Operation Day

Pre-op..getting loaded with goodies to make me feel good!!

After the surgery and in my room

Ahhh...the 3 hour post op bike ride

The fun anti-rotational boots. Try sleeping in these suckers!!

James getting my calf pumps all set!!

What can I say... I love socks

Ouch


Wow, what a journey. So many things went differently this time around. To begin I was the lucky first surgery!! Oh ya baby. Checked in at 6am and was being operated on by 7:45. I was so scared to have the terrible nausea so the anesthesiologist gave me a patch behind my ear to control any feelings of sickness. They also switched the protocol in the past month and so I had an epidural for the first 24 hours. Worked like a charm. No vomiting what so ever. Yeah!!
The actual procedure was slightly different from hip #1. I had a posterior tear to the labrum and there was a flap of cartilage/labrum that was "delaminated". In other words the labrum became unattached from the acetabulum and was folded over on itself like a pancake. So that was addressed. Also a large synovectomy; the synovial sacs were red in and inflamed so he uses a heat probe to burn off the inflammation. I also had fraying of the ligamentum terres, it too was taken care of. He re-shaped my femur head and shaved down the spurs. So this one was a bit more involved than my first. My time in traction was double from the right hip. And I am a walking bruise this time. Not to mention my leg is the size of a watermelon. Bummer!!I will be on crutches and the brace for 15 days and then I get to wean off and get rehabbing!!
I am SO happy I stuck it out this summer and waited for Dr. Philippon and his awesome support staff. I have always felt completely taken care!! I am already on the mend and look forward to having pain free hips and getting back to exercise!!I cannot say enough about the people who have been so wonderful; Penny my OR nurse, Meghan G. the surgical coordinator (I think I wore out her voice mail this summer trying to get in earlier), All of the incredible PT's both in Denver and Vail, the night crew nurses who have extreme patience, and most importantly Dr. Philippon, you have no idea the gift you have given me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
Now...lets get these hips rehabed so I can get back to my life of fun adventure!!

Here are some of the pics from the surgery.... the last one is kinda creepy (looks like a face).

Game on.......

Me and Mary showing off our new hips.... Look what they can do!!


Me and Mary with some freaky statue in Vail


James, Mary, and Bethie...my little possie


Dinner at Sweet Basil

It's finally here. Pre-op is done. Prescriptions are filled. Measurements are taken. Bag is packed. And I have butterflies in my tummy. James and my good friend Beth came up wth me and we are all looking forward to tomorrow. Beth will be here until Friday when she gets picked up by her crew and they head to Moab for a 50k run....that's right....50k...thats 36 miles!!! Sheesh. Could I pick more sedentary friends so I didn't feel like such a couch potato?? The most exercise I have gotten is hip abduction and walking forwards in the pool..nice. Interestingly enough my left hip is starting to bark at me; sharp, stabbing pain in my hip flexor and groin. So I am happy to get this behind me.
During my first hip surgery I met a sweet woman from Miami who was having her 2nd surgery; well she's back for her 10 weeks post-op and we got to all go out to dinner. It was great. A little laughter goes a long way!! So, tomorrow I wake up at 5:30 and check in at 6am for the FIRST surgery of the day!!! Lucky me!! So off to dream land I go....See you on the other side!!

Round 2 and THEN I get my LIFE back!!! And Playoff Football!!

Zachs' Support staff....Thank you all SO much!




It's hard to lose.



This weekend has been very bittersweet. Zachs football team played their playoff game and lost. In fact, it was a shut out. It was incredibly sad for everyone. They have been undefeated and were so close to a Superbowl spot. Zach is the quarterback and plays on the defensive line. He is one tough kid. I am so thankful to so many people for coming out to support him and watch him play. We are blessed! Now, I am NOT one for excuses, EVER. But, this is one for the books. Yes, they were out played. No doubt. However, the refs had it out for one of our key players from the beginning. There is a kid on the team thats about 6 foot 2 and 140lbs. He's HUGE and extremely athletic. He's the key defensive player. EVERY play the ref's threw flags if he touched someone. It was ridiculous. Even the parents from the opposing team were saying it was out of control. It was awful. They eventually threw him out of the game. Yes, the boys lost because they were out played, but it's unfortunate that they were being picked on by the referees. The best part of the game; one of the dads pulled Zach aside and thanked him for being such a great role model and player. He told Zach how proud he was to have his son playing side by side with such a stellar player/athlete and that his son learned A LOT from him this year. I'll take that over a game win any day!

Now.... next week......

Well it's finally here. This week I travel once again to Vail for 8 days and have my second hip surgery. I cannot believe it's already here. There is a different level of anxiety for this one because I know what to expect, the good and the bad. I do know some things I will do differently this time;

1. NO Epidural!!!! It made me INCREDIBLY ill last time. Threw up all over for hours!
2. Get sleeping medications!!! Sleep is so hard because your feet are tied together and you cannot move. Bring on the Lunesta!!
3. Make pre-made food and bring it up to have ready to eat!! There's no time for the care takers to cook :)
4. ** Come back to teaching my classes LATER...not SOONER** Go a little slower and try to be patient

I am SO ready to get my life back in order. I have been out of exercise for a almost 10 weeks now and am feeling it BIG TIME!! I think I'm going to conduct my own science experiment..... see how long it will take to get this weight off?? I haven't had this much time off exercise in over 10 years!! Seriously. I used to think taking off two days in a row was a bad thing. Damn.

So Wednesday morning at 6am I jet off up the mountain for a day of pre-op evaluations and look forward to Thursday when I FINALLY get my life on track with TWO new hips!! YIIPPPEEE!!!

Knock Knock..Who's There?? NOT my glute thats for sure!!

