This post is going to be quite boring. I want to record what’s happened in terms of progress the past few weeks so hopefully I can look back and it will be helpful later.
Its been about a month since my last post. Just over 4 weeks since I had the plates and screws removed from my collarbone and it re-broke rolling over in bed. I feel like my collarbone is healing. The sharp jabs of pain are less jarring and it takes more to make it happen. I can move my arm around passively without pain, and even do things at my waist without lifting weights - without pain. Yay! There is some concern that the bone won’t heal given the circumstances. Insurance covered an electronic bone growth stimulator which will help it to heal if was not otherwise going to. As my lovely p.t. says - its gravy, and I need gravy right now. Next doctor's appt is July 7, when I have an xray and am hopefully given the green light to take off the sling.
Around the same time I had my collarbone break, I was having a lot of pain in my left glute and down my leg to the calf - like combo piriformis and sciatic pain. It ached and made it hard to sit or to sleep. My hip was also feeling extremely loose. It feels like it dangles in the socket when I am not firmly clenching it in there. And, it felt like my femur was about to poke through my glute muscle if I put too much weight on that leg - like doing a lunge or walking up a hill. The week after the collarbone break Jon and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I needed air, solitude, the sound of nature. I couldn’t even attempt some of the steeper streets - it just felt too risky on the hip - not to mention the collarbone. About a week later at p.t. they zapped the crap out of my little piriformis/glute area with one of those electrode things - and it was like night and day. I think one of my muscles was spazming/frozen and was irritating my sciatic nerve. The electrodes were just the right thing to get that firing or not firing again - and the pain in my piriformis and down the leg lessened dramatically immediately. That was an awesome success. My femur no longer feels like it will pop through my glute - but the general looseness remains.
Over the last few weeks - since the piriformis pain lessened, I’ve been able to start pushing my glutes, quads, hammies, adductors more. My hope was that in this 8 weeks I’m waiting for my collarbone to heal, I could work my muscles around my hip to see if that would help enough to keep the hip firmly in the socket. All while being very careful not to push it too hard so that whatever healing may need to take place does. I’ve been able to do quite a bit at p.t. and on my own and it does seem to be making a difference. One day last week I actually was feeling almost normal - like my hip wasn’t dropping out of the socket that day. I was very hopefull that day - feeling a ray of light that I may actually be in the clear with my left hip. At this point, the idea of having only one more hip surgery sounds like winning the lottery. But, that was short lived - and it was back to feeling loose the next day. Grrr. Yesterday after pushing it probably a little too hard I had the sensation of it subluxing almost - in the same bent over stretch that did it almost 2 months ago. I do wonder if the subluxing feeling is a tendon popping or sliding over the femur, rather than it coming out of the socket. Who knows. Ugh.
Meanwhile, with my collarbone hurting less, I’m able to do more physically. I’ve had a few good hikes up behind the house on San Bruno mountain.
Its been really cool to explore the trails up there. They are STEEP! They are also pretty much empty, except for me and the hundreds of little white tailed bunny rabbits, birds, bees and the lone snake I saw yesterday creeping slowy across the trail in front of me. San Bruno divides Brisbane from the coast, and the fog comes roaring over the ridge like a wave - the other day it looked like the black smoke from Lost - but white. Crazy.
It is so peaceful up there. There have been times where I see the open space, the ocean in the distance, feel the wind, and I'm so happy. Give me some good tunes on the ipod and i'm in freakin heaven. I miss my bike. The first time I went out - probably 2 weeks ago, I got about 30 minutes before I had to turn back because my hip started feeling tweaky and weird. The next time I went a little further, and further the next time still. I did a 3 hour hike last weekend and again yesterday - and while I felt ok after that last weekend, yesterday I was in major pain afterwards. It hurt to do pretty much anything other than sit. Yeah, I pushed it too hard. So, I sat, and iced. That helped. Sleeping was hard - major pain the ass - literally. Regardless, it was nice to get out in the sunshine. I needed it, even if I was achy afterwards.
