THR Going4fun new hip adventure

C'mon...what are you doing flubbing up a good thing?!! You were doing so well, dancing shoes back on, playing Nurse to your sister, thriving and back at work, now you're hobbling around, huh? :shrug:

All kidding aside, fingers crossed and best wishes it's soft tissue as you're suspecting. Hopefully that's confirmed in the morning. We'll be waiting to hear. Also, congrats on FA, well deserved, glad you're joining us. :)
Wishing you comfort and a relaxing evening!
@Going4fun
 
Well, phooey.. Sorry to read your update, @Going4fun. Here's hoping it's a soft tissue issue (I like how that rhymes) and you will get some reassurances from your Surgeon.

Take care.. please update when you can.
 
I hope your appointment provides you with good news. This whole hip replacement sure is an ongoing process, isn't!?!? Once we get through the initial recovery and to the point where most of the time we forget we even had it done, we're so hopeful that it will be smooth sailing from then on.

And then some little, or big, thing will happen and the worry flares right back up. I am close to 15 months out, and have been in that happy place for a very long time. A few days ago, when I came inside from doing some yard work, I had some throbbing pain in my operated hip. It wasn't terribly painful, but the fact that any pain existed at all really threw me. I took some acetominabphin, iced it, and rested. Later I took an epsom salt bath, and my regular magnesium before I went to bed, and thankfully, by morning it was fine, with no return so far. I hope yours ends up being something similar.

One other thought.....I know you are a teacher (I was too for 38 years before retiring:).) Are your floors basically industrial carpet on concrete slab as most schools are? If so, perhaps that is affecting your leg/hip/knee. I know it really is hard on those of us who stand and walk on it full time. Perhaps some different shoes with better "shocks" on them would help?? Or maybe a little less standing/walking while at work for awhile? Just brainstorming.:flwrysmile:
 
:wave: @Going4fun and I'm so happy to have you on the team.
I am sorry this new glitch has become worrisome and I know for me, the xrays would be a great reassurance.
Don't know how long you've been back to your jogging and running but I'm guessing you have curtailed any impact type activity for the time being?
Even with a soft tissue issue of some sort...it may not like absorbing the shock.
Sending good mojo your way.
 
No, I'm sorry, @Going4fun! You are not allowed to have any setbacks at this point, it's forbidden! I join the chorus in wishing you the best and that your overabundant caution in returning to the surgeon will be repaid with the result that your implant is fine and it's probably just your pesky muscles/soft tissues deciding to act up for some reason. Hang in there, it's a process and there will be ups and downs for all of us. Best wishes, and hope to read relieved report from you shortly.
 
Good news: I saw my surgeon this afternoon,,and he said my hip was looking fantastic. On his monitor, he called up the X-ray from June and placed it side-by-side with the X-ray from today.He pointed to all the areas around the device and said there was great bone grow-in. He guessed that my issue might be a quad problem ...

Anyway, mission accomplished: he assured me that I could rule out the device as the issue causing my random weakness in the lower quad. My next task: I'll experiment and pay attention and see if I can find any patterns to this feeling. And I'll most likely consult my PT.

That's the good news. Now to the great news, which this issue stepped on.

Two weekends ago I attended a blues dance weekend with live bands and workshops and classes. I dance three plus hours on Friday night and three plus hours on Saturday night. After the first night, I felt some soreness around my hip incision ... I came home and iced and rubbed some lidocaine on the sore area.

Saturday afternoon, I attended a couple of workshops ... and then Saturday night, if anything, I danced harder and this time felt nothing afterwards, not the soreness from Friday night, nothing.

It has been my goal to be able to dance through an intense weekend and I was able to do that. I feel very fortunate. But let me raise the stakes here. Blues dancers are young, as in 80 percent of the attendees over this weekend were probably in their 20s. Some of the teachers who ran workshops were in their 30s. Yes, I might have been the oldest person there.