Beth and I having a blast playing in the snow!!






What an adventure this week has been. With the weather moving into Colorado I decided the best thing to do was to leave for Vail On Tuesday for my Wednesday 8 week check up with Dr. Philippon. James stayed back and Beth took the trip with me. What I didn't expect was getting trapped in Vail due to the massive storm in Denver. If you have to be trapped...what better place to be. It felt like we were in our own personal snow globe village. We had a lot of laughs!! One thing I learned about my friend is that she never watches the news. We had 9 news on and Kathy Sabine was doing the weather forecast from the "backyard". 5 minutes later when the news was winding up and Kathy was back inside giving the synopsis, Beth said "how did she get back to the studio so fast....I thought she was in someones backyard!!!" I almost wet my pants!!


Ok...back to the reason I was there. I have been having tightness in my hip and lack of passive abduction. Dr. Philippon did his evaluation and came up with this; my glute is still not firing and it's causing tightness in my hamstrings and hip flexors. He asked me what exercises I have been doing so I started naming them and he stopped me abruptly at lunges!!!! He said STOP doing that. Too early for MY hip. I have been reduced to single leg glute squeezes and standing abduction. He was going to give me a shot in the hip but I requested we wait until I had my next surgery and I was sleeping. He agreed. So until them I am on a mission to connect my brain to my glute and fire away. I need to decrease my activity level by 25% and once again "chill out". It is abnormal for my glute to be "inhibited" at 8 weeks. Its possible that it was dormant for so long because of the severity of my hip injury that it is going to take that much longer for it to "reconnect". I have no problems engaging my glutewhen I'm lying down, but the second I weight bear it lasts about 5 seconds. Damn.

All in all it was better that I was stuck in Vail and not at home because it really gave me a chance to focus on physical therapy everyday and get organized about what needs to happen before November 12th.

So here's to glute activation!

Non-Judgment

I cannot believe its been 7 weeks and 2 days since my FAI surgery. Crazy. The last 2 weeks have been a bit disappointing and difficult. I felt as though I was ahead of the power curve and then bam....behind. Here are my biggest complaints; very limited extension past neutral, limited abduction, and lack of endurance for walking a lot. Oh and lets not forget the BIG RASH. Damn it. This week became very frustrating for me so I am working on an action plan. I have committed to acupuncture. I have never tried it before but I do believe that there are benefits to be had from it. I had my first session and he basically said I was a train wreck. He looked at my tongue and said my spleen and kidneys are not functioning properly. Whatever!! I just had major surgery and have been pumping my body full of pharmaceuticals for months. No wonder. So needless to say we are working on it. I am also taking sulphur tablets for the hives. Its a homeopathic remedy. It actually seems to be working!!! Yeah! So I feel like I am taking some control over this body.
Part of my frustration has been comparing myself to other peoples progress and my self made assessments of where I think I should be. Big mistake. Every BODY is different. I know this but I still don't really aqueous to this in my mind. Today I did hot yoga for the first time in months, 6 maybe. The practice of yoga is about non-judgement. A good friend of mine was teaching this morning and I felt gracious just to be there. I had called her the night before and told her I was coming and she made sure to tell me not to push and stay inside of my own practice. Her class was so wonderful. The room was hot, sweaty, and packed. Loved it. Until my self judgment started in. About half way through I started feeling defeated because I couldn't move like everyone else, I struggled with my balance, I couldn't hold my leg in space, I had extremely limited flexibility in my hip. I rested my head on my towel and began to cry. Just laid there in tears. The body I once had so much control over and was solid in my strength has now vanished. I may look the same on the outside, but it's so different on the inside. I felt defeated. So I just laid there in childs pose and breathed. It's a hard thing to wrap my brain around. It's not about weight or endorphins. It's about control and how I am ultimately not driving this bus. I will continue to try and let go of my preconceived notions of where I think I should be in my recovery and just let my body heal on it's own timeline.
I see Dr. Philippon this Wednesday for my 8 week checkup. I expect it will be fine and I will push forward to November 12th when I return for my left hip surgery. This whole process starts over. Until then I am going to pull back from pushing my body and respect my own recovery. No judgment.

Rash Part Two

Well the rash is just that.... A RASH! I have the hives in a major way. Saw the dermatologist on Monday and she confirmed I am allergic to Doxycycline. So I've been taking benadryl (wow, now I know what to take if I cant sleep after surgery #2) and have subbed out all of my classes because my hives get worse when I am warm. In fact, I look like a connect the dots puzzle. Not to mention I can't stop scratching myself. Fun.
The hip; its still tight with extension and "poppy". I am making an appointment tomorrow for acupuncture.... hope it works!
Until next time...... scratch scratch!!

Houston We Have a RASH

I normally only update the hip status once weekly but there was an alarming developement today. I have been developing this welt type rash on my neck and back all week last week. It was starting to subside until I looked at my hip today. The welts are now around my incision site and on my abdomen. Kinda freaked me out. So I called Dr. Philippons office and talked to his fellow. He thinks I ma having a delayed allergic reaction to Doxycycline, an antibiotic that I have been taking for 5 weeks. Part of the post op protocol is this drug for 6 weeks after surgery. He also said I need to see my dermatologist first thing tomorrow and to give them a call today. So I did. The dermatologist called me back and said to go to the emergency room to get IV antihistamines and prednisone. I didn't. I took benedrayl at home and slept. So Im a bit uneasy about whats going on here. Freaks me out that its around my incisions and only on that hip. The fellow from Steadman Hawkins said that another concern would be an infection. But I dont have a fever. However, I couldn't sleep last night because I was really uncomfortable and my hip was really sore. Every time I moved it popped and was painful. So Im looking forward to tomorrow morning when I see the doc at 7am!!