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THR May is here!

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PrincessMay. I've been catching up on your thread and am hoping you found some attractive "behinds" to check out while improving your gait. I haven't tried that but it might make my walks more interesting. Seriously, wanted to share that when I find myself slipping into a limp tightening my abs seems to help. This is probablyly obvious to the world but I just figured it out. Better late than never.

I have never perfected The Glare but I can do the NYer crazy lady on the train look, which is also effective. How have your bus rides been? Hope uneventful.
 
LeeApril26 - OH my gosh - YES - I had forgotten about the tightening of the abs thing. I used to do that ALL the time before the surgery. It was almost the only way I could move. I'm going to start doing that again. Thanks!

I tell you what - I might need to be more careful of who I follow and immitate. My hip and my glutes (even the non-operated side) really hurt last night. I must have really been "swinging" by hips from side to side in an exaggerated immitation or something. And I was trying to take bigger steps. Ow.
 
Early time in your recovery PM.. you are not ready for dancing yet with that swinging the hip movement..

Don't forget to ice, if you have an event like that and you experience pain. Icing is going to be your new best friend for life following a THR :)
 
Poppet said:
Early time in your recovery PM.. you are not ready for dancing yet with that swinging the hip movement..Don't forget to ice...
Click to expand...

Poppet - oh yeah baby! You are so right - and I know it. I was up and down all night with the ice. I'm struggling through the last hour of the last day of my second week at work...whew.
 
I have just had an epiphany! I'll bet I got those restrictions last week from the OS's PA because... I did a little sashay down the hall flourishing my cane, and the nurse saw me and told the PA and he figured I walked like that all the time. Huh. Thanks PrincessMay for jumpstarting my thoughts!
I find pulling the abs up to help too, but I'm not at all ready to lengthen the stride much.
 
Hold that thought.. The weekend, two glorious days off PM ... Rest up honey, this is the time to recharge your batteries.. It is not easy working and trying to recover from a THR..
 
PrincessMay Sounds like you found an Elvis impersonator out there. Next time look for an uptight one! Today the PT told me that if you tighten your abs and lift your torso you take the equivalent of ten pounds of weight off of your knees. Interesting.
I went to PT today and then met a friend for lunch. First time I scheduled two things in one day. Am currently surrounded by ice packs.
Hope you can rest this weekend. Congratulations on successfully completing week two!
zauberflöte So you were penalized for sashaying? Not fair.
 
How are you today, PrincessMay? I guess I should now perfect my Old Lady Leer while I check out the arses in front of me while watching people walk. That's a good tactic, though of course have to avoid imitating bad gaits. I have been like Narcissus (spelling?), watching myself in a full-length mirror, or as I approach windows on the street, to see how my walking looks. I, who has avoided looking at my full-length self for years, so unhappy with my Girth That Will Not Budge.

When I mentioned bending, I wasn't thinking about "breaking the rule." I just meant bending over even a little bit, to lift something, seems to make my lower back complain. And carrying anything remotely heavy-ish makes my hip, butt cheek, and groin complain. I feel like telling my whole lower body to "Shut up, already! I hear you, I hear you!! I get it, already!"

I'm the last person on the planet to know that sucking in your gut helps prevent a limp. Wish I had practiced that prior to surgery, when I was really limping horribly. I will try to be mindful of that now. Yet another thing I learned not from the OS but from the BoneSmartonians!

I hope your last week went well....
 
Peaches pulling up the abs was impossible for me pre-op. It stretches the groin something fierce, too fierce in the pain dept to do at all. So I leaned, and I waddled with the triangle stance. I really ought to make a HUGE note to self that now I am doing it without even stopping to thank my OS! Thank you Dr Carter! I can pull up out of my hips now!!:egypdance:
 
Hi, zauberflöte ... well, at least you tried to do it pre-op. I didn't even know about it! So glad you can do it now.
I'm serious when I ask this: Is "sucking in your gut" the same as "pulling in your abs"? I tried the former yesterday, while walking. Too soon to tell if it made a difference.
 
Peaches. The PT said to pull (abs/gut) them in and up. You feel as if you've grown taller. Never really did this before, though I've been taught it, but it does seem to help.
 
