THR Spongebob's Recovery Journey

[Layla]

What would you like the new title to be?
@Spongebob

 

[Spongebob]

What would you like the new title to be?
@Spongebob

Surprise me

 

[Layla]

If you come up with a title you'd rather have, let us know and we'll edit accordingly.
Have a good week!
@Spongebob

 

[Spongebob]

Right been a while just though I would post a quick update I had a mri scan 4 weeks ago and I'm still awaiting the results but I had a x-ray 4 weeks ago and my surgeon told me it all looked perfect sitting perfectly so I have to assume the ache I'm getting is a muscle issue (inflammation) and more healing time I suppose did anyone on here have groin ache past the 10 months mark as he did say it could be up to 2 years :(

 

[Jamie]

Sorry you have to wait so long to learn the results of your MRI. That must feel very frustrating. I hope it provides some information about your soft tissues that helps you know more about your recovery. Even though you’re having pain, it is good that the implant is in good shape. If it’s any consolation, I’m still working with my hip that was done a year ago August. It’s not the implant. It’s all soft tissue issues and I expect it to be quite a while longer before it’s resolved. I‘m getting some new orthotics in a week or so and plan to go back to physical therapy after the first of the year to get help with my mild pain and stiffness and muscle weakness.

 

[Charlie33]

@Spongebob like Jamie I've been in and out of stiffness and mild tissue pain since surgery a year ago. My pain comes primarily from under the incision (I had a posterior), and on the opposite side from my other arthritic hip. The 'hole' in my left butt cheek is now filling in with muscle for the first time since I can remember!

As I continue to exercise, increase load and active range of motion, both hips, slowly but surely, continue to calm down. So, as long as the implant is in good shape (which it is) you and I have to contend with biomechanics that have been out of whack for much much longer than many folks here at a younger age, so everything comes down to 1) building active range of motion and 2) increasing load and 3) retraining your central nervous system to know it can operate in wider ranges and increased load and NOT experience pain. This last point is key, and the hardest part to calculate into fine tuning a recovery approach.

I once read Sylvester Stallone say it took him 4 years to achieve a body type for a movie. What does this tell me? results can take a long time!

I feel good enough to play hockey again (almost pulled the pads out) but my gut says 'no' until I've really nailed down further strength gains, improved agility (ballistic motion, jumping). On my walks I started jogging a bit, not because I want to return to running but to train the fast twitch muscle fibers. Again, ALL of this is super personal to me and my situation, just giving some detail (which I declined to do previously!) to get you in the zone for how someone similar thinks about things!

Last thing; check out 'knees over toes' guy on you tube. Basic things like backward walking (carefully on level surface, preferably on non motorized treadmill) can help in recovery too; there are also other easy to perform exercises that can train muscles and connective tissue (tib/fib raises at high reps pretty cool)

Great update, keep us posted!

 

[myglasshalffull]

Hi Sponge,
Yes, still get groin ache now & then. I think a lot of us get aches & pains off & on for awhile.
I'll feel 100% normal then maybe week or two later have some numbness or an ache but I just go about my day to day cause I've learned to listen to what the hip is telling me and make any necessary adjustment.
I wish you a happy holiday season...you are coming right up on one year anniversary soon!!!

 

[newguy]

Spongebob, I had the same pains up to 14-16 months post op. X rays were fine doc said he cut all kinds of things during surgery. Today 2 years later jogging 30+ miles a week 67 years old ZIP none nada pain. It is great . It all resolved. How ? No idea. Must be what doc said TIME heals! It was a car wreck!!!

 

[Spongebob]

Spongebob, I had the same pains up to 14-16 months post op. X rays were fine doc said he cut all kinds of things during surgery. Today 2 years later jogging 30+ miles a week 67 years old ZIP none nada pain. It is great . It all resolved. How ? No idea. Must be what doc said TIME heals! It was a car wreck!!!

Thanks @newguy So i suppose the groin ache I have at 11 months is normal in recovery after what we went through in surgery and can take some time for everything internally to settle down like you 14-16 months and TIME HEALS!! So more time will be my friend and it should fade off people have told me that it will be like wow where has that ache gone

 

[Layla]

Merry Christmas, SpongeBob!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday spending time with those you love. May 2024 be a great year!

@Spongebob

 

[Spongebob]

Merry Christmas, SpongeBob!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday spending time with those you love. May 2024 be a great year!

@Spongebob

And to you @Layla hope you have a good 1 too and I really really hope 2024 is a life changing year for me

 

[Spongebob]

Afternoon my lovely Hippy friends it's my 1 year hippaversary today and I think I'm starting to turn a corner I feel better physically and mentally the hip still aches but I have a bit of tendinitis being caused by weak muscles (but it does not say which muscles i presume glutes from surgery according to My mri report) in there so hopefully now I'm working with a personal trainer to help me get my hip muscles stronger it will settle down (well here's me hoping) I feel stronger mentally at the minute did anyone else have tendinitis in there hip this far down the line

 

[Layla]

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
Glad to read you're feeling better mentally and physically, SpongeBob.
Go easy with the trainer and hopefully the tendinitis resolves soon. I'm sure others will respond here also.
Best Wishes!
@Spongebob

 

[Jamie]

I’m happy to hear that you’re feeling better and working on the strengthening your muscles. It will be a slow process, so be prepared for that. They didn’t get weak over a short period of time and building them up will take some time. But you’ve learned how to be patient and look forward to better times.

I have muscle weakness also and am working on it…and I’m over a year out from surgery. So you are not alone in working with this problem.

