One Year Post Op And Feeling Awesome

So here I am one year to the date of my hip surgery. This time last year I was sky high on Morphine at Duchy Hospital !

Today I have:
walked 3 dogs (one for 40mins the other 2 for 30mins each)
Mucked out a stable
Poo picked a field
filled 12 haynets
rearranged my horses electric fencing into new paddocks
groomed my elderly pony
picked out and applied hoof treatments to above pony and horse
A Pilates class.

Phew, I am a little achy but my OP hip feels wonderful. I am so so so glad I git it done. It has been a long hard year but I am in such a better place than before this surgery.

I am 4 months out form my back last  having an spasm episode (see previous post) and it is ok, I still know it has limitations but I am learning to listen to it more and pace myself.

Myleft hip continues to be troublesome and I am pretty much 90% sure I will get the same surgery done on that one next Autumn (I prefer a winter recovery). But for now I am happy to cope with it. We are off on a ski trip to France in January so I am excited to find out how my op hip will do, hopefully snow plough will be less painful on that side than last time! - am not a natural skier but love been in the mountains and pottering about on the greens and blues

So my friends I shall leave you with 3 pics of my boy Charlie Brown (one with me in!) that sum up how I feel about getting my hip fixed and getting on the path out of chronic pain. If you hear nothing more of me on here, presume I am off doing  exciting things and not thinking about my hip. I shall no doubt be back next year to discuss my surgery on my left hip, but for now, Adios, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

If you would like to contact me for any info/advice, you can email on digaden01@gmail.com I can aslo be found on the Facebook hip groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FAIhip/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/408488389227462/

First walk on the beach with my boy and his friend Harvey

The view of the old Pier from on board my boy with his
friend Harvey, This month, it was 3 hr a ride, a great achievement
for us both!



Me with my boy last month , the first time he went in the sea (he is aged 12 lol!)

8 Months Post Op For Right Open SDD, Left hip not feeling great

I can remember saying pretty early on in my recovery that things can change both mentally and physically in just a few hours. And it seems that that is still true.

Saturday 2nd August Marked my 8 month post op day. If I had written this that day, It would have been a lot shorter and more positive.  I had a pretty good weekend, though if I look back at it, I knew something was brewing.

My op hip has been really pretty good, and I am still pleased with my progress. I haven't been to the gym since the she made do heap of squats 4 weeks ago, that really hurt and I think it was just to much to soon for a person who never did squats in the first place. I have wanted to go, but time has been against me and there just haven't been enough hours in the day. I have been doing my best to go to the Tuesday evening Pilates though and am enjoying that.

I have had my horse back on DIY livery for a month and half now and it is going well, I had forgotten how much manure he produces though,, its hard work shovelling!! but they are both living out 24/7 at the moment so that makes things easier. I have been on some nice rides on the beach and up the woods with the other ladies at the yard, one ride was  an hour and half and I was pleased with how well my hip coped.

But my non op hip is really not happy today. One night last week, my spine was really tight and achy and I had diazepam and felt better the next day. Then at the weekend, my IT band on that side was on fire. Really bad and I was due to ride on Sunday afternoon in the outdoor arena with other girls from the yard. I was determined to do it and did it with a fiery IT band and felt not to bad, did some lovely cantering and trotting on Charlie Brown and felt pleased with both him and me. And then bang. This morning my left hip and lower back are HORRENDOUS, my hip feels like something is gnawing away at the joint and my lower back is in complete spasm. First thing my husband said when he saw me this evening was "you are crooked" by that he means my back is crooked laterally . That has hasn't happened to me in almost a year and certainly not since my op. I had thought it was a thing of the past. My heart fell when he said it. I know from the past that when he says that, things are bad I am not going to be right for at least 2 weeks, and work is at its busiest.

I have a feeling that this blog will now become more about my left (non op) hip as my op hip feels so good, all my pain now is focussed on the left, right just feels a bit achy from taking the strain. I know I have to take comfort in how well my op hip feels. As at least I know I am on my way out of all this. When I finally get old lefty done, I should feel great.

