A week and a half to go till the MARATHON!!!!!

Yikes – is that all!!!

Glad to say that, so far, so good!  Hubby’s left hip is plaguing him! Lol!  (No, not funny really, cos it’s quite sore, but just funny when it’s my hips that should be hurting really!).  We are on the ‘taper’ and enjoying not having to walk so far, and for so long!  I must admit to almost having burnt out at doing soooooo many miles – I will be very glad to get to the finishing line along the Mall.  As for the hips, well both of them are holding up well.  I am getting some pain in my left hip at night time – when I lie on my right side, it starts to hurt, and then turning over is quite painful, but once turned, it doesn’t hurt!  Very weird.  I just hope it is nothing sinister.  My right hip, on the inferior ramus stress fracture is very sore alot of the time, but considering how far we have been walking it is not surprising.  I have found in the last couple of weeks that the twanging and pinging in my left hip is subsiding, as is the discomfort around the stress fracture.  The discomfort is still there but not quite so much.  Well, I think anyway, so I am hoping that once the marathon is out of the way that everything will, indeed, settle.

Exciting news went to my PT and lying on my right side with left leg bent, I could JUST lift my right leg off the bed – all of the depth of a piece of paper, but there was movement.  I was so excited!  And so was she!  I had put off going back to see her, because I was scared that she would say that there was no improvement, but I was wrong.  Yay!

There have been alot of ladies on the Hip Women site either having their ops and about to have them, and I do so feel for them.  I am so glad, despite the problems with my second PAO, that I have got them both out of the way.  I, mentally, feel I am almost back – there is still a little part of ‘me’ that is focused on the stress fracture and healing, but the rest of ‘me’ is here.   My heart goes out to each and every one of them, because I know their fears, and I know for some there is still a long road ahead, but the group is just so supportive, and helpful, there will always be someone there to listen and to give words of help, wisdom and love.   I send my best wishes to them all and hope for a good recovery whatever stage they are at.  They are just Hipfantastic!

Anyway, bed beckons – actually, that’s a lie – a glass of wine beckons, and then bed!

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5 months post-op RPAO

Seems an age in some respect since having had both operations, but not in others.

Having seen Mr Witt and finding out what that damned cricket ball feeling was, I have been mulling over whether to go and have a cortisone injection to allieviate the discomfort.  Well, I booked up for it, but then decided that I really didn’t want to have to go through another anesthetic, lose a day in hospital, for a 50/50 chance of the injection working.  Also added to that the pinging and twanging that is going on in the left hip is sometimes more painful s0 I figured what was the point in having one hip injected when I was getting as much pain from the other!  So I didn’t have it done.

The following Monday we walked 18 miles, and I did start to regret not having had it, as the discomfort is huge, but I have lasted this long, and got this far that I am just going to have to deal with it.  This last Monday, we walked 21 miles in 5 hours and 37 minutes.  The last four miles were in the rain, and we have decided we need waterproof shoes – wet feet for 26 miles does not even bear thinking about.  Four was bad enough!  My pain is tolerable, copious quantities of wine and panadol seem to help a bit and I have started taking Nytol at nighttime to help me sleep through the night – getting fed up with waking up every time I turn over.  Hopefully once I take the strain off my hips, post marathon, and let them rest up for a while, everything will settle down.  I am being very hard on them and realise that this was probably the most stupid idea I have ever come up with, but hey ho, not giving up now! Lol!

Marathon training

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Eureka!!!

Spent the day in London on Monday, seeing Mr Witt.

Going back in time a bit: A couple of weeks ago I was getting pretty fed up with the ‘cricket ball’ sensation that I was having in my lower groin area that I decided to take things into my own hands – literally! Lol!  I had a grope around my nether regions, got my husband to do the same, and then persuaded my physio, Karen, to as well.  I promised her that I would wear lycra shorts and sign a disclaimer that nothing untoward happened (if she was really worried about groping me!).  The end conclusion was that there was definitely a lump – boney – down there that wasn’t on the other side.  Physio hadn’t a clue as to what it might be, so I then decided to contact my surgeon and bring forward my appointment from 1st March to 15th February, and persuaded them to let me have another x-ray done.

