Monday, March 18, 2013

15 weeks postop

Time is slowly going by, almost as slow as my walking speed. I never dreamed that at 15 weeks I would still be on crutches, but here we are, slowly moving forward. I am down to 1 crutch most of the time in the house. At times I get too tired for one and the pain doesn't allow me to be on just one. But, sometimes I lose one crutch! I have Millennials and they are side specific, so they are not interchangeable. And since my right hip is the involved one, I need the left crutch. Sometimes I have to make a choice, do I walk to the kitchen with one crutch, even though my leg really can't handle it, or do I go and look for the lost right crutch? It takes longer to find the lost crutch most of the time so I go with choice A!! Groin pain continues to improve. Lateral pain is there and is exacerbated with a lot of walking and activity. I still can't fully lie on that side. My new cream def helps when I remember to apply it. My PT situation has changed and I am without a PT right now. I have an appointment w a massage therapist this week and hopefully it will be a weekly thing if I like him. I hope I can be disciplined enough to do the exercises on my own. I had been really good about doing abs every day but have been slacking lately. Work is busy and so is life!! My recovery has been anything but linear, and probably best describes as a staircase!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

13 weeks

I saw my OS last week and he seemed fine with my (lack of) progress. He said he'd much rather I take things slow given my colorful history with my hip. At this point I have more trochanter pain than groin pain for the most part. He said that as my muscles get stronger, the forces on the joint will decrease and the groin pain will stop. He has said that before and I never quite understood until now. Right now my abductors and external rotators are very weak so my hip is always wanting to adduct and internally rotate, putting excessive strain in the joint and causing groin pain. The more I walk the more groin pain I have. Same for the trochanter pain, the more I walk the more it hurts. For the trochanter pain, he prescribed a topical cream that has an anti inflammatory, muscle relaxant, anesthetic, gabapentin and some other stuff. He thinks it will help with the trochanter pain. He also casually mentioned that some people need the screws out to get rid of the trochanter pain. Topical cream sounds like a much better solution!