I came across this post in a blog that I follow and pretty much sums today up. Hit the wall and can't get over it.

http://invisibleillnessbattle.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/the-wall/

6.5 months post op. Negative FAI test. YES!

I just wanted to check in with a brief update as I have been to see my physio today (16th June) for the first time in  4 weeks. I just needed a break from it to help get back into going to the gym & Pilates, which has gone really well. 

We had a good discussion on how I feel now, and as I always like to quantify things, came up with following. 

This time last year my overall pain levels (taking both hips and lower back into account)  were 7-8 out of 10. Today they are 4-5 out 10, mainly linked to the none op hip pain. If I think about where I am on my journey to hopefully feeling 100% better, I would say I am 60-70% there. 

So those all good figures . My physio had my do the two classic hip FAI tests on my op hip. The tests that this time last year I was in immense pain from. The test that in September 2013 Mr F did not follow through with as he could tell he would be scraping me off the ceiling g if he proceed to the rotation part!  Today ZERO  on flexion plus rotation. Wow. Amazing. I never thought I would ever feel no pain with that test!   So I think that now officially means I do not have FAI in my right hip. 

6 months post op right hip open SDD

Here I am 6 months post op to the day. In many ways the 2nd of December 2013 seems like a lifetime a go, but in other it just seems like yesterday.

 

So to sum up how I feel today. I feel OK. Whilst I would be love to sitting here writing "yes everything is wonderful and I am pain free and I can do everything like a normal person. That would not be true. But I am glad I had the surgery? a catorgoric YES!

 

I think it would be foolish to think that this FAI surgery would cure me of pain completely, especially when I know I have on going pathology in both my left hip and my lower back. BUT what this surgery does seem to be enabling me to do is use my muscles (in particular the glute ones) in a more correct way which in turn is strengthening my back.

 

I am able to do all things that I wanted to do. I am riding my horse for up to  an 40mins in walk, trot and canter. I am walking 4-5 miles a day. I am caring for all my animals , including our elderly pony in two weeks time I shall have my "big" horse Charlie Brown back on DIY livery at the farm. (he has been on full livery for 18 months as I could not care for him). I can do the garden (remembering to pace myself and switch activity often). I can go shopping with other people and not feel like a complete misery.  I am going to the gym two mornings a week and Pilates once a week.

 

Whilst the exercises I am doing  still seem quite basic compared to what I see other people doing at the gym, I do find them challenging , so I am happy that they are right for me. Just some of the exercises my gym instructor has me doing on a circuit type programme:

 

START warm at walk on treadmill, 4mph, gradient of 3 for 10 mins

FLOOR exercise: Clam Shells, side leg raises, sit up using the half balance ball type thing

STANDING Exercises : side walk with resistance band around ankles , and floor raises with band (hard to describe)

Weights for upper body

Squats, stilling using a bench to sit up and down from (when she first had me doing this, I literally could not do it without help. But I can now!)

END: warm down 5 mins on cross trainer (the first time I got on this I could not push the pedals fast enough to make the screen stop saying "sessions paused!")

 

I enjoy the Pilates but the one exercise that really bugs me is sitting from a lying down position, I just cannot do it, whilst other around me can.

 

With all this activity and exercise my op leg does get tired before the rest of me. I quite often have sore flexors, occasional tight IT band and also some groin pain but I can always put it down to what I did the previous day. No pain no gain!

 

My other hip gets quite pinchy and achy in the groin and it is interesting to feel how different the groin pain is in each hip. I deffinatly feel that my op hip is now taking some pressure of the other hip, which is great.

 

My back feels very achy a lot of the time but I have  lost the feeling of it being "about to go" , which I felt it was in a permanent sate of in the 6 months prior to the surgery. I find I am still taking paracetmol and codeine for my back and other hip.

 

I am very aware of my screws in my trochanter giving me some pain and discomfort in that area at night as I really like to lie on that side, I also find a lot of the side lying gym exercises difficult because of them and have to modify my position. A lady on our Open SDD face book page had her screws taken out at the same time as having the other hip done so I hope that I will be able to do likewise, but for now I can manage with them.

