Hip Talk at Surface Hippy

I'm not complaining.  I think my recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.  I've been working hard; PT three times a week with strength work, Mcminn exercises on every morning without PT, walking, cycling on the trainer, and three pool workouts each week.  I even started walking some hills today in the woods.

Right now I think my strength in my limiter.  I need more strength before I can ride the bicycle outside and I'm just wondering how long it will take.  So, as the title says; how long did it take until you felt at full strength, not endurance I'll worry about that next, in you legs?

Now you're getting into murky water. For me, full strength would be back to playing soccer, martial arts, etc. with the same vigor as before all this. I think that will be when I hit about two years. 

Full strength as in being able to do a lot of activities, walk without pain and start working out hard, I think I'll be there in about three months. Right now, my left is rarin to go, my right is still slightly behind in doing things like the slide board I've been using, in running, etc. So to my own standards, I'm not there yet, but to other non-hippy people, maybe so.

Kind of a roundabout answer, sorry....

I'm with Hern,  Same idea about soccer and stuff , at least year past last hip in August.  Right now though, I'd say a similar 3 month period to feel about like I was prior to surgery, but without pain and with decent ROM.  I think at about 2.5 months post op I started taking 2 steps at a time goign up stairs without thinking about and feeling strong and no limp.  Counld have been the daily cycling, not sure, but that was a good indicator of feeling strong.  It's the point when your body says, "lets go play soccer", but your brain says, "hold your horses, young man!"

I would say it was around the 3 month mark when I could go through all my daily activities without thinking about the hip and not having to ice regularly.

My leg is still not as strong as the right one though.  I notice it mostly when I do one leg squats.  The leg extensions show a little weakness but similar to right before surgery.  The hamstring is actually stronger on the left than the right.  I still get really sore with abductor movements.  I am still working those alot.

It will be interesting to see how things progress once I get clearance to run.

Dan

"It will be interesting to see how things progress once I get clearance to run."

I'll be waiting to hear how it goes.

I guess what I'm looking for is that 2 1/2 to 3 month mark when getting up from my chair, no hands, is no longer a big deal, when I come home from my walk and can go right up my 2 front stairs without thinking and get on the road bike with confidence that my legs will get me where I want to go.

I'm just past 7 weeks post op, I started riding my road bike outside after 4 weeks. I honestly feel I'm back to full strength on the bike, (not endurance yet) and in all my daily activities. I just don't think about the hip any more, I ice after a hard bike ride or after outpatient PT, but recovery has gone pretty well for me.

Dave

I'm kind of with Dave on this.  I'm 6 weeks post op and feel great.  My strength is def. my biggest issue but I'm already back to most normal activities.  I'm at the gym and working out a bit in my Martial Arts school.  Actually did some light sparring with the kids tonight and I felt AWESOME.  I would say within the next month I will be where I was prior to surgery with my strength.

Hi WH! 
  FULL strength? Really full? If you're familiar with my posts, I'm the intense horse riding gal. I've been doing most any activity I feel like anymore, with no restrictions. I am at 1  1/2 years now, and I still feel like I am not at, what I remember from the "good ol' days" as full strength. If I am stepping up on something with my full body weight (5'2" 118 lbs), I still prefer my nonoperated leg. My HR leg struggles to pull my weight up. I do a lot of exercise, walking, stat. bike riding, and active cow- horse riding/showing, and I still feel a little weak. Not sure if this is just life after HR, or if it is ever 100%. A lot of posting hippies say it can take up to 3 years. I am not really complaining, I love my HR. I feel it probably saved my life and sanilty.
Have a great Holiday! Lu

      Sorry, with Luann on this.  I have been doing all normal things since about 4-5 weeks.  Strength though, will be a long time coming I think.  I love my new hip, but I'm sure that it doesn't have the strength that I had prior to getting injured.  The PT and exercises I have been doing are slowly working, but I can tell I need more time.  I've cheated on occasion and jogged a few seconds, and even on the balls of my feet it feels weak.  Once I hit the 6 month clearance point, I will stress it more and work harder on strengthening the hip muscles.  Heck, right now I just enjoy a fairly normal walk.

Curt

Hey all..."full strength" I think is very subjective.  At 3.5 months I am definitely back to or much better than I was in many respects pre-surgery.  All normal activities are 200% better.  Biking 110% better.  I'm concentrating on hiking right now to get ready for the R2R2R Grand Canyon hike 1/12.  48 miles hiking last week, have not been able to log that many miles and not break down EVER running.  Each time I go out and do anything now I feel stronger than the time before.
Dr. Su says it will be 1 year post-op until reaching full recovery and potential.  That is very comforting and promising.  I am still tired, wiped out and sore after a good romp, but those are all normal.  All good so far...
Best in the New Year to all recovering from and awaiting surgery...
David

I'm at 10 months post op.... and i feel like the past few months have continued to bring additional strength and endurance in my new hip.

