Days 6 & 7

These were the worst two days since the surgery, by far.  I had some major stomach issues and was not in a good mood.  I was not doing a good job of staying on top of eating/fueling, which I think made it worse.  You know how when you are a little nauseous or your stomach is upset and how you decide to not eat because that is the last thing you feel like doing?  And then it only gets worse cause now you are nauseous AND you are lacking proper fuel for your body to heal and you get even more nauseous since there is no food in you?  Well, that was the cycle I found myself in...and it sucked.  The hip, in all honesty, was feeling great considering what was done to it.  In fact, I was commenting on how if it weren't for my stomach, this would be a breeze...that the surgery and recovery to this point was way less than anything I had expected.  I was getting around fairly well when I was rested.

I did have my first appointment with my physical therapist on the 7th day.  I took particular care in choosing a PT as I wanted to make sure, that like my doctor, they understood the type of person/athlete I am, as well as the goals I had.  The CORE Institute had their own physical therapy on sight, but I made my decision to go with someone outside of their group.  My son had been diagnosed with Sever's Disease earlier in the year and had gone Charlie Boeyink, PT, MPT, OCS for his treatment.  Feel free to read about him here and his additional work specifically with endurance athletes here and here.  I think you can see why I chose to go with him, plus, if you paid attention, he is a Hawkeye...so it was obviously meant to be.

The appointment went very well I felt.  He thought that I had very good range of motion for it being only one week since surgery.  He gave me some passive movement exercised to do at home and with Sara's help and felt I only needed to come once a week since there is not much else I could do at this point being that I was still on a no weight-bearing routine.  Once I am able to put weight on it we will increase the frequency of my visits so that I can begin rebuilding my strength.  Overall it felt great to get out and also to get some extra exercises to stay active and assist in my recovery.

Below are some more tips/thoughts at this point:

• No wasted motion -what I mean by this is plan your movements around your house or out and about, if you are out at all.  Consider this:  your body expending a fair amount of energy to repair and recover, you are moving around in a manner that is not normal for you and requires more energy to do so...you will get tired much, MUCH faster than normal, so plan ahead and try to not have any wasted movements.
• A bed! -Night 6 was the first night I ventured to a bed for a night's sleep.  I was not as concerned at this point about rolling over onto the surgical side so I went for it.  I was feeling so miserable due to my stomach that I felt a more comfortable setting may help.  It didn't stop the stomach problems but boy did it feel great!  Next time I will probably only crash on the couch for the first 3 nights.
• Get you PT on sooner rather than later -if your doctor approves it, go to PT within a week of surgery.  They will give you exercises/motions to do at home that will help increase your range of motion and prevent the build up of scar tissue.  This will be key, I think, to my recovery to the level I want to get back to.