Today I took it easy and spun on the trainer for an hour. My hip felt fine. Then I went down to the pool. The Brisbane pool is awesome. Definately on the list of the top ten things about Brisbane - its big, clean, outdoors, tucked under some trees, and usually pretty mellow. It was my first time there since the subluxing incident about 10 days out from surgery. I’ve been scared, and I’ve had hip flexor pain so I didn’t think kicking would feel good. Of course, for the past month, I’ve been one-armed, so not much to do in the pool. But, today I went down and did some kicking - holding onto the wall, and then some one-armed with the paddle board - and some pool running - just to test it out and see how it feels. The kicking felt REALLY good. Sometimes I feel like my left hip still hurts like it did pre-surgery - the groin pain, and the deep glute pain still plague me. But in the pool the contrast between my hips was clear. My right hip (the hip still waiting for surgery) hurt to kick - the groin just had a sharp pain from the first kick. The left felt good and strong - though after a while my hip flexor started to hurt a little so i stopped. It felt pretty good to ‘run’ in the water too - just a little pain in the glute and hip flexor- which I seem to get a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I have a torn glute or something. The little sharp pain is in such a specific spot.
Anyway, it was nice to be in the pool and the sun. It was also nice to bond with the other gimps in the pool. One woman in my lane had back surgery recently and was just getting back to exercise. she was stoked. there were two other men - one in his 80s and his son who was attempting to avoid surgery. both were out getting exercise, moving the body around, and soaking in the sun. It was awesome. As I left, there was a line out the door of families with little kids - open swim was starting and its a beautiful day. I want to do that more often. Of course, it helped that it was like 75 degrees and sunny - yay!
I could get all deep and introspective here - this month has brought about a lot of thinking, and not all of it good, but I’ll save that for another day.
I do feel like my collarbone is healing - and I’m looking forward to being able to swim, do some upper body work, some more core, and even ride my bike (YAY!!!) while I figure out what to do next with the hips. Once that happens I’ll at least have moved one step closer to the end of this.
Today I took it easy and spun on the trainer for an hour. My hip felt fine. Then I went down to the pool. The Brisbane pool is awesome. Definately on the list of the top ten things about Brisbane - its big, clean, outdoors, tucked under some trees, and usually pretty mellow. It was my first time there since the subluxing incident about 10 days out from surgery. I’ve been scared, and I’ve had hip flexor pain so I didn’t think kicking would feel good. Of course, for the past month, I’ve been one-armed, so not much to do in the pool. But, today I went down and did some kicking - holding onto the wall, and then some one-armed with the paddle board - and some pool running - just to test it out and see how it feels. The kicking felt REALLY good. Sometimes I feel like my left hip still hurts like it did pre-surgery - the groin pain, and the deep glute pain still plague me. But in the pool the contrast between my hips was clear. My right hip (the hip still waiting for surgery) hurt to kick - the groin just had a sharp pain from the first kick. The left felt good and strong - though after a while my hip flexor started to hurt a little so i stopped. It felt pretty good to ‘run’ in the water too - just a little pain in the glute and hip flexor- which I seem to get a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I have a torn glute or something. The little sharp pain is in such a specific spot.
Anyway, it was nice to be in the pool and the sun. It was also nice to bond with the other gimps in the pool. One woman in my lane had back surgery recently and was just getting back to exercise. she was stoked. there were two other men - one in his 80s and his son who was attempting to avoid surgery. both were out getting exercise, moving the body around, and soaking in the sun. It was awesome. As I left, there was a line out the door of families with little kids - open swim was starting and its a beautiful day. I want to do that more often. Of course, it helped that it was like 75 degrees and sunny - yay!
I could get all deep and introspective here - this month has brought about a lot of thinking, and not all of it good, but I’ll save that for another day.
I do feel like my collarbone is healing - and I’m looking forward to being able to swim, do some upper body work, some more core, and even ride my bike (YAY!!!) while I figure out what to do next with the hips. Once that happens I’ll at least have moved one step closer to the end of this.
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