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THR Bizzy Lizzy on the other side

@Nana2-8 - I must admit, my first thought was "I hope mine wasn't in the sale - I want a proper full-price one!" Maybe us hippies just take things too seriously. You've got me thinking about the things I looked forward to doing. I agree with the whole parking/walking thing and I've made a lot of progress on that one. Climbing stairs properly was another one, and I nailed that last week. Putting socks on and tying shoelaces would be another one, but that's still a way off. As is painting my toenails. A great thing happened earlier, however. My husband put on a Bob Marley CD and I found myself DANCING! :dancy::dancy:
 
LOVED the pic your daughter sent you!!! Surely our surgeons have such discriminating tastes that they would only pick out the very best for us, don't you think? :heehee:

As far as you and Bob Marley, honestly, what could be more awesome than to find yourself doing something that for so long you've been unable to do?!?!?! GREAT news, Liz!!!!! :egypdance:
 
It's funny about the dancing. On the morning after my operation the surgeon's registrar came round to see me. He is a lovely man with a much better bedside manner than the surgeon. He told me that the operation had been a success, despite my truly terrible hip and enthused about how my life would change. He actually said "you will be able to walk well, you won't have pain, you'll be able to do everything you want, you'll be able to dance". I hadn't been out of bed at this point, I was pretty sore and felt so nauseous that I thought I might throw up on him - everything about me just said "yeah, right!" But he knew what he was talking about. Wish I had been a bit more grateful!
I've been a bit on the down side of the roller coaster today. Did my usual walk to the High Street and coming back just wanted to be totally better and free of the crutch. Just had to tell myself that it takes up to a year to get to that point. Need to be patient.
 
@BizzyLizzy you are doing fantastic! I had my surgery 2 weeks ahead of you and I'm still on 2 crutches:unsure:. My OS said that's a little unusual, but as I am making some progress (albeit slow) he wants me to start physio and to see me again in 6 weeks.
Be kind and patient with your hip, brighter days are ahead:flwrysmile:
 
Thank you @msmo. Sometimes I need to remind myself that this is a big operation and I need to give myself time to recover. I'm often not too kind to myself!

I have been a bit stiff and sore today. My lovely PT lady came again yesterday. She was pleased with my progress, but she is a great believer in what she calls functional activities rather than exercises. She notices everything and can see which movements I still have real trouble with. She got me to practice standing up from a sitting position, as I still struggle with this - it was so hard! She also gave me stretches to do which should start to enable me to reach my foot to put on socks and shoes. I'm really rubbish at those! The last thing she asked me to do was demonstrate walking. My walking is much improved since the last time she saw me a couple of weeks ago. I'm bending my knee much more naturally and I'm straighter, but she said I'm not using my upper body enough and not taking long enough strides. We practised correcting both of these so I am now swaggering and striding around the house like a giant :walking:(although not in public!) and the pets are diving for cover! Her aim is to get me walking naturally and effortlessly, and I can see that this might happen eventually, but at the moment it just feels like really hard work and tonight everything aches.

@DizzyBlond - thank you so much for your lovely words. I really hope I have helped people as much as I was helped on Bonesmart, earlier in my journey! Reading your thread, it looks like you are moving forward nicely and hanging on to your great sense of humour. In no time at all you will also be doing the THR swagger - something to look forward to! :snork:
 
So good to hear that you continue to do well @BizzyLizzy - I especially like hearing that your PT is noticing the everyday things and addressing those. How effective! So, now I have the image of all us 'hippie' marching around the rooms.....much like little kindergartners! Whatever works! xxoo
 
HI @BizzyLizzy!
I've just caught up on your thread and I'm happy to see how well you're doing so soon in your recovery! I noticed you mentioned that your PT said your stride was not long enough. I've also noticed the same thing with my stride. I'm not in any pain, so I'm thinking it may have something to do with strengthening the muscles (just a guess). I think you're going to see quite a lot of improvement over the next few weeks. I felt great at 8 weeks and felt fabulous at 12 weeks. I don't do a lot of walking, so I'm not sure if I'll experience more pain while on vacation come the 9th of August. Hugs!!!
 
You are doing so amazing!! Go you!

BizzyLizzy said:
Putting socks on and tying shoelaces would be another one, but that's still a way off. As is painting my toenails. A great thing happened earlier, however. My husband put on a Bob Marley CD and I found myself DANCING!
Click to expand...

OMG that is SO fabulous!! What freedom!

I too would love to paint my toenails, hell, I would be happy if I could shave my legs!

I am so pleased that you are getting there, one solid step at a time...
 
@JMACCA - you may have seen some of my posts about the trials of leg shaving - can't do that yet, either! However, with regard to the dancing, I went to the supermarket with my daughter last night. Music blasted out suddenly when we were walking past the electronics department. I felt compelled to have a very small hip-wiggle she was not impressed! :nah:

@Cynthia777 - I'm interested that you had the short stride thing as well. I think you're probably right about the muscle-weakness. I also wondered if it was something to do with trying to compensate for the limp that I feel like I still have? I notice in some of your other posts that you felt you had a leg length difference after your THRs. I definitely thought that for the first couple of weeks, but I realised yesterday that it's gone (if it was ever there!) it's interesting how so many things are probably to do with perception. We think we move in a certain way because we have spent so long making compensations for our bad hips that sometimes it's very hard to see what's actually going on. I'm so happy to see you doing so well - you have been a bit of an inspiration to me.:flwrysmile:
 
@BizzyLizzy
You know, although my limp has all but disappeared, I did ask hubby to pay close attention to my gait. I had him watch when I was consciously thinking about walking and then when I wasn't thinking about how I was walking. The two gaits are definitely different. I can easily walk "normal" when I am concentrating on my gait, but I do have a shorter gait and a very slight waddle when I'm not thinking about it. I'm wondering if this is the gait my mind "learned" while I was limping for a year and a half pre-op. I've read that we need to retrain our brain to walk normally. I'm going to do some research on the topic and I'll let you know what I find out.