So went up to London, had the x-ray done, and then went in to see Johan.  He checked my range of movements, and then asked where I was feeling discomfort from.  I told him that it was all around under my buttock, but that the real pain and discomfort came from ‘this’ point, and put my finger onto the lump.  It was then that he said that in fact this latest x-ray had shown up calcification to the bone, indicating a fracture, at exactly the point that I had my finger on!  He was very apologetic that he had missed it on my x-ray taken at 6 weeks post-op, but said that it was only now, due to the calcification showing up on this latest one, that he was able to go back and see it on the previous one.  It was a HUGE sense of relief, in some ways, to know that I was not completely imagining it, and that I really did ‘know my own body’!  There is nothing really that can be done about it, except for taking ibuprofen for the discomfort.  The bone itself is healing and the calcification will eventually be re-absorbed into the body, apparently, so eventually over the next two years, the lump will go.  If the discomfort continues, I can have a cortisone injection in a couple of months time.  So it was nice to know that I can get something done, albeit not a lot!

I can’t wait to see Karen’s face when I see her this afternoon for physio.  Mr Witt has said that he will look into what might have caused it to fracture – I would be interested, but not from a ‘financial gain’ point of view – that sort of thing doesn’t interest me.  But I would like to know how or why it happened, because at 10 days post-op, I knew that there was something not right!!!

So it has been a week of feeling, as Marcie put it, ‘vindicated’!!! She got it spot on.  Yay!

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Three months Post- Op!

Well Hello!

It’s been a while – Christmas and all that!

To be honest, I was struggling pre-Christmas, to just function.  Brain and body were in a massive argument.  Brain was not impressed with body not being able to do what it wanted it to do, so stormed off in a huff!  I just wafted around the house, day in day out, in a complete fog.  It was only when I got to 9 days before Christmas that I realised that if I didn’t get off my butt and start doing some shopping of some sort, the Christmas tree was going to be very bare of presents.  So I spent three days sat at the computer ordering everything I could think of.  Then I spent one day out in town doing the rest of the stuff that was needed.  Christmas Eve dawned and I went for my hydro session, did  a few last minute grocery purchases, went home and spent the afternoon and evening wrapping presents.  I went to bed by 11.30 p.m. (a rather spectacular feat, considering in years gone by I have been up until 3 a.m. wrapping and I wasn’t on crutches) and I woke to a perfect Christmas Day!!!  Yay, there is a God!

We had a fabulous day, relaxed, fun, and everything was just right! 🙂  Except for our darling Ella, our dog, who had a bit of intermittent limping.  I thought that maybe she had tweaked her shoulder, so the day after Boxing Day we took her into the vets.  He recommended she had an xray.

I was down to one crutch by this point, so started going out on the dog walks – slowly and carefully, but it was lovely to be back out again.  We weren’t going far, because of Ella, but it was still just so nice.

We celebrated the New Year by going to some friends on the Eve, for drinks and nibbles early evening, and then saw the New Year in at home.  I decided to ditch the crutch that evening, so started 2010 ‘sans crutch’!!  I was just so determined that there would be no crutches this year – I have used them way too much in 2009 for my liking!  So that put me at 9 weeks and two days.

We then got the devastating results of Ella’s xray – bone cancer.  And prognosis of 4 – 6 weeks.  We have all been gutted.  To look at her, she looks like there is nothing wrong, and to think that she could possibly, now, only have a week to three weeks left with us is too hard to think about.  I really don’t know what we will do without her.

The day after getting her results it SNOWED!  LIKE IT HAS NEVER SNOWED IN THE UK IN MY LIFETIME!!!  We had a foot and a half of fabulous white stuff – AND ELLA HAD A BLAST!  Got some great shots of her, which made my day.

So, now, back to the hip stuff.  Well, I am now officially 3 months post-op RPAO and 8 months 8 days post-op LPAO.  My left is good – I occasionally get twanges from deep in the butt where something is working extra hard because of the right hip being so defunct!  But generally it is good.  It still doesn’t like sitting on hard chairs, but neither would I if I had been sawn in half!  As for the right, well, my adductors are still not working properly.  They are doing a little, rather than nothing at all, so there is progress.  But I still have this god awful cricket ball sensation near to the pubic area.  If I sit up, it hurts like buggery, everything round that area tightens, and it is constantly sore.  I have had a dig around and, to me, there is a lump of bone which doesn’t appear on the left side.  So I will be talking this over with the physio on Friday to see what she thinks.  As for the adductors, it is affecting my walking in the fact that my leg swings slightly to the side as I put my foot down, instead of landing dead ahead of me, but apart from that the walking is going well.  So well, that hubby and I have started our training for the London Marathon.  Last Sunday we walked about 2.5 miles, then Tuesday we did 3 miles, and so it shall continue.  I am hoping that in about 4 weeks I will be walking so much better that we will be able to put a bit of pace into it.  We would like to aim for 15 minute miles.  At the moment we are doing about 17 minute miles, so there is room for improvement!