 

So there you go, I hope this comes across positive as I am happy with how I am doing and I am happy that I had the surgery. I shall check in again at 8 months post op. Thanks for reading.

Me and My Boy at 6 months post op.

                  

5 months post open surgical disclocation/debridment surgery for FAI

It is Sunday 11^th May 2014 I am now 5 months post op. On the whole I am doing well. I would say I am back to pretty much normal ROM with my op leg. Generally it is pain free. The area where the screw heads are located gives me pain if I  lie directly on it. Or bump into something with it. I can live with that so will not be looking at getting the screws out anytime soon. When I have my left hip done, I will have to decide if I can live with that uncomfortable feeling on both sides, so I guess I will get them taken out in the future.

My op leg continues to feel different from the other one. I can tell the muscles are still weak, the main ache being at the top, and slightly to the side of the front of my thigh. This comes on when I have done too much. There is also some pain in the joint itself, which comes and goes. It is different to the sharp stabbing groin pain I had pre op and is bearable. When it does happen, it hurts more as I take weight off that leg during walking. It can still often feel a little stiff when I stand after sitting for a while, as if the muscles need a moment to realise I have stood up. There is some occasional inner thigh and IT band pain, but again, not like pre op. All of this I can live with and presume will only continue to improve.

My back continues to be troublesome, but again, not as much as pre op. I do still get some pretty nasty SIJ pain, but I haven’t had the feeling of my lower back  about to go into spasm for a long time. Something tells me my back has its own issues to deal with. I know the disc bulge and degeneration in some of the lumbar vertebrae are there and will not go away. But my theory has always been that if my hips work better, may back has a better chance of becoming stronger. Hip surgery always seemed like the better option that spinal.

 My non op leg is pretty ropey, but I have less in the way of groin pain than pre op. I presume this is because it is now not working so hard/compensating for the other leg. I still get some nasty catching and clunking and the feeling of restriction in certain exercise or when riding my horse. I am getting alot of thigh pain at the moment. In particular a nasty sensitive skin / muscle sensation on my IT band and inside of my left thigh. I don’t know what it this is about and hope it will settle with some rest. I have to accept that my non op leg is not going to feel great and that I have to grit my teeth and bare it until I can have it fixed in Autumn 2015. But now that I know it can be fixed, it seems more manageable. Unlike this time last year I now know there is a way out to all this, that I am 5 months through my plan of action that started in December 2013.

Activity wise I am back to normal. I am back full time with my pet care business. Driving 30-40 miles a day, feeding cats, walking one dog 1.5 miles a day weekdays and then doing another 1.5-2 miles a day with the adhoc dogs on my books. With walking down to the farm to care for my  pony and walking my own dog, my pedometer ap is saying I am doing 4-5 miles a day during the week. Our elderly pony has been unwell and so has required a lot of extra care (much of it bending/crouching down bandaging his feet and putting on his hoof boots) and my hip has coped well with that. I am riding my horse twice a week and lunging him twice a week. I rode him out on the gallops last week and we had a  fantastic gallop, he was really gunning for it as it is something we have always enjoyed. You can’t beat that feeling of tears streaming down your face from the wind as your horse gallops so fast you think his legs will be fall off! And yet he is so well behaved all I have to do is sit back and ay whoooaa and he will drop gently back to a walk. My hip has also coped ok with that, a fair amount of stiffness delayed onset muscle fatigue but I can cope with that as surely it only means my legs are getting stronger again. The more I do it, the better it should get being my theory. No gain without pain.

Medication wise, I am still taking 20mg amitryptaline at night and usually 30mg codeine at night also. This is to help me sleep and help with hip pain on the left, not my op hip. I take paracetamol and ibuprofen in the day as needed, but not every day.