Oh yes, the LLD! I was convinced that my OS had forgotten to even up my legs after my second THR...I was sure if it. I was just about to relent and make an appointment with a PT so I could at least get an evaluation. Being the proverbial procrastinator that I am I waited and bingo, suddenly I realized my limp was almost gone and my legs felt even.

I really like how your PT's philosophy (functional activities rather that exercises)!!! Trust me when I say, although I have seen some members benefit from PT, many others have ended up with problems from overzealous PT's! I've all too frequently seen members who were coming along great during their recoveries start PT and end up with chronic pain issues. I'm 62, was a huge couch potato, about 30 pounds overweight and I've come through my recovery with flying colors. I've just let my body's pain levels guide me with my activity levels. I never did any of the exercises the hospital sent me home with (other than the ankle pumps to avoid a blood clot), but I walked laps around my pool and increased them very slowly.

I'm so blessed that I could be an inspiration to you, it means a lot to me my friend! You really are doing very well and I expect you'll be dancing a jig in a month or two! xoxoxo
 
@BizzyLizzy - I agree with the others about the gait training. As you read here in bonesmart often, hips don't need any exercise other than walking. And gait training is important so that you "unlearn" the limp which was caused by compensating/muscle atrophy on the bad side/leg length differential, etc.. So you're getting it right by walking a lot, e.g. to your favourite shops. I actually call it "cat-walk training".
In Germany, we usually go to a rehab centre (in-house) for 3 weeks after hip replacement. This is the normal procedure and it's financed by the retirement pension system. The idea is to make you fit for work again, I think. We had gait training in group and I said "But what about the music". There wasn't any and the trainer said that we could sing along ourselves. So I hummed that song by Megan Trainer to myself - "All about that base". By the way an Australian bonesmart friend of mine changed the lyrics slightly - "All about that gait" - the rythm and harmonies are ideal for recovery and gait training. - Keep up the good recovery - Constanze
 
@Cynthia777 - I have been trying really hard with normalising my gait and doing my "functional" exercises over the last couple of days. I'm now quite achy and sore so I have decided to give up and go to bed, even though it is only 9pm here. I have taken some painkillers, which I haven't done at night for a week. Hope I feel better tomorrow. I think I'll give the exercises a miss for a while and just walk. I think my PT is quite sensible in her aims for me, but I agree with you that listening to your body is the most important thing.

@Constanze - it's really interesting to hear how different things are in Germany. I wish there was some formal re-hab in the UK. I really feel I've just been making it up as I go along here. I've taken lots of advice from Bonesmart and gone along with how I feel, but some guidance from the hospital would have been really good. I feel that I am making a good recovery more by good luck, than anything! Thinking of music, my go-to motivational song is Waka Waka (this time for Africa) by Shakira. I need to think of tweaking the words to work with my marching!

I have a plan for tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it. Where I live, in the North East of England, we are very close to the River Tyne. It is possible to walk across the river, over several bridges. Something I have always liked to do is to walk over one of the old bridges and then stop off at an amazing place on the other side. It's an old, private library which is open to the public and it has the wonderful name of "the Literary and Philosophical Society". It's more commonly known as the Lit and Phil, and you can buy a cup of tea and a biscuit and sit amongst the books. This is my plan for tomorrow. I haven't been able to do it for a couple of years, so I really hope I'm up to it. I'm finding that making plans like this, to do things I have missed, are one of the best ways to motivate myself to move forward.
 
Hi @BizzyLizzy , your River Tyne plan sounds great. I also like the library, the Lit and Phil and a good cup of tea. Good luck that your plan may come to something - if it does, enjoy it.
Best wishes from Constanze
 
Well, I managed my walk across the bridge and back on Saturday. It was lovely. The worst bit was working out how to cross the road as there are multiple sets of crossings at both ends of the bridge and it's very confusing when you haven't been out walking in traffic for a while! The bridge itself is reserved for buses and the pedestrian walkway is sectioned off from the road, so the walk itself wasn't stressful. I got to the Lit and Phil and had my cup of tea. Even managed to bore the lady serving the tea with my tales from the THR frontline! :snork: She was very nice and polite about it.

I haven't done much since then, apart from my normal little local walks. I am so glad I found Bonesmart at the beginning of this, and realised that walking is the best thing to do. I don't feel guilty at all about not doing other exercises and I think I have healed so much better by taking this approach. When I'm tired or a bit stiff I just rest and don't feel guilty about that either!
 
Hi @BizzyLizzy , I'm so pleased you've done your "Lit and Phil" walk. And the cup of tea must have tasted double good. Sounds like a beautiful area where you live. I'm not so familiar with the north of the UK - I know southern England better. My husband was brought up in Welwyn Garden City, and then "Granny" moved to West Hampstead in the north of London - we often went visiting with the children. But in 2000 we did go to the Shetlands were my brother-in-law lives with his wife. We had a great time. Keep up the good walking! Constanze
 
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