I am glad to say that I have come out of the fog that surrounded me for the best part of 2 months, and I do feel so much more like ME!  Yay!  I cannot explain why I found my self investigating my toenails from within, but I did, and I don’t ever want to go back there.  I still find that I have trouble making myself do things, particularly things that I don’t want to do.  Paying bills, tidying stuff up, sponsor letters etc.  – I just look at it and think “Oh well, I will do it tomorrow” and I will go and do things that I want to do instead!  But we are getting there, and that is the main thing.

I am currently decorating our son’s bedroom (long overdue!) which is throwing up it’s challenges, but it is keeping me busy.  Our walks with Ella are, at the moment, totally normal and she is loving it.  I watch her constantly for signs of limping (I wonder if she watches me!) but so far she is good.  She bounds around, greets her friends with vigour and is a joy to be with.    I pray that this continues.  BELIEVE.

(If,  when you have read this you feel any inclination to visit our fundraising page, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/onestepforward – any amount would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you xxx)

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RPAO – 4 week birthday!

Yay!

Yesterday was RPAO’s 4 week birthday – and, heavens, was I glad to have got there because it meant that I could start 50% weight-bearing!  And, guess what?  My leg didn’t fall off!!!!!  The way things have gone for the past 4 weeks, it wouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest, lol!  I have been going for regular hydro and it still clunks, but it is better.  And when I WALK bearing weight, it doesn’t CLUNK!!!!  Just feels a little ‘loose’ and ‘uncoordinated’ if that makes sense – which I am attributing to lack of muscle.  I walked up and down in the pool, side to side, and backwards, but if I try to squat or swing my leg side to side, there it goes again.  Physio has said ‘No Clunking’ so we have to stop as soon as it clunks, which is bloody frustrating because I feel like I am doing a big, fat NOTHING in there, but, hey ho, I am sure we will get there eventually.

Yesterday I had the biggest ever downer – surprising considering I was allowed to do the weight-bearing thing.  Slept till 12.45 p.m. then watched t.v. all afternoon like a zombie, fell asleep in the car going to pick our son up from his school bus, and then slept soundly all night!  Weird!  But today am feeling much more myself and have started making my Christmas cards – finally!

Anyway, here is my scar at 4 weeks – taken yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now this is more like it!

Well,  firstly, I am feeling much, much better, brighter and more alive!  I went to see Mr Witt on Monday, and had xrays which showed that nothing had moved, everything was where it was supposed to be and that I had nothing to worry about.  All that being said, my brain was still saying “Okay, so what’s making the clunking, and what’s making that cricket ball feeling?”.  He THINKS (not sure) that the clunking is still the tendon, but he thinks it is the illiopsoas tendon (another story about that later), and he THINKS that the cricket ball is actually a haematoma (blood clot) on a muscle (adductor area).  So I came away feeling a lot better and more at peace – there was a smile on my face! Yay!  First one for nearly 3 weeks!

Fast forward to yesterday:  Went to hydro and physio had hand on illiopsoas tendon whilst I was doing exercises very gently.  Hip is gaily clunking and clicking.  “It’s definitely not the illiopsoas as I have my hand on it, and I can feel the clunking resonating through it, but it is definitely not IT doing  the clunking!”  So we think it is actually the adductors not working properly, and they are causing the femur to not track smoothly in the socket.  So … I am doing very gentle, with minimal movement, exercises which as Karen the physio said, I will be bored to tears in no time, but am just going to have to put up with it!

Fast forward to today: I went again today, and a funny thing has happened.  For most of the afternoon post hydrotherapy MY HIP HASN’T CLUNKED!!!!!  How weird is that?  I am not going to say too much or say it too loudly, but I feel that I might, just might, have turned a corner.

