What a week!

It has been a roller-coaster of a week, so I'm just now getting around to providing an update!

My 12.5 week check-up went really well on Monday. Here's how it went. My husband and 5 year old son were there with me. First, a younger resident-type doc came in and asked how I was doing, showed me the xrays, etc. He seemed a bit nervous and didn't seem too "schooled" on PAO's, but that was ok because I knew the "real deal" would be talking to me later. :-) This younger doc asked "can I see you walk?". I said, "um, really? Are you sure?". Afterall, I have not even TRIED to walk since my surgery in July. I gave it a whirl ... and though wobbly, I walked around a little in the room! My son was thrilled!! This doc told me the outer edge of my hip (by one of the breaks) had some extra bone healing on the outside that we would have to keep an eye on. Not sure what that means, or what it "could" mean later on ... he didn't explain ...

So then we waited for Dr. Kregor to come in. As to the xrays, all of the load-bearing bones seem to be healing nicely, and there is a non-load bearing bone (inside the pelvic cavity, perhaps by the tailbone) that has not healed but he said I could start weening off my 1 crutch!!! I was ecstatic. I am to continue PT for another 7-8 weeks until I see him again, and was told as to the wobblyness and range of motion that it could take up to a year before I'm 100%. I am still having low back pain and hip flexor/groin pain when lifting my knee or crossing it over to put socks on, but I guess that will just go away with time. It was still good to hear it from Dr. Kregor that there's no huge concern, just takes time. Whew.

So, I had my son carry my 1 crutch out of the building ... and I walked (well, limped). I was holding back the tears (not of pain, of JOY) all the way to the car. What freedom! What elation! My hip area and upper thigh was really sore while I was walking, but it was ok! I realized that while I thought I was doing about 75% weight bearing with 1 crutch, that wasn't the case. I didn't remember what 100% was until I actually started to walk on it ... and then realized I have a long way to go on strengthening those muscles. On the way to the car, my son told me in regards to not using a crutch "Kathryn is going to be SOO surprised!".

When I got to work I was really wishing I had remembered to bring my cane in, but nonetheless decided to just "walk" in. I was turning heads left and right, and my team was very excited for me! They could see the smile on my face as it was beaming with happiness and joined in on the happiness with me. I limped for the rest of the day, but thought all in all this was ok and I would enjoy resting when I got to bed that night!

I went to pick up my 3 year old daughter from school. I walked in, and she immediately stood there and just looked at me for a minute. She got a big smile on her face and said "Mommy? Where's your cwutch?". I told her I didn't need it anymore, and she got real excited ... turned to her teacher and said "My Mommy can walk!". The late-afternoon teacher in the room didn't know what she was talking about, since she doesn't really know me, but I knew. My heart melted. Kathryn and I held hands all the way to the car (which is not something you can do while on crutches). I will never forget that moment.

At home Monday night, I REALLY enjoyed walking around the kitchen helping to get dinner ready. I was amazed at how much faster I could get things ready when I had 2 hands free versus 1! John enjoyed me helping as well, I think. :-) Again, it was nice to be a little more mobile. Going up and down stairs (using the rail, of course) was also surprisingly easy.

I wake up Tuesday morning and head over for PT. I had the cane in the car, knowing I would need it at work ... yet didn't carry it into PT. They were all surprised to see me walk in! It felt really good. I started my 10 minutes on the stationary bike as usual, then proceed to the table to do my leg lift exercises while lying down. I did 20 straight leg lifts from my back. Yeeeah. Then rolled onto my left side, to do the leg lifts with my right leg and was told to do 20. When I got to number 16, I heard 2 quick pops and immediately lowered my leg. Now, I've heard some occasional snap/crackle/pops in my right hip area before since surgery, but since they never hurt ... I figured it was normal. These 2 pops were NOT normal, and were VERY painful. I told my therapist what happened, generally where it was, and we moved on to other exercises to try and isolate what I "could" do versus what I "couldn't" do. We were able to do some other exercises, but I could NOT do anything standing (at least nothing putting weight on my right leg) without huge pain.