At the 6 month mark I started running againk, but my leg felt week.  I think a lot of that was due to how long my hip had been hurting and just how weak my leg had become....  by about month 7-8 I was doing short jogs, but after running short distances, I sitll felt like i got a slight pulling sensation in my hip.. not hte joint... but the soft tissues around the incision...  I have no idea what was causing the sensations.. and i would not call it painful... nohting like my old hip pain.. but I could tell something didn't like the running...   i kept running to a minimum but continued elliptical and my PT, along with weight training. 

at about the 9 month mark I really felt like my hip was almost at 100%....  I barely felt any twinges or anything.  now at 10 months, it still feels great.  I ddid a short run the other day and went about a mile....  at the very end, I felt a slight sorenss in the soft tissue that went away once I stopped and the next day I had zero residual pain... at months 6.. if I ran a mile, my hip was kind of sore for a day or two...  subjectively, I can tell my hip is much stronger and less sensitive at months 9-10 vs month 6-7..

Dr. Gross and his staff had told me that I will continue to heal and make improvements up to about a year.  My local orthopedic doctor, who i have continued to see a couple times - has confirmed that and said once you get to 12 months, that's about as good as you get.  I still have two months to get BETTER.. and now at month 10, I consider myself 100%.. ok.. maybe 90%....    but 1000000% better than before surgery!!

for anyone contmplating surgery... or just out of surgery.. I take with a grain of salt, any stories about people going moutnain biking at 2 months post op and stuff like that....

for me.. i felt "better" the day after surgery than I did the day before... i had surgical pain.. but the bone on bone pain was gone.  I quickly made a lot of improvements... but when you are on crutches... suddenly being able to wal on a cane, then no cane... those are BIG improvements... by 3 months I felt really good and at 6 montsh I felt great.. but certain motions or angles still bothered my hip.  if I stood on my operated leg and put all my weight on that leg.. it felt solid.. but then when I went back to two legs.. and the weight came off my operated leg.. I'd feel "something".. not pain.. just a weird sensation.... the muscles and soft tissue adjustting...  it wasn't pain. it just felt "differente".  not at 10 months, I can support myself on my operated leg.. hop on it... and I don't feel anyting.  every now and then i still get tha tlitle twinge.. or something... but 99% of the time, my opeated hip feels as good or BETTER than my "good" one...

i'd say a safe bet is that in 6 months you will feel amazing....  but if you want to go run, play a hard core sport.. etc... give it a year.  i was easily cycling at 6 months with ZERO pain.. but the impact stuff like running...  I can tell I feel BETTER now at 10 months than I did at 6......

Getting my hip fixed was the best thing I have ever done medically... it literally transformed the quality of my life.  I wish I had done it sooner.  I hope anyone reading this site.. who is in teh kind of pain I was in 10 months ago - gets ti FIXED and get your life back!!!  I have ZERO regrets!!

that was an awesome spew 231...

I think ''full strength'' was the wrong term, but Dave, you're there.

23109, you really laid it out well.  I plan to  be running in some form next summer but plan to spend a year getting back to running steady and hopefully well.  No long distance, but I hope to feel like I'm giving it my best shot.

23109,
          Thanks for that insight. It's really useful for guys like myself who are just in the infancy of our recoveries.
Danny

I was probably around 75-80% full strength @ around 8 weeks, now bear in mind many of us were very worn down from the pain and lack of usage due to the hip pain so I probably limped into the hospital at around 50% of my strength.  At the very end I was bone on bone and I could only go a block or less before I had to sit down.

@ 8 weeks or so I played my first round of golf, I easily played 18 holes and I walked a lot of the course.  Probably by my 10th month I felt close to 100%.   Now ROM is another thing all together, I am still finding improvement.   



Chuck

Quote from: 23109VC on December 22, 2011, 09:40:19 PM
I'm at 10 months post op.... [snip]

I'm in the exact same boat at 10 months and feel about the same... thanks for typing it out for me!

I've spoken to my mate who's about to qualify as a sports therapist and level 5 sports massage therapist, and he says the muscle will never be quite as strong as before as the scar tissue which you can't totally get rid of will always be a slightly weaker link. But I'm hoping that with the right rehab that this difference will be inperceptable
Danny

Danny:

If you know/learn more about reducing the scar tissue, please post.  The only thing I am really going on now is the advice to progress very slowly.  Thanks.

Jon

My mate is really clued up on the subject of breaking scar tissue down so I'll pick his brains and do a post. But I do know that one of the main ways is friction deep tissue massage. It's not pleasant but I know it works, I have used it for a lot of injuries over the years!

Great.  Thanks.

Does Treacy also have you in compression hose?  McMinn advises knee-high on each leg and thigh-high on operated leg.  I am having trouble getting a good fit (high enough) on my operated leg so I am looking for a two-legged waist-high set today.