Well within this young energetic crowd, I danced with this one woman ... who was the fastest, most energetic dancer I've paired with in years. Blues dance is usually slow but the Saturday night band played a few uptempo soul and rock n’ roll songs. And wow, did this woman cut loose. She was a beginner, and sometimes beginners can really be musical because they don’t know enough technique to be constrained by technique. They allow themselves to have fun and dance.

Cut to 12:20 a.m. Saturday night-Sunday morning ... The band leader announces another fast song to close out the night. (Might have been Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode.") Well ... I look around and see Miss Energetic Dancer and notice that she didn't appear to be partnered with anyone. I approached her and said, "For the final song, I want to dance with the fastest dancer in this place. That's you."

She laughed and took my hand, and we found a spot on the floor. The music started and just like before, she explodes. She hopped, jumped, bounced, kicked, twisted … danced on one leg and then the other … all the while keeping the rhythm. And I did the same, keeping right up with her." I mean, she does not relent. And she’s smiling and laughing the entire time. At one point, I realize, I’m not at all winded. Progress! I’m getting in better shape!

The music ends, and we thank each other and say how much fun we had ... and then I tell Miss Energetic Dancer, "I had hip surgery last year."

She gave this me this long, skeptical look. "No way would I have thought that you had surgery," she said. "No way! ... That's amazing." Funny: my mind refused to take in her words. Then I realize, OMG, Miss Energetic Dancer knows nothing about me and surgery. She’s not being encouraging. She’s honestly reacting!

Attending that dance weekend was a milestone--and I hit it at 13 months, which might be longer than I had hoped ... but frankly felt right on time.

Thank everyone for the BS encouragement and wisdom along the way. I look forward to being a forum advisor and returning the favor. The journey continues.
 
All I can say is :wow:. Great news from the surgeon and I'm tired after reading about your dancing all weekend!.:happydance:
 
First off, its great to read that all is well with the prosthetic. You had us a little concerned. I can imagine what a relief you felt today. Hopefully this doesn't happen again and if it does, your PT is able to help you do some strengthening, or whatever is needed.

Amazing, all the dancing you were able to endure without paying for it the next day. I wish An54 could read this. She'd really appreciate it. It sounds like you thoroughly enjoyed yourself and I'll bet it felt good to get back to something you have such a great love for. I'm happy for you!

Glad all is well. Have a great evening!
@Going4fun
 
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Going4fun.. I'm sure you are so relieved!! Quad issues can be annoying but hey, they can be handled, right?

the dancing sounds like a blast! You had a goal and you met it.

And now you are a forum advisor and I agree, it's so good to give back to the amazing site.

Congrats, sir!
 
Sheesh, @Going4fun, I am totally winded after reading your posting--all that dancing sounds totally exhausting! But, oh, so much fun and you were able to do it with such apparent ease and without suffering mightily afterwards. I am sure Miss Energetic Dancer was being honestly complimentary, and blown away by your revelation of hip replacement surgery. Hurray for you--such a positive and encouraging post to read. And congrats on your new forum advisor role, I know you'll be great at that. Cheers, and happy November 1!
 
:wave:@Going4Fun
Thank goodness it's Hump Day:happydance:
Hope things are easing and when you get home you don't mind going back to rest, ice, and elevate...I did whenever things seemed to get sideways...I believe almost up to a year, though not necessary as often.
Hope today is a Good Day.
 
@Mojo333 ... yes, I'm taking things kinda easy ... I get a soreness up high when I exercise hard ... this above the knee feeling was new and didn't seem related to exercises.

I just ordered a new icepack that I can use ... it has straps ... very easy to put on ... then throw in the freezer ... and put on again when I need. I wore out the last one I had--had bought that one for knee problems 5 years ago.
 
Sounds like a fancy but practical ice pack, @Going4fun, although sorry you needed a new one. My knee that was twinging away seems to have settled down, just another bump on the recovery road. Keep on plugging along, and glad you're taking it kind of easy--bet you'll feel better soon and be running around shortly. Take care of yourself!
 
