Major Milestones

I know it has been a while since I’ve last posted. I have had a lot of things going on and very little time to update. Big news to report though and this is an exciting update for me.

When planning my surgeries, one thing I always kept in the back of my mind was my brothers’ wedding on June 15th of this year. I knew when I started this journey that, as a bridesmaid in his wedding, it was important to me that I work hard to be able to walk down the aisle for his wedding. It was a personal goal for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I didn’t want to have crutches in their wedding pictures they look at and show people for the rest of their lives. I can just hear it: “Oh, what a beautiful day you had, but what the heck happened to that gimpy one?”

Well, I worked hard at PT and at home. I pushed myself, I never gave myself a second to be babied, and I not only walked down the aisle for my brothers’ wedding, but I had perfect posture and there was no limp to be seen! It was a wonderful moment, not only for the sentiment of the day, but because it felt like I had really reached a major milestone in recovery. I had a goal early on, even before the first surgery…and last weekend, I achieved it. Walking down that aisle, all suave and smooth, it felt like I never had a disability to begin with. It’s a hard thing to explain to someone who has never experienced an inability to walk….but just know that it felt AMAZING. 

Another exciting thing that I am still giddy about: I am Event Co-Chair for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life event in my hometown, and I organized that event at the end of May. I was on my feet pretty much all day on Friday through Saturday and ran around like a nut (not physically ran, still not there yet!). The event was really successful, and the best news is, I had ZERO hip pain. The joint was definitely a bit tired, but there was no pain at all.That is key. Not an ounce of pain.

So, overall, I hit two major milestones in terms of hip use and recovery over the past month…and it felt GREAT. There are days where I walk around and do things and I don’t even THINK about my hip. I just forget about the whole ordeal. I would have never imagined that. My hip used to be all I thought about…How can I deal with the pain today? 3-4 Ibuprophen at a time, or 5 Tylenol? How long do I think I can walk for before it hurts too much to go on? If I use a shopping cart to try and get around will it help or just be in the way? Now, I don’t even think twice to run errands and do normal daily things. That, right there, made this whole thing worthwhile. Before surgery, I used to get discouraged when I thought about kids…thinking I would never be able to keep up with them, or do all of the fun things I wanted to do with them. Now, I can’t wait to start a family and do all of these exciting things I envision in my head. Things, I know, are so easily obtainable for me now. I am so excited at just the thought of it!

Now, while everything is going really great, and overall I feel good…I still have a few things that I need to work on with recovery. These are completely expected, and are not surprising to me or my surgeon (whom I met with today, actually). The iliopsoas issue is still giving me a hard time, but it’s definitely better than it was. I’m still weak in the rectus muscles down the front of my leg, and in my hipflexors on the side. Those are the things I’ll be working the hardest on as I continue in my last few weeks of PT.

At my appointment with Dr. S. this morning, he gave me the go-ahead to go back out in the field for work (woohoo!), and to get back into my volunteer activities at the zoo! These are both great things. When we talked about my weaknesses, he made sure to reassure me several times that these are not things he is concerned about at all…and that he fully expected some weakness. He keeps telling me he doesn’t want me to be discouraged because these are not setbacks or major issues. He said he definitely expected it to be at least as weak as it is, if not worse, because of the second surgery so close to the first. He said I’m doing really well, and I’m on a really good track. So, those are good things to hear. He also said he thinks I’ll be 100% by March. I’m seeing him again in October for my 1 year appointment. It’s amazing to me that I’m this far removed from my PAO surgery…it seems like just yesterday I was going home from the hospital!

So, that is that for now. I wish I had kept better notes of my progress since my last post. I’ve been very busy (as you can see, with these two really large events happening just weeks apart), and can’t remember everything now. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on things as they continue to happen.