Yesterday I had my highly anticipated, been-keeping-me-awake-at-night, follow-up appointment with my surgeon. It has been 7.5 (very long) weeks since my labral repair and microfracture, and 6.5 (very long) weeks since my PAO. You can bet that I've been counting the days and knew that the day of the solar eclipse was officially six weeks post-surgery #1, and that Christian had told me that I could start putting some weight on my right side at six weeks. So I started that week, even though technically I wasn't cleared to do so, because jeez. Patience is not my greatest virtue; in fact, it's probably one of my biggest weaknesses, and OMGTHEREISONLYSOMUCHOFTHISICANTAKE. And anyway, I didn't try full weight bearing. I just started standing with both legs down, which I know from my previous hip PT is considered 50% weight bearing. Also, instead of crutching around holding my leg up, I started actually walking with crutches, to at least get my leg used to the motion again and retrain my brain. (Seeeeeee, I know a little bit about physiology.)
I felt pretty good about jumping the gun slightly because I figured I'd be in pain if I were doing too much, and I actually feel very little pain. Still, I was nervous that if things didn't look good, Dr. Terminator might chew me out for messing up his work. LOL. When he came in, the first thing he asked about was the eclipse, haha. Then he got right down to business and told me everything looked fine. The healing is going well, or well enough at least, and I now am officially cleared to start weight bearing as tolerated. Of course, this came with a lecture about how 'cleared to do' does not mean 'can actually do' or even 'should do.' (Did I look like I was ready to ditch the crutches and sprint out of there?!) I have to use the crutches until I can walk without a limp, which I currently can't do at all, even for one or two steps, so it could still be another month or more before my crutch burning party. (Oh wait, they're metal. And I still have to do my left side. Never mind.)
I had a few specific concerns, the first being that I have lost a ton of range of motion (ROM) in my hip. I still cannot touch my foot, and I'm still using my old lady contraption to put my socks on and wearing my slip-on clogs everywhere, which is frustrating. I mean, I realize I will no longer be able to wrap my legs around my head, but I would like to at least be able to put my shoes and socks on! I was worried Dr. Terminator had actually over corrected me. Yes, that's a real thing. And I know from one of Dr. Terminator's patients that it actually happened to her, so it wasn't pure paranoia. Dr. Terminator assured me that my ROM will come back eventually; I just need to be patient. (There's that damn concept again. I hate it.) He said that he tested my ROM during the surgery, and it is there, it's just that my body doesn't want to bend like that right now.
The second concern I had was that I still can't really flex my thigh. So when I'm getting into bed or even into the car, I have to use my arms to lift my leg up. I can lift it enough to move my foot from the gas to the brake when I'm driving, which by the way, I started to do on August 22nd. (I only remember the exact date because it's my son's birthday, and I was so excited that I wanted to post about it on Facebook, only I had to wait, because posting about me driving before posting pictures of my son's birthday party would make me a bad mom.) But even just the little bit of lifting from driving is tiring, which limits me to short trips around town. I still needed my husband to take me to this appointment two hours away.
I had a feeling this wasn't really normal because when I inquired about it to my PAO group on Facebook, no one really responded. I understand some loss of function is normal because of the muscles that got detached and reattached during surgery, and even the ones that didn't get detached got traumatized, and this is a major surgery and blah blah blah. But apparently it's NOT normal that I can barely lift my leg at all. Basically my loss of function is the worst Dr. Terminator has seen. I believe his exact words were, Some weakness is normal, but I've never seen it THIS bad before. Um, lucky me. With so much of what I've experienced, I've been assured that it's all normal, it will get better, I just need to be patient. So when I demonstrated to Dr. Terminator just how much I cannot lift my leg, and he twisted his mouth into a frustrated little scowl of shock and awe, I knew it wasn't normal.
The only good news is that there doesn't appear to be any major damage to the muscles - like a torn muscle, or a muscle that accidentally didn't get reattached. The fact that I can pull my leg up when I'm lying down means that the muscle function is there, it's just that the muscles are insanely weak, too weak to overcome the force of gravity. This explains why the function diminishes the more upright I get. Dr. Terminator came to the conclusion that because of the extent of the correction he had to make to my hip joint, there is a lot of irritation to my hip flexors while the bone heals, and they are just super pissed off right now. I will need to work extra hard on this during rehab. And be patient. So there we go again.
In other news, Dr. Terminator felt confident I would be able to ski by December, and told me not to cancel my ski pass. We bought them way back when, because they are cheaper if buy them early, but you can bet we splurged on the insurance, so I could get a refund if necessary. I asked him about screw removal, and he told me he didn't want me to worry about that right now. He said he normally takes the screws out six months post-PAO, which would put it in December. However, he said it didn't have to be then; we could wait until the end of ski season, if I wanted. But even if he did it in December, I'd be able to ski within a week because he can pull the screws out through a very tiny hole, and the gaps fill in with blood and are stable. So that is something to look forward to/work toward. In the end, Dr. Terminator counseled me to stay in the present and focus on the task at hand, which is getting my muscles to work again and being able to walk. Baby steps. And patience.
All in all, I'm feeling hopeful and nervous at the same time. I have to go back to work the week after next, which adds a whole new dimension of stress that merits an entry of its own. However, I started physical therapy today - which also merits an entry of its own - and I will work hard to make as much progress as I can in the next 10 days. I'll try to take Dr. Terminator's advice and focus on each immediate task at hand. And be patient.
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