She put me in a closed-door room, and tried some negatively charged compound on these electrode pad things to try and calm the muscle down. She put 2 pads on me, one in the groin area and one further up the hip, and zapped me for about 10 minutes. These pads had some sort of anti-inflammatory medication inside it that was supposed to draw itself down into the muscle. Along with that, she wrapped my hip up with ice while that was going on. As the day went on, I found it didn't help the pain. And wouldn't you know, I didn't have a crutch in the car ... just the cane. I was in so much pain walking around even with the cane that I left work early and worked from home ... tail between my legs ... angry that I had done something and set myself back ... and worried that something was horribly wrong.

I emailed Dr. Kregor about this, and he didn't seem too concerned that it was a significant muscle tear, and to take it easy for a week or so and also cut back on PT for a bit. It's now Friday, and I think it's actually feeling better. I have swallowed my pride and have been constantly using the 1 crutch again, and while walking I will allow myself to put a little more weight on the right side. There is still muscle soreness that wraps around from the top of my thigh around to the back of my hip, but I'm being cognizant of the pain and being gradual on putting a little more weight on it. I will probably hold off on PT next week, just to make SURE everything is ok, before we hit it again with weights and strengthening. Once again, it was such a relief to get the email from Dr. Kregor ... as I know nothing about muscles and bones and what is serious and what isn't.

I have had a few friends remind me in the last few days that I have had major surgery and that it takes time to heal. I've never had to take THIS long to heal from ANYTHING (of course, the only other surgeries I've had were 2 c-sections), and my patience is truly being tested. It's hard to be patient with something like recovering from hip surgery when you have a full time job, 2 small children who are active, and when you have other obligations outside of work. It has really been hard to keep my head up and realize how far I've come (thanks, SuSu and Mom for the reminder). I have to keep praying that God will keep me strong (mentally as well as physically) and will give me the patience that I've run out of in order to keep a steady pace of beginning to walk again and not try to rush it. Heaven knows I don't want another setback ...

I'm hoping that perhaps later this weekend ... or early next week ... I'll muster up the courage to try to use the cane again. Just have to make sure I don't damage those muscles. At this point I think I can recognize "bad" muscle pain versus "good" muscle pain! The "good" muscle pain is pain that exudes itself as "I'm weak". "Bad" muscle pain seems to be the kind that is sharp and says "get off me!!!". :-)

Day by day ... gotta "stay the course" ... "slow and steady" ... (in the words of one of my favorite StarTrek captains, Cpt. Jean Luc Picard)

12 weeks and who's counting?

Me! Counting every single day I might be closer to walking and feeling normal again.

Monday, October 19th I see Dr. Kregor for my 12.5 week follow up. At this point I'm probably 75% weight bearing, via one crutch, and hoping Mondays xrays show the bone breaks have finally healed.

It has been amazing to walk with no hip pain or discomfort whatsoever. What was not expected was the continued hip flexor muscle pain I feel when lifting my leg to get it into the car, into bed, or when trying to cross my leg to put a sock on.

I also continue to be plagued with unbearable low back pain after standing for more than 5 minutes, changing positions in bed at night, and sitting up after I've been lying down. I started taking Mobic for a week, an anti-inflammatory friend of mine that I take whenever sciatic nerve pain pops up unexpectedly, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. I am not having any sciatic nerve pain, just total lumbar pain from left to right and everything inbetween. The mobic I have is a year or two old ... Wonder if that has something to do with the lack of effectiveness. I've been worried ever since I found out I needed surgery if it would aggravate my lower back (have herniation and disk degeration in between the last vertebrae). Throughout most of this recovery and all the sitting and crutching lopsided ... I've had zero back issues. However, the past 4-5 weeks it has been awful. I'm hoping we can get to the bottom of this very soon ... I really need a good, solid nights sleep!!!

