I had my first physio appointment yesterday and what I lovely physio I saw! First of all, totally honest about what he knew and had experience in, mostly with patients on the ward after Ganz osteotomies (PAOs) but it's all good because we can work it out and can always talk to the physios at the hospital in Brum if we need to. I've been told they are good at communicating with people's physios in their home town. I much prefer it this way, than if somebody is 'pretending' to know what I'm talking about and trying to wing it. Also, it turns out their hydro pool, which I thought was out of use, might be getting fixed next week so I might be able to start hydro pretty soon-ish, hooray! He gave me a bunch of exercises to do, mainly things like hip abductions and flexions in standing, and some simple quads activation in sitting, as well as others, but still not to push too much into pain at the moment. I've had a go at them all and they are a bit of a struggle, but I know they will get easier. We awkwardly broached the subject of the left hip, I mentioned that my surgeon wants to redo it. I'm not sure what the reaction is behind the scenes in the department where I spent 8/9 months doing rehab from this inaccurately done LPAO. It's the kind of situation where you don't know what to say.
I can't get over how different this is compared to last time. I am so much further ahead at this stage than I was after my PAO 4 years ago. I remember feeling so scared and vulnerable coming home from hospital. Scared of
falling, scared of not being able to move enough in bed at night.
Scared of how on earth I was going to manage at home with impaired mobility. Scared of the pain. I was on a much larger cocktail of pain relief: codeine, NSAIDs and Oxycontin, but I remember asking my GP about it at one point and they weren't all that clued up about this whole thing so it wasn't that informative. This time I'm only taking codeine and paracetamol. But then last time it genuinely was a LOT more painful, so that I had some episodes at home of barely being able to move.
I remember thinking last time "I wonder how much physio I will get" I was so
uncertain, I really had so little information, and that obviously
affected the recovery. It does make me wonder when we see patients how much we assume they know or understand about their treatment or condition, and how much they actually know or has been explained properly to them. This experience has definitely taught me the importance of clear information for the patient. It's a two way street, I think; if we expect a patient to engage well in their rehab then we need to communicate to them in an intelligible way.
Here are some of my exercises, for my own records:
Here are some of my exercises, for my own records:
