Sunday, October 14, 2012

Six Weeks Post-Op

I had surgery on August 30th. I'd been suffering from mysterious hip pain for months, since late last year, with no diagnosis. My doctor & I decided to scope the hip to see if he could discover what was causing the pain. Thankfully, he found a bone spur that was badly fraying & bruising my labrum (the cartilage in the hip). He shaved the spur & tidied up the labrum as best he could. Now the labrum should heal without the spur constantly beating it up. What is it about us that we need to constantly compare ourselves to others? At least I do! I don't want to, I try not to but it seems every few weeks, I read forums on the internet about hip pain/hip surgery/recovery times, etc. Some people have like no recovery time to speak of; like bam, they have the surgery & then are off the crutches & off the pain meds licketedy quick. I guess I just want to know that my progression is normal. Why can't I just take the word of my physical therapists who told me that you can't compare this type of recovery & that I'm doing fine. I guess I just get frustrated with myself. I need to accept that each individual is different & that it's OK to still feel pain in my hip & need to use a crutch when I walk outside. It's hard not to over do it or to even know if you are over doing it! I also need to actually use the crutch because it's become more of an irritant than a help but when I go without it for a long period of time, I'm MORE sore later on & I'm pretty sure my doctor's office isn't going to keep handing out painkillers! With regards to pain medication, I have a handful left of my prescription medicine & I try to deal with the pain using Aleve & Aspirin (I prefer to Aleve to Motrin because there are fewer pills to take) & only take a narcotic in the evening. I'm also continuing to use ice regularly & I go to PT three times a week. Today I told my dad I'm pretty much in the same amount of pain as I was before the surgery but now I don't mind as much because I know that this will heal & I know what is causing the pain. The not knowing was really distressing, along with the constant pain. People who don't live with constant pain don't understand how wearing it is, how it distracts you from every little thing & makes everything harder to deal with. I'm so grateful that I had the surgery & the doctor found what was wrong & was able to fix it. It's frustrating to still be in pain but I understand why it's happening & that there is an end in sight. It will heal, it will get better & I will be able to get back to being more physically active.