5 Month Anniversary Since Surgery!!

As you can see, I have not been too successful with keeping up with this blog.

Let's see -this week is 5 months since my surgery. Woah!!! How do I feel?

AMAZING! For the first time in years I can wear heels and not be in drastic pain the following day. I can go to the gym, go rollerblading (yes, rollerblading), walk and sleep with no pain (amongst others!)

I returned to work 8 weeks after surgery. At this point, I still felt "tilted" and not fully healed yet. It was actually just this past month where things really fell into place with starting to feel 100% normal and 100% better. Every now and then if I over-do it I still have some stiffness. However, my progress has been amazing.

I have started doing Pilates on my own and hope to start teaching again soon. Pilates with Melissa here I come (I should really think of a more creative name!)

More to follow...

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!

Thank you!

One more note today...

I am truly amazed and blessed to have such a supporting group of family members, friends, boyfriend and co-workers. I appreciate all of the "get well cards", your packages of goodies, your visits, and your thoughts and prayers!

I seriously could not have gotten through this without your encouragement.

I am very fortunate :)

Day 14 -Progress

Today is my 2 week anniversary from the surgery on 3/17/09.

Within these past two weeks, it's amazing to see and feel the progress from Day 1. In the hospital, the nurses had to hold my ankle and literally guide my leg from bed to floor -I had absolutely no strength in the leg at all. In those first 3 days I felt as though my leg would NEVER be the same. It only a matter of a few more days, I was able to move my leg myself from bed to floor. Thank God!

I have been working on all the exercises from the physical therapist several times a day. The leg lift really frustrated me. A simple movement of lifting the operated knee to hip height is so difficult!! In my first attempts, the foot only came about 1 inch off the floor, I'm now up to about 7 inches off the floor. All of these exercises are so frustrating since I'm a former dancer and pilates instructor -I was once able to do all of these with no problem.

I understand my range of motion is still limited because 1) I'm recovering from major surgery and the muscles need to heal 2) For the past 6 years I have shifted my weight onto my left leg ALWAYS. I can't even balance my weight on my right side. Therefore, I need to re-teach the right hip/butt/thigh muscles how to hold my weight.

I'm looking forward to continued outpatient physical therapy to improve my balance, strength, and walk.

The PT is coming today -hopefully he will see an improvement in me too.

My cane!

Day 11 -Saturday, 3/28/09

Today is Day 11 since surgery. I got through the first week! I have to say, each day is getting a bit better and I'm noticing more range of motion and strength in the hip and leg as I continue with my physical therapy and walking. Although, when I push myself too much with the therapy, my thigh gets very stiff and painful.

Let's see, what have I been doing? Watching lots of daytime TV, reading New Moon in the Kindle (love it!), constantly reading and posting on my BoneSmart forum, on facebook, on email, resting, showering, doing physical therapy exercises, having lovely visitors, REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT!! That's my day in a nutshell.

The visiting nurse came today and told me my incision looks great -thank god. The PT was here last Friday and we worked on going up and down stairs. It wasn't bad at all.

I'm still struggling with sleeping -I can't get comfy on my back -I HATE IT! I try to curl my head to the side to replicate the feeling of being on my side, but that only works for a few minutes. I can't wait until this restriction is lifted. I also have to sleep with a wedge-like pillow in between my legs to avoid crossing my legs (one of the restrictions during this recovery period).

I couldn't stand looking at my ugly brown cane, so I purchased a "fashionable" cane. I'll post a pic. I know it's a bit silly, since hopefully, I will only be using the cane for another few weeks. Well, I will save this cane for when I'm old and need it again :)

That's it for now!

Day 4 -Home from the Hospital!

Hi!

I am home from the hospital! It is day 4 and I'm very glad to be home. I came home late yesterday and am doing pretty well. I will write more about the surgery and my hospital stay in detail, when I'm feeling more up to it. I'm a little woozy right now, so I'd rather save those details for when I can write. Just took a shower -it felt AMAZING! I did my physical therapy today, got evaluated by the physical therapist, watched about 7 shows, took a shower, went through mail, and now getting ready to get back in bed! I'm not in too much pain -just very swollen and very stiff.

I will post some more this weekend. The pic below is from the hospital. This was taken by either my sister or Chris right after the surgery -once I came out of the recovery room, and was rolled into my "room", they all came running in! It was such a nice feeling to see everyone and know I survived the surgery (yes, I was afraid of dying!)

Chris posted this picture from the hospital for me (don't think I was that with it to be able to get on a computer and post).

Off to bed :)