Peaches LeeApril26 I think there are two different things going on, (or more if you're a belly dancer...). The one I know best is the "up" pull, which is a dancer's posture, pulling up out of the hips. Your belly muscles go straight up, and as I feel it, in somewhat as a side effect. It gives you a certain profile as a dancer, and a flexibility in the hips that wouldn't be there otherwise. The tailbone heads a little towards the floor also as the glutes engage. Not "tucking your tail", but... ah heck maybe somebody will find this on Youtube LOL
Ok, just spent 20 minutes watching ballet videos, but they're advanced beyond what we're talking about...:rotfl: it was fun tho...heard things that took me back 25 years, sigh... :)
 
Peaches LeeApril26 and @zauberflote - I think we are talking about the tummy muscle that is really hard to get to that my pre-surgery PT person discussed with me when we were trying to wake up dormant muscles to help my poor exhausted hip-flexor (psoas) muscle move my damaged hip. To find it, lie on your back, breath in deep and then let ALL the air out slowly untill you feel something way down in your gut, next to your back bone engage and it kind of presses up against your back. That is the well hidden stomach muscle that I try to use while walking. The challenge is to "find it" by letting all my air out - and then continue to breath while walking and keep it engaged. It also feels strangely good in a "back stretching" sort of way. I think this is what Zuaberflote is also talking about - it forces your pelvis/tailbone under, like tucking your tail. Hope that makes sense...I do it all the time while lying AWAKE all night because it feels good for my back. And it's easier to keep it engaged by breathing shallow after finding the darn thing while lying in bed versus trying not to lose it but breath while walking. You can also stand up against a wall and do this to feel how your pelvis and lower back roll under and stretch.
 
PrincessMay Thanks. That's helpful info. I have the hardest time remembering to engage abs, but it does work if I do it correctly. Will practice what you advise.
 
As usual, I am the village idiot, not having a clue what this entails. I keep thinking, "suck in your gut; shoulders back." Then, of course, the "heel, toe, heel, toe" routine I've read about on Bonesmart. Tried doing all three, sans cane, and someone (trying to be helpful) told me I was walking kinda funny and stiff. So then I tried just walking naturally, without the cane, and was told by someone else (again, trying to be helpful) that I was kind of limping or listing. And I had no clue I was limping/listing; I thought I was walking normally, for the first time in years. I went from elated to deflated in about five minutes.
 
Oh Peaches! Stay away from these helpful people. Can they compare how you felt and walked before surgery til now? Do they have video? Right now, when we get tired we wobble or limp. To walk properly, I have to take a deep breath when I stand, pull in my abs and lead with the bad leg. If I lead with the good leg, I seem to drag the bad one. Can't figure out why. I'm sure we all have less than perfect walks at seven weeks. Don't let them deflate you! Look at all you are doing.
Sorry. I am feeling uppity today. Decided to take the bus to meet a friend and did it. I am elated, and the first person who tries to deflate me is going to get whacked with my cane. :)
 
LeeApril26, I share your elation at that first bus ride--and I take it you did not have some horrible pillow to sit on! I was just thinking today, on the bus ride home, how freeing it is to not worry about the bus rides anymore (because of the pillow). Taking the bus is a big step toward freedom and getting back to normal life!
Don't worry: These people were really not at all being mean. THEY didn't deflate me. I was deflated by not walking without a limp when it felt to me like it was normal. I am so bloody tired of thinking and thinking and thinking of doing this and not doing that. I have no clue what you guys are talking about. I try to walk erect, with good posture, suck in my gut, shoulders back, mindful of the heel toe heel toe thing. Beyond that, for crying outloud, what more can I do. These people were responding to me being elated that I was cane less. I am certain they were not picking on me. I even asked them to tell me if I'm limping, because honestly I cannot tell. And I am so tired of the overanalysis that being a THR patient requires one to be. It's been a rough week workwise for other reasons, as you can tell. Don't mind me. I am truly so thrilled for you and that bus ride!
 
LeeApril26, no apologies necessary. I appreciate your supporting me. I would be the first to say so if I thought they were being jerks. I just felt bad letting them take the rap for something they didn't deserve. I have never had a good connection with my body, can't follow instructions for doing this or that with this body part or that. Like I said, I just know to suck in the gut, throw the shoulders back, don't slump, etc. Beyond that it is too overanalytical and I don't get it. And thinking about every move while trying to move is too much.
 
Ladies (LeeApril26 Peaches) - don't make me dig up Josephine's article on how long it takes the various tissues to heal. We are doing great. The limping will come and go - and one day it will just go! And if it doesn't just go...that's what a good PT person is for - to teach us to walk normal again, if we need it.

I'm feeling particularily "feisty" today - I got FOUR hours of sleep between midnight and 4am. Woo-hoo! And I'm only halfway through my 4 shot latte. Look out everyonw!
 
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