BUT... the purpose of this post is to show you the before and after X-rays. That's what you've been looking for, right? One image was taken a month before surgery, and the other 10 days after.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Before and After
I'm trundling along, using a cane for longer distances and otherwise nuttin'. I still feel some tweaks high around the hip that keep me from walking normally at times, especially after sitting still for a while (I feel best right after the stretching in therapy, despite the exercise). I'm not quite ready to stand on my left leg and risk the mortification of tumbling to the floor in a tangled pile of legs and half-engaged u-trou.
BUT... the purpose of this post is to show you the before and after X-rays. That's what you've been looking for, right? One image was taken a month before surgery, and the other 10 days after.
BUT... the purpose of this post is to show you the before and after X-rays. That's what you've been looking for, right? One image was taken a month before surgery, and the other 10 days after.
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2 comments:
Thanks for posting your Post Op experiences. I am a 36 yr old athletic male who has seen a terrible decline in athletic ability due to a degenerative right hip. I've had terrible pain and haven't been able to tie my right shoe for 4 years now. I am scheduled for a birmingham implant in Oct 2007. Any recommendations on pre op fitness workouts?
Any thoughts if one such as myself could return to previous athletic levels? (I used to play racquetball and baseball) Doctor says tennis and bike riding is fine but high impact running is not.
Thanks again for your posts.
Remember that I'm a rock doctor and therefore unqualified really to do anything except report what happened to me...
As for pre-op workouts, it's hard to say. I was in enough pain that my main outlet, cycling, was out. In PT you learn all kinds of things to build back up, but I frankly don't know how much good they would do: if you're experience is like mine, someone will cut a whopping slit in what feels like your ass and then hire Ryan Howard to beat on your quadriceps for two hours (that is a joke...I think). So how much fitness and muscle tone will survive the surgery and 1-2 weeks of little to modest motion... I dunno. at 4.5 weeks, my biggest issue is stiffness in the joint and a little soreness in what feels like the rotators, and it seems that more healing and stretching are the way forward there.
My doctor kind of joked that in some ways he prefers limp out of shape patients because it's easier to work on the hip, compared to muscled up athletes. You'll have to talk to your doctor about that, and in the end you are what you are. I suppose it couldn't hurt to have some strength around your hip, but for me the return of strength through therapy has roughly matched the healing and return of flexibility, so there's time to get that strength back.
As for eventual return to activities, you really need to listen to your doctor and also accept your situation and the risk benefit. It maybe that your anatomy makes impact sports an issue. If not, reading I've done suggests it's more a matter of how long you want the implant to last. Assuming that your femoral neck is sound, if you start running, playing squash, and so forth, it seems logical that the implant might wear out sooner. If life is not worth living for you without those activities, you can make the choice, but then maybe you face a conventional replacement sooner rather than later. And the problem with that is, given your age, that if you live a full life, even that second replacement will need to be repaired, and your back to looking at revision surgery, which by all accounts is not pretty.
Frankly, the nice weather here in eastern PA has got me actually thinking about riding my bike outside, but up until now I confess that the notion of falling on this hip makes me a little queasy. The problem with the higher impact stuff (I'd love to play squash again) is probably the odd stomp or weird flex that you can't predict or avoid.
If I were you I'd keep asking around, but you may find that you're left with a range of answers that leave you having to make that cost-benefit decision. God, I sound like an old codger, but one thing to consider is your quality of life at 65 or 70 as much as 40.
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