Hip labrum repair and FAI surgery recovery

[training_tonia]

No pain meds today, upped the bike time to 16 minutes 2x a day. It really feels great to be on the bike, no pain and the increased bloodflow feels wonderful. I was temped to go for more, but remember cycling used to be my thing.

Going to shoot for no nap today, and I'm more productive at my job so that is good. Showered and did the bike while alone in the house! Woohoo! Also practicing without crutches sometimes for 10 to 15 ft stretches. I still have a bit of a limp for whatever reason, so I will keep using them the majority of the time.

Note on sleeping: as I am healing I find that I am experimenting with sleeping on my side more. Still uncomfortable to sleep on the operative side though.

Very boring update. Doc followup on 3/21. I may skip a couple of days here unless I have a catastrophic fall that you all need to know about.

[training_tonia]

Short update: Stuck with 16 minutes for 2x on the bike today, but working is hard. Desk jockey-ing requires a chair and sitting for that long hurts.

I am also getting fairly stable with/without crutches so I did a bit of walking yesterday in the grocery store.

Ended up working for 5-6 hours today and caling it a day with some pain meds.

[training_tonia]

Going a bit nuts working/rehab-ing/sleeping/eating all in the same 900 sq ft condo.

A little bit of daylight savings time, a little bit of not quite having my energy levels up, and a little bit of getting used to doing nothing made for an unproductive first day back at work.

On the recovery side--no pain meds today, one hour nap, and two rounds of 14 minutes on the bike. I'm changing into bike shorts now for that. :-P I also went for a short walk.

Need to note that I am on two doses of 500mg of naproxen each day to ward off side effects. Apparently microbits of shaved bone can regrow on rare occasions. The naproxen helps that. Probably is helping with pain too.

Quick edit: walking around the house without crutches and pushing it at the grocery story and trying any other "tests" is dumb. Do not do it. :P

[training_tonia]

Upped the bike to 18 minutes 2x a day. Favorite part of my day now.

I wanted to comment on going back to work after this surgery. As a desk jockey, I thought it would be easier than this. It turns out that sitting for more than 90 min or two hours a time irritates my hip. Working for eight hours in a row really isn't feasible this early in the game without pain meds. I ice a bit during a 5-6 hour day and it helps but not really enough.

I have a sit-to-stand desk but can't stand very long either on both or one of my legs. I ordered a bar-height stool to lean against instead. Hopefully that enables me to work longer hours next week. I'm thankful to have a flexible job that isn't docking me one way or the other for my erratic schedule this first week back. It also helps that I worked my butt off for them in the past and they know that. Read: long hours as a desk jockey probably leads to more hip problems. You cannot win in the world these days. Something will get you. The winners are the ones that never get injured.

Hope that little note helps a future desk jockey plan their time back to work accordingly.

Had a fairly active day with a doc appt and lunch out. The doc wanted bloodwork for a study I am participating in for the new-fangled surgical bed he invented. Being active (not sitting for more than an hour at a time) really helped me feel good. Back to no pain meds.

[training_tonia]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Theoretically, I could have a beer today because I've officially gone 36 hours without pain meds. But still have doc-ordered crutches for mild instability means that I will be taking it easy.

22 minutes 2x on the bike today. I've been upping it 2 minutes per day for a bit and it's working out well. After I'm done it feels like I just got a massage, so nice.

I'm going to be up to the max 30 min 2x day by the time I see the doc. I am really hoping the PT has good things to say the day after that. Theoretically, I can totally do upper body work right now. Bench would be no problem and I was thinking about asking my coach (Jayson Ball) about the possibility of pin presses because that wouldn't involve much hip and might be better for the less stable? Don't know, never done them.

As I am coming to the end of the invalid stage, I thought I'd share with you a couple of the tools that were invaluable during this stint:

The raised toilet seat! I live in an older place with a toilet built for squatting. This really made my life easier while I was not quite weight bearing. That said, I think I can graduate from it today. And future surgery getter's--you may not need this is your pistol squat is better than mine. but still--balance! Not sure how much these are as I had this lying around in my garage when my I was helping my mother through knee replacement surgery. toilet.jpgIMG_1855.jpg

The shower handle! Available on Amazon for $20. I'll keep this around for a while longer, it helps me stabilize when getting in and out of the shower/tub combo and I grab it when I am standing/turning around in there.

[training_tonia]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Theoretically, I could have a beer today because I've officially gone 36 hours without pain meds. But still have doc-ordered crutches for mild instability means that I will be taking it easy.

22 minutes 2x on the bike today. I've been upping it 2 minutes per day for a bit and it's working out well. After I'm done it feels like I just got a massage, so nice.

