10 Weeks Post Op & Starting PT

I recently found my surgical report and have been slowly and surely trying to understand what the heck is says… This week marked my “right anterior hip arthrotomy with repair of acetabular labral detachment, osteoplasty of femoral head and neck, and RPAO – officially.

I started PT this last week after starting back to work last week - definitely a shock to the system. The day I started work I had a couple stitches pop through and 2 holes opened up in my incision. Well a couple days later another hole opened and a 4^th was threatening to but a trip to the Dr., some antibiotic cream and gauze bandaging has allowed them to close back up. Yay! I took it as a sign of doing too much too soon – all at once. My job is not really strenuous but is a lot of sitting upright at a desk though. I am going to start the year off pretty busy and unless I were to give away some of my caseload or one of my schools for awhile – I really can’t take it easy. I have a feeling I am going to love being at both of my schools and am excited to work with both of my teams so it bums me out that I have basically driven home in tears everyday. Before work started I stopped taking pain meds during the night and when I woke up to see if I could make it through the workday. I was making it until about 2-3 before I was super bitchy and really needing to take something. Well…. At work…. I am only making it to about noon before I hit that same pain mark but I am at work so… I told my co-workers to ask for favors and schedule meetings early in the day for the next couple weeks. ;)

I started PT and I already am very unsure of my therapist. After reading some of the posts on here and wanting to be very sure of starting PT I decided to go with my local OS’s suggestion for PT because he refers out most for PAOs and he does the follow-up for Dr. Mayo’s patients in AK and the PT office is affiliated with his same clinic. I had a previous PT that I liked from last year when I injured myself. She was the reason I was sent in the direction that led to my diagnosis. She was the one who suspected the labral tear and requested that they do an MRI. I wrote Dr. Mayo’s office and asked for a copy of the PT protocol so I could pick an office. They stated that Dr. Prevost (my local OS) has been taking care of their patients for years and they would agree with whoever he suggested as they would be aware of their very specific PT protocol.

Well I don’t think the therapist I was paired with is aware. When I walked in… my first introduction to her… She says “soooo, you’re still on crutches??” I said “yeah.” Then she said, “soooo, your surgery was in June right?” “Yes.” “Is there a reason you waited so long to start PT?” ………….. um yes. I was a little taken aback and felt slightly like a errant child. I said – “well when I went in 2.5 weeks ago for my follow-up, the x-rays showed that the bones weren’t quite healed and he told me to wait 2 more weeks.”

I was starting to wonder if this woman even read my file. Then after the initial exam she tells me that we are going to start slowly because she is worried we are going to be competing with pain issues and starts going over the exercises she wants me to start with. I only have three but one of them is a clamshell with a resistance band. I paused and said I wasn’t sure I was supposed to do that. I said that I wasn’t quite sure when the restrictions were lifted on the abductions and straight leg raises. She tells me she is pretty sure it is fine but we can start with the lowest resistance band and she will double check. I did one or two – not to her liking because I didn’t get my leg out as far as she wanted. I didn’t care because I wasn’t sure I should do it anyway. The other exercises are an adduction with a pillow and bridges. I am supposed to do 30 reps once a day.

Well I sent a message to Dr. Mayo’s office and explained that I wasn’t sure when my restrictions (straight leg raises & abduction) were lifted that I didn’t know if it was at the 8-10 week mark or if it was at a couple months. The response I got back this morning was “We prefer that you never do straight leg rises. You may begin active abduction at this time but we prefer you do them standing nor side lying against gravity”… So I am guessing if I shouldn’t do them against gravity then I shouldn’t be doing them again resistance bands, right?

Never?!? Never do straight leg raises. Never run… Suddenly the enormity of all this hit me again. I cried. Driving home hurting like hell on Friday – all I could think about was running. I was listening to a song that I have never ran to but all I could think about how good it would be to run to. I felt like I did very little at PT but still hurt like hell as a result. I can barely make it through my days. I am not sleeping well and my left hip has been starting to ache on a daily basis – that familiar deep achy pain that I am pretending isn’t there… But to be honest… by the end of the day, driving home, I almost can’t tell which side is hurting worse because my entire pelvis aches. Also... sitting on the toilet hurts. This is depressing.

The husband and I were talking about caribou hunting and he said “next year… blah blah blah” and I said – we said that last year and look where I am now – I am not far enough into the tunnel to see the light at the end of yet. And I am so tire of my crutches. I want to throw them away but I am afraid I might even need them again for the other side…. Sigh.

Maybe next week will be better.

Incision - 10 Weeks