Thanks @Barbaraj, I really am trying to be curious about this new issue ... haven't felt it much this week. Of course, now that my surgeon has ruled out a device problem, my anxiety level has gone way down ... and my system is giving itself permission not to worry ....

One early hypothesis ... my leg acts up when I don't exercise ... and sitting in a recliner for long periods isn't good ... also treadmill running may be leading to weak hamstrings ... which apparently don't have to work very hard on the treadmill compared to outside.

You seem like you're plugging along ... you've climbed the steepest part of the hill with your second hill ... still some uphill walking but not as steep as in those first months, I hope.
 
Good Saturday morning, @Going4fun Yup, I am trudging along and it's much easier than it was only a month ago. Still not 100% but given that I'm not quite four months out, this is understandable. Still thinking 2020 will be a wonderful year, and goal is to get to a point when I do NOT think about either hip at all. I suspect your pains are just a temporary setback for you and when you step back, figure out how to move forward and do so carefully and sensibly, those pains will ease. I agree that finding the right combination of exercise and rest is critical, we are all constantly recalibrating.
 
Time for my two-year update. I really enjoyed reading other people's later updates when I first discovered this board, so I figure I'll post mine at two years, which is coming up in a few days.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with my hip. It's given me what I wanted: the chance to dance, to run, to play, to be active, to walk and on and on. Really the chance to feel physically free and yes, young again. The journey to getting really active took longer than I thought and I was helped by five months of physical therapy that I did starting six months after my surgery. I loved my PT, such a sharp and compassionate woman. I had never formed a real bond with a pt before and never had attended a setting where patients talked to each other and cracked jokes and bantered with each other. I stayed five months because my therapist was convinced I had to get A LOT stronger in order to be as active as I wanted to be. And I stayed five months because therapy was so much fun. We worked on my hip and my back. She had me doing all kind of balance exercises on foam pad (unstable things), using bands for standing forward leg lifts and backward lifts and sideways lifts. And we did a ton of work to activate my glute muscles and to strengthen them. And we worked on my back, which might have been hampering my recovery as well.

And I have to say: one of the best parts of going to physical therapy was the way my therapist basically calmed my nerves and fears. I was very frustrated at six months--though looking back, I realize that six months is still pretty early. I don’t think I understood or appreciated the psychological reassurance of a good pt. When a patient is panicked, you tend to go towards all or nothing thinking. But my pt would point out that yes, I got sore one day, but look at all I was doing compared to before and that I could slow down, but I needed to notice progress.

There haven some glitches. Last fall--ironically while I was visiting my sister who was having bilateral hip surgery--I experienced sudden weakness in the left leg with the new hip. It was like the thigh just suddenly gave way in the middle of just strolling slowly down a block. Strange and surprising--and yes alarming. The only thing that lessened the alarm was that the pain was not searing. Anyway, my surgeon got me in quickly and took a look at the X-rays and said quite confidently that the hip was fusing well to bone, that it looked beautiful. He said I could rule out the device as the problem and speculated that I might have some weak quads.

I was about to call up the PT to come in again when I decided to do a little experimenting. Going to pt for five months has its benefits: I really internalized a lot of how my PT thought. And literally I imagined myself going into to see her again, and I swear I knew exactly how she would react and what she would say. She would react with curiosity and utter calm. And she’d say something along the lines of, “I wonder if your glutes have gone to sleep again. We'll try some things and see.”

So on my own I resumed doing some of the glute exercises she had taught me. One simple one was to squeeze my butt cheeks as I walked. I also performed some of the standing glute exercises I had done. I experimented with weights at the gym.