On  Thursday  I went for a gym induction at a local ladies gym. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting (from experience these things are given by super fit people who have no understanding of why I am so unfit and just involve telling me I am overweight and then showing me how t o use the gym machines). I am not a natural gym goer. I presume that if you work in an office all day, the gym is the perfect release. However, I am working outside/driving all day. I walk dogs for 3-5 miles each week day, look after my pony and ride my horse who is currently on full livery. For me the gym is an extra chore on top of everything else, and a drain on my limited energy. Outside of a gym I don’t actually feel that unfit, especially when I walking briskly with a dog or mucking out our pony. But as soon as I walk into a gym, I feel instantly overwhelmed by the fit toned types leaping around. I feel self conscious that I am so untoned and inflexible and a bit fat. The lady that runs this new gym, Rane, is in her late 40’s and yes she is super fit but she is also super nice and really interested in me and my case. She has 25 years experience in the fitness industry and keeps up with a lot of the advances and research, and seems to understand the link between physiotherapy and fitness. She was excited to see me x-ray and surgery pictures that I showed her on my iphone as I needed to know she understood what I had had done.

She first got me to stand on a step with my socks off so she could take a picture of the back of my heels. This picture shows how my Achilles tendon is pretty straight on the left and curved to the outside on the right, which is what is causing my right foot (op side) to stick out a 45 degree angle when walking and standing where as my left foot points forward. She says my arch is also collapsed on that side.  According to her, this is due to my muscle weaknesses in my hips and lower back. She doesn’t want me going on any gym equipment for a few weeks but instead to have two sessions with her a week to work one to one on some muscle activation exercises. At first I thought “oh right, and how much is that going to cost me” but, it will be all included in my gym membership of £24.99 a month, as will the Pilates sessions she also wants me to attend.

So what the hell, I will give it a go. This hip journey has lead me to be very cynical of health and fitness professionals (I still have the words of my  ex-chiropractor ringing in my ears from 5 years ago “I don’t see why I cant fix you” –  at that time I believed him. Now I am very sceptical of such statements). But like I say, I will give Rane and her gym a go. There are not extraordinary costs involved, she appears to know what she is talking about and I like her. It is nice to have a fresh set of eyes on me. So time will tell on that. I hope that perhaps this time in 6 months I have stronger  glutes and core muscles and that I am doing some cardio work to get rid of some of the excess weight that walking alone will not shift.

So that is my 5 months post open SDD surgery update, I hope I continue to improve and will update in a month or so.

4 months post op, did someone flip the "you are fixed " switch?!

Well. I am feeling great. The crutch is gone. The groin pain is gone, and I am walking around like a normal person, and beginning to realise what life is like without thinking about chronic pain all the time.

If you had said I would feel like this now two weeks ago, I would have sadi don't be so ridiculous. But now. I am pretty much feeling fixed, not much else to add it really. I went to my last hydrotherapy session on 31st March. Felt strange to be leaving, considering what my goal was when I went there, and that was to be able to walk, well I certainly walked out of there with no crutches.

 

Next Monday I will go to the local swimming baths with my husband an have a go at doing a length or two, I have no idea what to expect. I will be starting with straight kick legs and use my kick board. I can also carry on with some of my hydro exercises there. But what I would really like to do is get swimming lengths to burn some calories and shift this extra stone of weight!

 

I have put both my crutches away in the spare room and plan to just start getting my life back on track. I can now ride my horse for 5 minutes at a time and will aim to increase  that. I can start gym exercises the next time   I go to land physio, and will then use the local pay as you go gym once a week.

 

Out come of my open SDD on  my right hip as of 4 months post op (17 weeks) is that my chronic groin and thigh pain is  gone,  my lower back still feels a little sore but is feeling much more stable. I am sure my back will continue to improve as I start to use my muscles properly -  I think I can confirm that my surgery has been a success.   I am kind of "signing off"  though I aim to check back at least every two moths with an update as I now need to see how my left hip pans out, all being well it can hang on until Autumn 2015 to get fixed.

 

Below is a snap of my pedometer Ap on my phone which I think tells the story of my post op recovery pretty well, I had my surgery in 2nd December. I am now averaging 6-10,000 steps a day.