Anyway, I promised you a picture of LPAO which is now 6 months old tomorrow and this is what it looks like!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the clothing marks etc.  But it just shows that these things get to look pretty darn good in quite a short amount of time.

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Scars!

Well, this is just a quickie to upload photos taken of RPAO’s scars.  Just to show how they reduce in size.  I will take one of my LPAO scar tomorrow, just so’s you can all see how insignificant it now is.  This might help some who are about to go through this for the first time.  I hope so anyway – hope it doesn’t scare the crap out of you!

RPAO – just a couple of hours old!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RPAO – 1 week post-op

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RPAO – 3 weeks post-op

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So …!

I have been a little quiet of late, which is unusual for me!  To cut a long story short, I have, since coming out of the anesthetic, been experiencing lots of clunking and clicking.  Some of it painful, some of it not.

This morning I had an on-land physio assessment to determine what is going on.  Whilst she was gently manouvering my leg about it clunked – this was immediately diagnosed as ‘an unstable hip’.  Looks like my adductor muscles have gone on holiday – basically they have just decided post-op not to work (well, that’s what we are hoping, anyway!).  All I can say is that I hope that they are bloody well enjoying their little vacation, because I am not!  My physio is contacting Mr Witt to discuss, but feels that we should spend the next two weeks really working on the adductors to try to get them stronger, and in that way, hopefully stabilize the hip.

So here’s hoping!

To say that I am down is a bit of an understatement, but then LPAO did recover rather swimmingly, so I had prepared myself for a not so gentle ride, but, admittedly, I didn’t expect it to go quite like this.

I will keep you all posted. xx

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On the dark side – a second time!

Hello fellow hippies!

The buggers nicked my knickers again!  And this time they were very fashionable fishnet style rather than the old paper granny knickers of late!  I also had dayglo yellow slippers to add to the effect – they were gone too, when I had come round!  But I had written “Oi” just under my knickers so when they ripped ’em off they would know that I was on to them! Lol!

I wasn’t so quick to update you all as my laptop decided, just before I went to theatre, to pack up, so I have had to wait till my daughter was around so I could use hers!

All went well and Mr Witt was very happy with the whole procedure.  I didn’t loose very much blood, which was good, and tucked into tomato soup, followed by cheese burger and chips, with salad, followed by chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream within two hours of coming round!  Slept well, although woke very early and have spent the day dozing in and out.  Walked down the corridor twice, and have a hydro session booked for tomorrow afternoon.  The physio will come in the morning and we will ‘do’ stairs.

I did find that now having to use my left leg as a support that I am slightly less coordinated – presume that’s down to being right handed, and my right leg being the ‘leader’ normally.  So with my track record of falling over etc, I shall be extra vigilant this time!

My scar is good – shall up load picture soon, and doesn’t seem to be as inflamed as my left, and I also don’t have nearly as much numbness this time, which is nice.

Anyway, will let you know how the stairs and hydro go tomorrow.

xx

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We did it!

Yay!!!!

Yesterday, my husband (Phil) and I walked The Great South Run!!!  We did it in 2:23:51 which was well inside our target time of 2:30.  I was sooooooo chuffed.  And what was nice was that at the end we didn’t feel “Oh God, couldn’t have walked another step” which is great, in preparation for my walking the London Marathon in 6 months time!  It is doable!!! Yay!

The sun shone which was just wonderful (first time in a number of years on that race! Lol!  The last two that I have run it has peeeeed down!).  It was a tad windy over the last two miles as it goes along the coastal road of Southsea, and generally you are always going into the wind on that stretch.  We jogged the first 800 meters just to get out of peoples way, and then we jogged the last 800 meters.  AND THE HIP FELT FINE!!!!!!!!

My rectus femoris feels a little tight this morning but I have told it that that is fine – it is allowed to!  But apart from that NO PAIN!

It was just sooooooo brilliant to be a part of it all again – the atmosphere was wonderful.  I carried a balloon with ’47 Today’ written on it and on my back I had a ‘blurb’ as to why I was walking.  I got so many wishes of Happy Birthday and “Good on you” etc. it was wonderful.  So encouraging!  I was grinning from ear to ear.  I have never shared my birthday with 21,000 but it was a great way to do it!

Can’t wait for next year when I intend to run it!

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