 

[Charlie33]

Great to hear you're on the upswing! My biggest issue or 'pain' has been glute medius on operated leg which had withered/atrophied. Lots of dull ache type pain. I've been doing side lying leg raises with light weight at high reps (do 20 and the last rep should be as easy as the first) since September to both reactivate and strengthen this muscle. Link below to nice early version of this exercise I used with no advertising so hope moderators think ok! Very slow, takes time.

Side Lying Hip Abduction

- [Narrator] Side lying hip abduction.Begin by lying down on your side with your top leg straight and your bottom leg bent for support.Lift your top leg up t...

www.youtube.com

 

[Spongebob]

@Charlie3 Thats great to hear. Was your ache in groin/hip area? also how many reps a day do you do and how much weight do you use also do you put weight on ankles?
And have you noticed a difference in ache has it gone down

 

[hhhooray]

Hey there spongie! I'm 21 months out and I had weakness and soreness for over a year. Even now I have to constantly work on my glute medius and hip flexor strength. My hip flexor is still not 100% as strong as before the THR and I exercise A LOT. What has been most helpful to me is a consistent exercise regimen and LOTS of walking! Swimming with PROPER form (kicking from the hip, not the knees) is a good too. Like life, it's a marathon not a sprint. Happy New Year!

 

[Spongebob]

Hey there spongie! I'm 21 months out and I had weakness and soreness for over a year. Even now I have to constantly work on my glute medius and hip flexor strength. My hip flexor is still not 100% as strong as before the THR and I exercise A LOT. What has been most helpful to me is a consistent exercise regimen and LOTS of walking! Swimming with PROPER form (kicking from the hip, not the knees) is a good too. Like life, it's a marathon not a sprint. Happy New Year!

Thanks for that and happy new to you too when you say you exercise alot what do you do?
And so muscle weakness casuing inflammation after 12 months is pretty normal then and if I work on strenghing my hip muscles it should settle it down
What is the consistent exercise regimen you do

 

[Mojo333]

@Spongebob
Belated 1st year Hipversary



I was still dealing with niggles at one year post op also....
Make sure you do all the suggested exercises in moderation and build up slowly to strengthen weak parts so you dont end up dealing with additional pains.... lots of great advice from Folks above.
You have done very well!

 

[Charlie33]

@Charlie3 Thats great to hear. Was your ache in groin/hip area? also how many reps a day do you do and how much weight do you use also do you put weight on ankles?
And have you noticed a difference in ache has it gone down

It is on the outer hip by the greater trochanter. I have not had inner groin pain as you describe.

I do have fixed flexion contractures (shortened hip flexors). To help with this I do Dead bugs (non commercial video below). This exercise was helpful to both strengthen and lengthen muscles as lowering your leg is an eccentric movement. Donkey kicks also help. Both are unweighted and I noticed stiffness in hip flexors (grumpy feeling) when I started which continued for a few months. Over time when the muscle lengthens and the collagen matrix from your facia (a spiderweb of tissue that covers all muscles in the human body) expands and rehydrates around your muscles, strength and function increased and pain decreased. Rule #1: when starting a new exercise, you should be able to do 10-15 reps where the last rep was as easy as the first. Finally you should work on proprioception, or your body's sense of where it is in space. Start with balancing on one leg for 30 seconds. You can progress this into a compound movement over time.

Gentle yet challenging exercises that force you to balance and move through many ranges and planes of motion have helped the most. I work on strength 2-3 times a week, doing a '2 day on' (legs one day, upper body the next day) and 'one day off'.

On my day off twice a month (and sadly not covered by insurance) I get a full body massage (only started this after one year) focusing on releasing the facia from the tip of my head to the bottom of my feet. It is medium pressure, NEVER painful during or after. I am 14 months post op and still making gains in range and strength. I am NOT super strong in my operated hip... muscle reactivation, facia repair/expansion and neuromuscular reprograming take lots of time and patience. I still have soft tissue pain here and there but sloooooooowly resolving over time.

Supplements: I take a multivitamin, magensium citrate (thanks @Layla), Vitamin D w/calcium and a supplement for inflammation that has turmeric, ginger root, white willow and MSM for inflammation. And this is just me, please do your own research on supplements, talk to your Doc first and research interactions with other medications (tumeric for example may interfere with high blood pressure medication).

For me, I also don't believe in repetitive motion exercises anymore (like running and long bike rides). In moderation I like to jog a little bit during walks simply to keep fast twitch fibers activated. I like sitting on the floor, foam rolling and acting like a like on the playground as that's how our bodies were designed to move...not sitting or remaining in a particular position all day.

Today at 55 my hip moves better than it at 35 when the doc said 'you need a hip by 40'. But unwinding all those years of muscle dysfunction and atrophy like many here our collective cross to bear. Time, loads of patience and discipline to work through setbacks (I've had two notable ones since surgery).

For 2024? lots of continued study, work and improvement all while improving my other 'bad' hip to virtually pain free and stronger than operated hip (which I was told needed replacing in September 2023).

How did I learn all of this crazy terminology and approach? All of this I learned through you tube, reading academic papers on hip replacements, trial and error on what worked best for my body and distinguishing between good pain (reactivating grumpy muscles/tendons/ligaments) and bad pain.

Do I spend all my time on this? No LOL! Biggest lesson post op? The first three months follow all Bonesmart teachings. Post 3 months recovery starts to become very individual IMHO.

Long post, have never posted like this before....but hopefully gives insights in how to 'solve' the riddle of your own situation through a structured, disciplined process. And idea is the seed, water is the execution .

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

BoneSmart Administrative Note: The two exercises linked above should not be attempted until at least 6 month following surgery.