15 & 16 weeks post open SDD hip surgery. First real set back.

I guess I should be thankful that I have got this far without any set backs to speak of, but it doesn't make it any easier when it actually happens.

Week 14 I felt good, despite a migraine , achy but good, got rid of the crutch, walked dogs, lunged my horse twice, started a dog training class with my little dog.

By the Friday morning I was absolutely shattered, the foggy cold was making my 9 inch scar across my hip burn and I just knew going to walk the one dog I had booked that day was the wrong thing to do. So I called in sick. The dogs owner was so very kind and understanding, she works part time but has a bad knee herself and so can't walk Henry. She has been so understanding through all this and is a loyal client, " oh don't you worry, stay in the warm and look after yourself, Henry can survive without his walk"

Over that weekend I did do a few jobs like spring cleaning my boarding bunny hutches and rearranging the bunny runs, along with some house work. I could feel the pain in my hip coming on when I think about but I wasn't prepared for the horrendous pain I was in by the  Monday afternoon.

 

The pain was a pinching/burning pain in my groin that shot down the inside of my knee. It was a 10/10 if someone had offered me a shot for morphine right then, I would have ripped their hand off. It was worse on walking so I got back on one crutch. When resting on the sofa it faded to a dull but pulsating stabing pain. I had a terrible night, could not get comfy and the pain kept waking me up. It was the same on the Tuesday morning. I had been taking ibuprofen & paracetomol but it would only last about 2 hours before the pain returned and I had to wait until I could  have another dose.

 

I emailed my surgeon. He said it was unlikely to be my trochanter due to the location of the pain and that it could be scars/adhesion tissue between the joint capsule and femoral neck. He advised to take NSAID's and ease off and let him know how I am in a few days. I carried on with Ibuprofen 3 times and day and paracetmol  but nothing settled it. I went to see the pharmacist to get some diclofenac (a different NSAID) the over the counter stuff is 12.5mg and you can only buy 18 tablets, so by taking 2 three times a day, that's 3 days worth. She said if not better after that go to GP and they would probably give me naproxen.

 

The Diclofenac did seem better and it lasted better to the next dose than the ibuprofen so I felt like I had got the pain under control I arranged  the rest of the week off from dog walking. I had a better night on the Tuesday night and a good rest on the Wednesday. By the Wednesday I night I was feeling a lot better although still using my crutch outside to take some pressure off my groin. Thursday morning I woke in pretty bad pain again and had to wait for my diclofenac pills to kick in before I could do much.

Friday morning was the first morning I woke that week and my first thought wasn't "tablets" - I think life is pretty desperate when that is you first thought. I was extremely grateful for that, but aware that my diclofenac finished that day and so I kept up the tablet regime, switching back to ibuprofen & paracetmol. I felt ok, a little twinging groin pain but a lot easier than earlier in the week. Saturday and Sunday came and thank heavens, my groin pain had gone, and I was back to walking without a limp.

 

I was conscious of the fact that I should not jump up and do everything I want to do just because that pain felt better, that I needed to pace myself this week to prevent a re occurrence. So I arranged to only do the dog walking on Tuesday and Thursday this week. I am learning how to pace myself, something I never seemed able to do pre diagnosis - probably because I could see no way out.

 

So overall at 16 weeks, I am pretty happy with my progress, despite last weeks set back. I think that the actual pain I had the surgery  for has decreased, my back feels a lot more stable and I haven't had one of those lightening bolt pains on my spine since I straightened out my limp. My old groin pain does feel better. I feel that the groin pain I had last week was something different, something to do with the surgical site.

 

So to sum up the overall achievements at week 16:

• Off crutches
• pretty much no back pain
• old groin/hip pain gone
• only taking pain relief when needed
• can put my socks on (granted the op side isn't easy, but I  can do it)
• I can do standing on one leg, flex to about 110 degrees, internal & external rotation
• abduction does still pinch in the groin
• Can walk a (slow) mile