It’s slow, there’s a limp unless I concentrate, bending over is still an issue, squatting has a limit, I’m nowhere near ready to go walk Costco, but I’m off crutches and can get around the house. Lots of flexibility, strenght-building and balance still to be done. Using the sit-to-stand has a limit of a couple hours, even using a stool.
It is very weird to get out of a chair and stand on both feet. The right foot is kind of asleep, it takes several steps to get the pins-and-needles feeling out. I’m ahead of where I expected I would be, now to get back to ~100% over the next few months before I tear down the other hip.
Geez, has it been 3 weeks since an update? Probably should drop one in.
Still getting better, but I can tell progress has slowed. It’s that stretch where you’ve gone from 0% to say 80% pretty quickly and the final 20% is just going to take a while. I’m at the sit-to-stand desk all day, by the end of the day I can feel I’m worn out some. PT is building up to more resistance, yesterday’s session left me tired but I knew I needed it. Mentally I’m ready for that, physically I’m not. I really need to set a schedule during the day to do stuff, so I know I’m working through exercises. I feel like I should be further along, PT says I’m ahead of schedule and not to push it.
Hip muscle tightness is easing for the most part. It has moments where it acts up, pulling my foot up to put a shoe/sock on puts pressure on everything, but the general trend has been positive. I do notice more discomfort back in the hip - not painful, more of a dull ache and tiredness. Could be things shifting around, could be everything trying to get used to being used all day when I’m standing. As long as it’s not oh my god, what the hell is happening, I think I’m dying pain, I’ve been told to suck it up.
MRI on the left hip in 2 weeks, we see what’s going on there and discuss surgery options and times. PT thinks June may be about right for earliest date of surgery [May is possible but would be very late May and I’d have to make better progress than she thinks is going to happen], also stated very bluntly “don’t plan on running this year.” My youthful self thinks that’s b.s. and I’m going to be running by late December, Mrs. Hoffman says “if you fuck this up and we have to do any of this again, you’re taking care of yourself and I’m going to watch and mock you the entire time.”
Mrs Hoffman is the dose of realism you need. Keep doing the work (breaks during the day) and don’t worry about when you start running until your body tells you that it’s ready.
Happy something, happy life… something, something… something that rhymes with life. Knife?? Nope. Strife??? No, that’s just waaaay wrong. Lemme think on it a bit.
Results of the MRI on the left hip: a whole lot like the one on the right. Severe impingement of the hip (we knew that from X-rays), tear in the labrum (suspected; if you do one and it’s not fixed, it’s not uncommon to do the other as well and we’ve though the right side was after the left). Good news is that there doesn’t appear to be cartilage damage. As long as I’ve probably had issues there, it was (still is) a real concern for me. Unknown if I’m depositing bone into the area where the labrum tear is; nothing noted, but nothing was noted on the other MRI and the surgeon only discovered it once they were in.
In short: no surprises, damage is as expected. We’re looking at surgery mid-July as things stand. That would be 6 months out, should be enough time for me to get near 100% on the right hip, lets us get through family stuff planned, lets me get through work stuff that’s upcoming. I’ll know a little more after we do the 2nd post-op follow-up, but we’ll schedule the 2nd surgery consult at that point and then review everything and formally schedule things.
I still have questions as to whether I’m going to need work on the left quadriceps because of the long-time tightness there. I fear that because I’ve had lack of range there for so long, things may be bound up and I’ll need surgery to “free up” things. I’m also trying to be really careful about not injuring the right hip and undoing everything there, so I’ve got questions about that. [Guessing “no rowing machine” may be a standing order for the entire year.]
Good news! We’re done with the official part of physical therapy! Now, it’s just 2 months of prep until we do it all again on the other hip!
Things I need to work on in the next 2 months and change:
Strength in the upper quad. It’s weak, but it’s also generally the last area to come around.
Balance, like when walking a straight line heel-to-toe. [So yes, cops, I do have a reason I can’t do it.]