Physical therapy continues to progress, except of course those exercises that nearly kill my groin area where the hip flexor is. This past Thursday she took new measurements and tested my strength. Some leg muscles are stronger than others, but it was nice to see that my gluts seem to be the strongest! I was lying on my stomach and doing a straight leg lift upwards while she was trying to push my leg down. She was unsuccessful, and even said "wow! Buns of steel!"! I think I would definately be able to walk unassisted now; moreso than where I was a month ago.

Range of motion is definately an issue. My right knee aches to high heavens when I cross it over my left to put a sock on. I've also noticed I can't bend down as far as I used to (from a sitting position) without feeling some outer/back/side hip pains (like needle sticks). Finally, it seems that the more up and down I'm doing, like on Saturdays like today when I'm trying to take care of the kids, pick up the house, tend to the kids/break up arguments ... My entire right leg was cramping. Is this normal?? Is it just the cold damp weather??

With the cold weather moving into middle TN, so has illness. Almost the entire family has been coughing for a minimum of 2 weeks, my daughter has an ear infection, and we've also had some stomach bug things going on. No fun!

It has been nice driving these past 3 weeks. Mobility has been such a blessing and relief both on me as well as my husband I'm sure. I've also figured out a system whereby I can use my shower! I park the walker right by the shower, back into it, and swivel/pivot on my left foot to get to the middle of the shower stall. It has worked well, except my back is killing me when I sit down at my vanity to finish drying off.

Now if I can just get rid of this last crutch. I'm hoping and praying the bones have finished healing come Monday morning, but everyone heals at different paces and only the xrays will tell for sure.

Let's hope my next post is a more positive one!!

Lori

-- Post From My iPhone

Wow ... over 10 weeks since surgery!

My blogging pace is slowing down! I've been back to work for 2 full weeks now, so I have had NO time for updates! I have 2 major initiatives going on at work, so that on top of just being exhausted and keeping up with the family has kept all my attention lately.

Just a few quick updates. I'm still progressing well with PT (2x week) and am using anywhere from 2-5lb weights on my ankles during most exercises. I am able to do more straight leg lifts each time (even though I'm only up to doing 2 sets of 5 lying down, and can do 2 sets of 10 lying on my side). I'm also progressively putting a little more weight on my right leg as I'm crutching and have NO signs of the same pain I felt prior to surgery!

Now that I have nearly weened my self off pain meds (which was no small feat for me), I'm really feeling the twinges, pangs, muscle soreness, etc. that are going on since they are no longer masked by medication. Most of the time these things are mildly discomforting (such as the twingy pains on the outside of my right thigh as the nerves are healing, the continued mild-to-moderate hip flexor pain in the groin area). After PT though, the muscle soreness and cramping in my leg is most uncomfortable. Of course none of this compares to the blinding pain in my lower back that I have after lying in ANY position for any amount of time, or when standing too long, or sitting in too soft a chair/sofa for any length of time. I wish I knew why ... Either way, I'm not sleeping well and waking up every 1-1.5 hours unless I take a small dose of meds, then I can at least get 2-3 hours of sleep before waking up ... and even then can usually manage to fall back to sleep after that.

I've also started having pain in my right knee. I mentioned this to my PT lady and she thinks if we work on my quads a little more, this may help my knee get used to having weight on it again. With all these various pains/cramps/discomforts ... I'm still thanking my Heavenly Father that my "good" hip is NOT giving me any trouble right now!! I sure hope it stays that way -I honestly could not go through this again.

I haven't been back to church on Sunday morning in probably a month. It was just too hard to orchestrate (and hard on me mentally) to have the family pushing me around in a wheelchair. I went back yesterday, only on crutches, so that was nice. My back (and for the first time, the back of my hip) was telling me perhaps it was too much right now.

Well, I see Dr. Kregor on October 19th and will be roughly 75% weight bearing by then. Sure hope there is light at the end of the tunnel ... I want nothing more than to ditch the wheelchair, walker, hospital bed and crutches!!!! I'm worried about the bones healing though. Only xrays will show, but as of the past several days I've had some stabbing pains right where (what feels like) the screws are. I hope my tossing and turning in bed has not wiggled a screw loose!

Until next time,
Lori