One exercise surprised me for how much it pushed that sudden weakness away: doing squats. I'm not really sure why squats (with a barbell) worked. But as soon as I would finish a set of ten, my walking felt so much better, strikingly better and more secure. My guess is that the squats strengthened my quads (which fits with my surgeon’s theory). I used to work my quads long before hip pain ... but I had stopped because those kinds of exercises just resulted in the hip aching and screaming at night. I also think the squats forced my muscles up and down the leg on my operated side to talk and cooperate with each other as I lowered myself to the group and raised myself back up.

I continued the standing glute exercises and these episodes of sudden weakness disappeared. I have continued those exercises (which I can do at home) pretty much since then. At this point, I sorta figure I will need to keep working my glutes for as long as I’m on the planet and I’m OK with that.

The pandemic and quarantine forced me out of the gym, and so I began to jog outside. OMG! The difference between running on a treadmill and running on asphalt and pavement was huge! My bones felt it. My back felt it. But I went slow ... and let myself slowly build up my stamina and endurance. Sometimes I would feel soreness around the hip incision, but a little lidocaine helped. But what really helped was icing. I mentioned in an earlier post that last fall I went to a blues dance weekend workshop and gathering. The first night I danced harder than I had in years. My hip (or leg) was sore. I iced that the hip that night and a little the next afternoon. The second night, I returned and danced even harder. No soreness the next day. None. Zero. Zip. I was pleasantly surprised. I wonder if the ice had calmed a sensitive nerve.

I should mention here that my surgeon uses the anterolateral approach--from the side and front, and the areas of weakness I have had are where weakness can occur with the lateral approach. I've been taking dancing classes recently (non-partnered dance and the classes were initially held outside this summer). And I notice that standing on my operated leg, my balance isn't as good as when I stand on the right leg. I recently purchased a foam board so I can practice balancing more on the operated leg.

Now here's an odd thing. When I have soreness after running or notice weakness when balanced on my left leg, I don't say "my hip is acting up." I think rather that "my leg" has some weakness. The hips device in there firmly doing its thing. I can do ten times the activity as before surgery with a fraction of the soreness. I think I have normalized the device and when I have problems I think of it as muscle weakness in my leg. And since I'm no spring chicken, a part of me figures that hip surgery or not, I would experience some aches and pains after running and biking and dancing as often as I do.

The surgery gave me the opportunity to be really active again. I've mentioned my history of depression before, and one way I stave off depression is through exercise. Just the break that exercise affords, the way my mind has to focus on something very concrete and immediate, provides relief. But the sheer joy of movement plays a part as well and the joy of feeling physically--not just mentally--tired. Indeed I eat better when I exercise and I sleep better. I'm so grateful that at age 56 I could undergo a surgery that would allow me to exercise and dance again. I sometimes tell people that I had a “luxury” hip replacement—not done to walk around the block but done to allow me to physically thrive and push myself.

I am thankful to Dr. Matthew Austin of the Rothman Institute. Some days I walk around and I take a random moment to marvel at how stable and normal the hip is, and I'm grateful to the careful and precise Dr. Austin. And I'm grateful for this board, for many reasons, one being that it was on this board that I first really learned that total hip surgeons were getting more comfortable with not placing restrictions on patients after surgery. I had assumed for years leading up to surgery that I would have a resurfacing. When I learned that total hip folks were getting more comfortable with activity after surgery, I knew I wanted to go that route. One day I assume the hip on the right side is going to start crying out in pain. The cartilage has narrowed on that side, though it’s not bone on bone and I have no pain there. When that time comes, I am going straight to surgery, no delays, no denial.

I’m so glad I had the surgery. I’m so proud of myself for deciding to have the surgery while I still walked well and without a limp. I’m proud that I dreamed of a better more active life and believed in that dream. Dr. Austin would not have operated on me (given that I could walk well) if I did not make it clear that I wanted the surgery.
 
Slow and easy does it Paid off for you. lots of good progress and life is back in business.
 
Thanks for the update! I enjoy reading the longer term updates, gives me some ideas of what I can look forward to.
 

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