Sunday, May 30, 2010

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

...Or not!! So once again, it has been a roller coaster of issues with my hip. It is a lot better than before I began this round of PT, the capsule is a lot "looser" and is not getting stuck as often. It does often click or pop. A lot of time I will be trying to shave my legs and the leg just wont externally rotate, it then pops, and is then able to rotate. Weird. What bothers me is that I still get pain in the joint and I don't know why. It is not excruciating, I don't take anything for it, I don't even use the Flector patches on it anymore, I have just gotten used to it I guess. I am at the point where I just give up, at lest for now. I don't think there is anything else to be done at this point, and many people need up to a year to feel better, so maybe I need to have a little bit of patience and wait. This is easier said than done, bc at 29, I don't want to have pain when doing simple activities, like cleaning out my closet, taking the kids for a walk (yes, these are all activities that cause me pain), but I have resolved to "chill out" and give it some time.

My crazy work schedule is coming to an end in 2 weeks, thank goodness, so we will see what happens. I had PT this week, and he managed to really loosen up my hip, and get me to have normal stride length. This lasted a total of 4 minutes. Once I was back outside, walking the streets of NYC, I had pain, which was incredibly frustrating. I have an appointment with BK in a few weeks, mostly to get an x-ray and make sure the bone is where it needs to be. I called about 2 weeks ago (middle of May) to make an appointment, the receptionist asked if I was in pain, I said yes. She told me she would try to "squeeze me in", "how's June 22nd". Seriously!! The truth is that it doesn't even matter bc there is nothing to be done, or at least that I am open to doing (injections, drugs...), but she managed to give me June 15th! I will try to be better about updating my blog, but work is sucking the life out of me!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Yes, I Won My Appeal

Lately I have been receiving comments on older posts asking if I won my appeal. Yes, I did, my surgery was completely covered :-) Thanks to all who have helped me with the appeal as well as paved the way for me and others to have our surgery covered (especially MC)!

A few weeks ago, I had a 20 minute "hole" in my day and was actually able to leave my office for the first time in the middle of the day since I began my new hours. As I was walking out, I realized I had a voicemail from BKs billing office. I called them back to see what they wanted. His biller called to thank me for appealing my claim, she had received the letter a few weeks ago but had only been able to tell BK about it that day. He was very happy told her to call me to ask for a copy of the appeal I used so that it could be used for other patients with the same issue. I hope that it does and everyone who needs the surgery will be able to have it and move on with their life (some of us a little slower than others!!!)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

The Exercises

Once again I apologize for taking so long to post, my work schedule is horrendous, and I even had to go in on my day off this week, with the baby no less! I am tired, cranky and counting the days until this is over (Jun 14).

The exercises my PT gave me are not strengthening exercises, in fact, they are just stretching/ mobilizing exercises, and I am supposed to go back to him to get strengthening exercises. (My appointment is 3 weeks from now).

The exercises are meant to keep the anterior capsule stretched out and loose, I don't recommend you do them since most people don't have this problem of soft tissue impingement. The most simple one I do is sit in Indian style (yes, this is how I got into this mess to begin with!!) and put my hands behind me and hold the stretch (I try to hold for 60-90 seconds), if I don't feel enough of a stretch I do a posterior pelvic tilt.

I also do a mobilization with a mob belt, this requires another person. We wrap the belt around my thigh while they sit on a stool and the belt goes around them. Their job is merely to stabilize and provide a tiny bit of a lateral force. I keep my right (bad) leg behind me and stand in a position as if I was going to lunge. I put my arms out in front and rotate my body to the left, so my right leg is getting and external rotation force. This is a very specific an targeted mobilization for the anterior capsule. I am to do this 2x/week.

I can also do a half kneeling stretch but I have chosen not to, since I am getting great results for these 2.

My hip flexion has been as good as 115' degrees, pain free, it does tighten up if I slack off. I felt so great this week I did my first Pilates reformer class and (shhhhh) went Spinning on Fri. I have since tightened up a bit but I really needed that, I think I need to return to exercising as part of this final step in rehab/recovery. I have 2 more Pilates sessions planned for this week and really hope I can spin at least 3x/week for now.

I promise to keep you updated...but please be patient...I have never been so busy and overwhelmed in my life!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Problem Solved....Or So I Hope

I know I am probably jumping the gun, but I definitely feel better mentally about what has been going on. I think I finally have an understanding of what the problem has been, and why I have been having so many issues and problems, and now the final fix will lie with me.

All along, it seems that my capsule has been too tight (since the last surgery), so, as it was explained to me for the millionth time (but this time I 'get it'), imagine that the capsule is like saran wrap, tightly covering the whole hip joint. If it fits well, it will keep the joint in place and allows it to move well through its range of motion. In very rare, super special cases, like mine, it gets too tight, so when I tried to flex my hip, there was no give in the "saran wrap" and it was getting bunched up in the front of the joint. That's why my flexion was so limited, and when I was having the "episodes" and all the clunking, it was the capsule snapping, or getting "unstuck".

The solution was to do some very specific mobilization, we had to tweak them on Friday, but I left PT on Fri so happy! I have had almost no catching/ clunking/ feeling of subluxation since then. I still have pain, but I have increased hip flexion too, so I am happy, and I think I need to be in a good place mentally at this point bc I have been close to losing it more than once.

I have specific stretches to do, to keep the capsule stretched, and twice per week I am supposed to have someone help we with a mobilization using a mob belt. It is an ER mob while my hip is stabilized in extension, it is amazing and works wonders.

I am supposed to begin strengthening in 2 weeks, I can't get back to PT for 4, so I may have to begin on my own. When I overdo the stretching, I can't walk well, and actually have a trendelenberg, bc my hip is not used to functioning in the new range.

I hope things go uphill from here, this is getting very very old!!

I apologize for not being on top of blogging, I am not really on top of anything lately, I have been working crazy hours and most things have fallen to the wayside...my MIL was here for the weekend and re-organized my closets bc they have gotten so messy!!!!