just to painful on my non op hip and shoulders. So my husband wheeled me along the sea wall a couple of times, and down to the farm where we keep our elderly pony. We also went up to see my horse 3 times, taking the chair so I could sit and watch him groom him. Charlie was very good with me in the  wheel chair, he wasn't to keen on my crutches. There was a brief trip out to the GP practice to the see the nurse  at 2 weeks post op and have my dressing removed. The wound looked great, it had been sealed only with glue and looked no more than a nasty cat scratch really.

My Scar 12 days post op (Dressing removal)

 

Sleep

From weeks 1-6 I was only allowed (and able) to sleep on my back and this was one of things I found hardest about recovery. I found it very hard to sleep on my back and often be awake until 3am watching TV or reading. The first 2 nights were  very sore on my lower back and my nurse friend suggested sleeping on the sheepskin rug that we have. It was fantastic. It eased the pressure of my lower back and slept on it every night for 5 weeks. I also had a back rest on its lowest setting angle and my leg on a pillow. And that's how I slept for 5 weeks. 5 very  long weeks! The one thing that made it bearable was my Pie Cat sleeping on my chest/tummy EVERY night without fail. She was good company, and of course, you cant beat the healing power of being sat upon by a cat!

The Healing Power of Being sat upon by the cat!
 

 

Physio

At the start of week 4 I went to see my physiotherapist Donna. She was very excited to so me and it was lovely to see her. 18 moths after hse first suspected FAI we finally at the post op stage! My husband came in and we all had a good chat about things and then showed she him a couple more passive exercise that he could do for and also about massaging around the scar area. The area around the scar was rock solid, it felt like solid tea-plate was under the skin. She said that we needed get this tissue moving to stop adhereing together and forming to much sacr tissue.

So weeks 4-5 we added in the extra passive exercises as well as my static quads & glute sets and also the bio oil massage, along with the continued TED socks changes, this made the task of going to bed even longer. It felt like those weeks were never ending. During week 5 I emailed my surgeon to ak if I  could stop wearing the TED socks and said yes. So that was a bit a relief for me and Paul, one less thing to fight!