I'm going to be up to the max 30 min 2x day by the time I see the doc. I am really hoping the PT has good things to say the day after that. Theoretically, I can totally do upper body work right now. Bench would be no problem and I was thinking about asking my coach (Jayson Ball) about the possibility of pin presses because that wouldn't involve much hip and might be better for the less stable? Don't know, never done them.

As I am coming to the end of the invalid stage, I thought I'd share with you a couple of the tools that were invaluable during this stint:

The raised toilet seat! I live in an older place with a toilet built for squatting. This really made my life easier while I was not quite weight bearing. That said, I think I can graduate from it today. And future surgery getter's--you may not need this is your pistol squat is better than mine. but still--balance! Not sure how much these are as I had this lying around in my garage when my I was helping my mother through knee replacement surgery. toilet.jpgIMG_1855.jpg

The shower handle! Available on Amazon for $20. I'll keep this around for a while longer, it helps me stabilize when getting in and out of the shower/tub combo and I grab it when I am standing/turning around in there.

Quick addendum: Had a mild setback from my showering experience today. I showered without using the little bench (not shown above) and lifted my operative leg on the edge of the tub while cleaning up. Not a good idea yet. It felt fine during, but I had to ice it for a bit afterwards. I'll find out from the PT soon what is "good pain" and "bad pain". Still not pain-med worthy. But ouch.

[training_tonia]

Biked 24 min 2x today.

But had a big day of going out to lunch and definitely walking around 200 yards which was the prescribed limit from the doc. I was tired and the hip was ache-y. This is the part of recovery that is a little annoying. Feeling perfectly fine until you try to do something completely normal like going to lunch, visiting your bf's mom, and watching a nephew play. Ugh. Emphasis on still not needing pain meds, but it is an annoying ache. Looking forward to learning more about the next stages from the PT.

[training_tonia]

Well, Sunday's "big day" resulted in a full pain med day yesterday and 3-4 hours off my work day to recover. The nice part is that the pain med manage my over-doing it quite well. I'm good today and back on the bike. I had to skip yesterday.

26 min 2x today. I stopped to ice my hip for 30 during my lunch break.

I still use crutches for balance as I can't cut and turn.

Finally seeing the doc tomorrow to get stitches out. What feels like forever is only 16 days post-op.

[training_tonia]

Ok, finally, something interesting to report (interesting to me, at least).

I saw the doc today and got the stitches out.

Got told the following:
* I should not be sitting with my hip at a 90 degree angle. I am horribly bad at geometry. This is why I have setbacks and can't work very long. It will extend the amount of time and how easily the hip capsule heals if I keep it at that angle for very long. Yikes, that was pretty stupid of me, but hopefully no harm done yet. My work set up has changed where I am either standing or using a bar stool to lean on. And I will lay down when playing Borderlands 2 now.

* The crutches are to be used for six weeks to remind me to go slow. They say that when they shave down the femor head and cup, they are weaker for a bit while they are healing. Go slow and don't stress them out too much. I'm perfectly fine to not use them around the house for short steps as long as I don't sprint or start a game of flag football.

* And this part is amazing! Nothing to do with me, but I'll take credit anyway. I got told that two things were extraordinary about my hip. 1. For a woman, I had significantly less issues to fix with this type of injury than expected. Apparently women fare worse. 2. (and I may take credit for this one) For someone my age, my hip is in remarkable shape! No cartilage damage or excessive wear and tear to fix. Perhaps I should thank my parents for that, or perhaps my diet, or....my activity levels and strength training over the years?! Yeehaw!

I see the physical therapist tomorrow. More to come.

[training_tonia]

Notes about PT visit:

Was given some very mild range of motion and activation exercises to do at home. During the visit, the PT taught me the exercises and did some passive resistance and motion exercises. Said the main goal was to get the hip flexors and glute muscles out of shock and active again. "out of shock" is my phrase, not hers. Other detail about the surgery is that they actually go through the glute muscle (one of them anyway) to get to the joint so that little guy will take a bit of time to feel good.

My desk jockey job is going better with the set up. But now I am finding when I lean back on my barstool type dealio, it hurts my right "glute" aka ass cheek. I still had a very productive day and was put in the eight hours. With the last two on the couch in a reclined position. No LazEBoy to speak of in this house.

My plan for getting back to training may be delayed by StrengthCon (coach will be out of town) and then a work conference I need to attend. Training may start at 6 or 7 weeks instead of 5 like Mr. Moore. Not for lack of motivation.

Going to train these tiny little hip dudes to my heart's content for the next few weeks in the meantime.