Grateful for ortho surgeon, but LOVE my PT and massage therapists!

Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post with words of encouragement! Since my follow-up with the ortho, I’ve been back to PT a couple of times and also been to my massage therapist a few times. I always feel better after my sessions with them. I was reunited with the PT I worked with after my first surgery, Kim Keyser. She is awesome! At one point she asked if I could get in a downward dog position. I told her the ortho said I shouldn’t be doing any yoga moves. But she said since my femur was dislocated anteriorly for the THR, that it should be ok. I did it, and everything was fine. Baby steps. I also told her the ortho mentioned that my glute med and min were damaged and had to be repaired. She looked for the information in the surgery note and it wasn’t mentioned there. She’s going to email the ortho to find out for sure before she gives me any exercises that may stress that area too much.

She also brought my attention to something called Sharpey’s fibres. She explained that when the muscle is pulled back from the bone for the surgery, it takes a while for those fibers to grow back to help attach the muscles and tendons. She seemed pretty concerned about letting enough time pass for those fibers to grow back before we started on any exercises targeting that area. Not sure if anyone else has heard of something like that? I’m glad to just keep up with my pool PT exercises for now and get out to walk the dogs every day or so. I’m not planning on training for anything until I feel pretty secure with my walking gait. I want to make sure my core and all that is in good shape. I’m hoping by spring/summer I’ll be in good shape to start training for a fall run 🙂

I mentioned in my last post that I felt some deep pain down my leg one day and wondered if it was because of the weather. Still not sure if it was related to pressure changes in the weather, but I’m happy to report that I haven’t felt that way again since that day.

I’m at a point where I don’t take much pain med at all. I’ll wake up the morning and feel kind of stiff and sore and think to myself that I should take something, but then, as I move around and get ready for the day I pretty much forget about taking anything. I also used to wake up at night from being uncomfortable, and would take something in the middle of the night to get back to sleep, but I haven’t done that in a while either. I’d say I might take something in the afternoon and right before I go to bed, but that’s about it.

For the past week or so, I’ve also been able to bend over to put on shoes and actually tie the laces. No more shoe horn for me!