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20 weeks post op

Finally making some progress!

  I cannot believe it has been 20 weeks since I had my right hip fixed. There have been so many ups and downs as well as lots of laughs and lots of tears over the past 20 weeks.

 As I have said from the beginning, this whole recovery process has been much more challenging than I ever imagined. However, over the past week or so, I finally can feel I am making some significant progress. 

 Four weeks ago I began having my psoas hip flexor dry needled at physiotherapy and my active ROM has increased from about 90 to 100, already. I have been battling a pinching type of pain in my groin and the front of my hip whenever my hip goes into flexion, when I twist or turn, when I sit down, when I stand up (so basically every movement), for months. I have felt like a robot every time I need to turn around. I knew that it wasn't the same pain as before surgery, so I knew I just needed to be patient and follow my physiotherapists instructions.  Since the dry needling sessions, the pinching pain has significantly approved. The aching pain has also improved as long as I am able to have a good balance between sitting, lying down and standing. I still have to take things at a slow pace in order to prevent any flare ups. I have been stretching many, many times each day in order to stretch out my hip capsule, which Dr. Wong believes is the cause of this lingering pain, stiffness and lack of ROM. 

 Unfortunately my left hip seems to be succumbing to the compensation it has been doing for my right hip over the past 4.5 months. It often aches quite badly, and I can feel the pinch from the pincer impingement during certain movements. It clicks, locks, crunches and grinds. This week one of my physiotherapists dry needled my left hip as well as my right, as the muscles are so, so tight on the left side, since it has been working so hard to support my right side. My physiotherapists believes there may be something going on the with labrum on my left side, but we will have to wait for the MRI to see. 

 I have also been having some trouble with knee pain due to a tracking issue & my IT band being so tight. My lower back is also worn out. My physiotherapists as well as massage therapist are amazing and have been amazing at focusing on treating my whole body, as I have truly learned how much surgery on the hip, affects EVERYTHING.

So, lots of things to continue to work on over the next several months, including continuing with PT exercises and stretching and also introducing some functional work at physio to build strength so that I can go back to my nursing job at some point.

I am overall very happy with my progress over the past few weeks and still very happy I decided to have the surgery. I know in years to come this surgery will have helped me so much and prevented me from needing a total hip replacement. As they say "short term pain for long term gain", and that couldn't be more true!

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Location: Halifax, NS

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