Day 45 -Recovery Continues

Here I am, day 45 from surgery. I never thought the 6 week mark would come, but here it is. I did not do a good job of keeping my progress and experience up to date on here, so I will try to summarize the weeks:

Week 1 -The worst week of this entire experience! After 3 days in the hospital, I was very happy to come home. However, using a walker at age 27 and having everyone do things for me, really made me feel incompetent. I did not like this feeling. Yes, it was nice to be pampered and treated like royalty, but not being able to bend over to pick something up, really made me feel helpless.

Week 2 - By week 2, I got rid of the walker, and was using the cane. It was a nice feeling to be mobile again. Pain was more tolerable, but sleeping continued to be difficult. Having to sleep with an abductor pillow wedge between your legs, laying on your back, was not my ideal sleeping position. (By week 6 I got used to this!) I had inpatient therapy 3x a week and also completed the strengthening and stretching exercises on my own as well.

Week 3 -More inpatient therapy. Now, the therapist and I were taking walks outside (just around the block). Continued exercises (laying and standing). Pain was much more tolerable -although stiffness would occur in mornings, after a lot of walking, and some nights.

Week 4 -No more inpatient therapy. It was up to me to continue exercises and walking on my own. I sure did -in fact I pushed myself too much were I would sometimes be too sore to continue the next day. By this week I really missed driving (I was not able to drive until the outcome of my 6 week check-up).

Week 5 -Continued with walking and exercises. This week was a beautiful week outside and I got lots of walking in. Again, if I did too much walking, I would feel it the next day. Recovery is a struggle because you need to find the point where you are not doing too little or too much -which is difficult to determine.

Week 6 -Yay!!!!!!!! Saw my OS this week. X-rays looked good and my doctor was pleased with my progress. He now prescribed outpatient therapy and lifted most of my hip restrictions with the exception of following the 90 degree rule for another 4 weeks. I can now drive!! I can now sleep on my side!! I went to physical therapy this week -3x. It was amazing. I loved it. My hip flexors are so tight and yet so weak. My right side muscles have years of underuse and I have put so much weight and stress on my poor left side for 6 years. My gait is off because of all of this compensation. I now have to strengthen up my right side. I was given a bunch of exercises this week, many which have been effective already.

After just 3 PT sessions, I was able to get my leg back up to 90 degrees (SEE PICTURE ABOVE). I will continue physical therapy sessions for another 5 weeks. Hopefully, I will regain a lot of flexibility on my right side. My other goal is to be walking normal (no limp). However, this will take a good 3 months -maybe 6 months. Improvements can be seen up to a year. Ultimately, my goal is to just walk and just not have any pain....ALMOST!