I wanted to include any (potential!) readers in my thought processes at 4 and a half months post-op. This time last year I was pre-op and had to really weigh up what I'd been told and make some thoughtful & reasoned decisions about whether to go ahead with one major pelvic surgery and then another. Some of that is detailed in a previous post: Choice.
I've always been very clear in my mind that I won't see any massive improvements this early on, not until at least 6 months or even a year or more post-op. And my inner skeptic has been very prominent through all of this. I remember my response when I was finally told in Birmingham that I would need another Pelvic Osteotomy: "Of course you think I should have surgery! You're a surgeon, you just want to chop everything up!!" I also let a naughty word slip out - don't worry, they didn't kick me out of the clinic office.
But... when I think back to what I was like in March and April of this year, trying my hardest with post-op physio on my right hip, but with the left one being so highly irritable and flaring up so easily. When I tried to do even basic physio and Pilates exercises, it would mostly flare-up symptoms further throughout the day to the point where even standing long enough to cook a meal in the evening was too difficult. I had to stick to very gentle swimming. Even walking 10 minutes down the road with a crutch could result in me being stranded somewhere with a flare-up of pain.
I mean, there's "managing a chronic condition" and then there's "being so cautious to not do anything that you are barely living life."
And yes, some of it was because I was bearing more weight on the left
hip after the right hip surgery, but I knew that in the long run the
left hip was not going to improve - not to a point where I could really live a full & functional life. And I would have had to quit my physio degree which, if I'm honest, would have been quite sad. But there's no way I could have even gone on placement as I wasn't fit to work.
So, after it all, and with the relief that the two big surgeries are OVER... I've been slowly tailoring off my pain relief and am now on roughly the same meds as I was on back in April. I am on one crutch and can walk up to 2km at a time. I have just started swimming again a very small amount. I am doing most of my physio exercises almost every day, sometimes twice. It's a bit sore afterwards, but from muscle ache, which then calms down, and I can still cook a meal for myself in the evening.
I'm gonna get all scientific on you now and post a table of comparison