General flexibility. Again, doesn’t come around immediately, but since I’m not having issues I can get after it a little more aggressively.
General getting into shape, and all that crap.
Still no running, but I can get on an exercise bike and ride to a moderate pace. I can also get on the rowing machine, but no full rowing motion (e.g., no full compression on the slide in - only half-slides until we get through the other hip surgery and its rehab). Plyometric-type exercises are OK, but not full bore and probably only 2x a week.
My plan is to formally write up an exercise program and get after it. I think I’ll do better with something I write down and can follow, as opposed to “yeah, here’s some stuff, pick things out, do them whenever you feel like it.” But since I don’t have any real pain - little discomfort on occasion, but nothing I’m not expecting - it’s time to get into gear and work on things so I’m in a little better shape and a little better prepared come mid-July.
2nd surgery was scheduled 7/15, now kicked to 7/22 because the surgeon is out of town on the original date. Plan is still to do 2 weeks off, but being encouraged to take a 3rd this time around.
Recovery is still going OK, I’ve noticed the last few days the upper quad feels weak and there’s a little general discomfort in the repaired hip. Nothing serious, just huh, I probably need to really focus on strength more in that area. The thing I’m really trying to focus on is just losing weight, which is not going as fast as I had hoped so I’m revising what I’m doing there and hoping the change will kickstart pounds coming off.
Work on the exercise bike is fine, I can go 10-12 miles and then when I get off my legs feel like jelly. In other words, “normal from when I used to ride on a bike.” Work on the rowing machine is still half-stride, going full-stride is still too much at the moment, and it’s a little frustrating because when I’m in half-stride I end up going 26-30 strokes a minute; faster than I’d really like to go, because I’d like to get about 30 minutes in, so I need to figure out how to get myself to just focus and stay slow.
I will add, it’s interesting seeing how many hockey players are having the same general surgery I had (repair of a hip labrum tear). Not sure what exactly is going on, but knowing what I went through I have an appreciation for what they’ll go through. Except Brad Marchand, who did both hips at the same time, and … I don’t even want to know how grueling that recovery is going to be.
Sadly, no. Even if I had wanted to when I was younger, being born in an area that did not have ice hockey within 60 miles snuffed that idea out.
6 days out. It was going to be yesterday, which would have been a fine way to celebrate my 3rd anniversary at Company Z, but the surgeon was going to be out of town so it got kicked a week. I’m about as ready as I can be, I kind of want to just get this done so I can get through the worst of it and get to recovery.
Good luck soldier, keep us posted on your recovery
Do you get to take short term disability while you recover?
My boss at my first job job got a hip replacement, he blocked a month off on his calendar for recovery. It was a bit over optimistic as did not return to work for nearly 3 months. What an amazing 3 months. I studied my ass off in his absence
I’m surprised they’re doing the surgery on a Friday. In my experience surgeons don’t like to do that just in case there were to be a complication where they’d have to go back in. The surgeon doesn’t want to get called in for a work emergency over the weekend. Any I’ve dealt with only schedule consultations on Friday as those are easily rescheduled should they need to deal with an emergency from a patient from earlier in the week.
Maybe (hopefully) that means it’s a simpler surgery with low risk of complications. I’ve always wondered if ORs just sit empty on Fridays other than the occasional emergency. TIL.
Regardless, good luck with everything and do keep us posted.
I do! I have to take 3 PTO, and then it kicks in. My plan is to do 3 weeks this time around. I did 2 last time - glad I did, I originally thought I’d do a week and got talked into the 2nd and I would NOT have been useful in the 2nd week - and even the first week back was shit, I fucking hurt and I’m uncomfortable, I’ll put in time but I’m not being real productive [which was OK, that fell into one of my two slow periods during the year] so I think a 3rd would probably be a good idea.
Plus, I can get it without any questions and if I have the bad experience this time like your boss had, I can get it extended.