4.5 months post hip surgery update -

At my three month doctor appointment, the PA told me that it was normal to plateau at this point, and she was most definitely right.  Well, mostly definitely right.  There was not much improvement between three and four months, but in the last two weeks things have really started to progress, especially once I had another injury diagnosed and fixed. I’d been having severe pain in my butt, hip, and hamstring during the majority of my rehab and it just didn’t seem like anything was making it better.  The surgeon thought this seemed odd, so he sent me to a back and spine doctor.  Turns out, I have this.  So at some point in my life I had stress fractures in my L5 vertebrae that didn’t heal correctly (most likely middle school football or wrestling).  In fact, I have a 9mm misalignment between L5 and my sacrum, which I’m told is “a significant amount.” Over time, this has caused my L5 vertebrae to sag, which causes the disc to bulge.  If I had access to my MRI and X-rays, I’d love to include pictures of what my lower back looks like, ‘cause it ain’t pretty!  Solutions:  lots and lots of core work.  Since I was already focusing on that for my hip, no big deal.  Oh yeah, I also got a transferal epidural steroid injection last week, and it is my sincere pleasure to report that I am pain free for the first time in 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In fact, I'd say that I am basically healed right now for both my hip and my back.  Well, at least 85%.

snap, crackle, pop!

​Most mornings when I wake up, I can’t even walk the 10 yards to the bathroom standing up straight.  The first thing I hear is my knee popping.  I’ve never had a problem with this knee, and it doesn’t bother me now, but it makes this popping noise regularly in the morning.  The next thing to pop is usually my left ankle, which had a catastrophic injury in 2011 and is full of scar tissue and one less muscle (I had to have part of my calf removed), so the popping on that is and has been a normal part of my life for the last 5 years.  Moving up on my body, the next thing is sometimes in my hip.  It could be the front, it could be the back—it all kind of depends on how I move.  These usually feel, and sound, like if you stretched a rubber band and then plucked it with your finger, except the rubber band is actually some muscle in your hip/butt and the finger plucking it is your femur or hip socket.  Of course, none of this helps me stand up straight, as I haven’t yet gotten to the real culprit.  Usually before I make the 5 steps into the bathroom, I drop my chin to my chest, hang my arms down, and as slowly as possible drop my hands to my feet.  My lower back will make a very disturbing sound (which feels as strange as it sounds) that I would say most closely resembles the noise you can make by closing your mouth and flicking your tongue against the roof of your mouth and teeth.  That sound is not the sound that your lower back should make.  Moving up the back to my thoracic spine, I typically have this immense pressure right in the middle of my back, just below my scapulas, and as I hang there for a moment, the pressure builds, builds, builds……and then POP!  I ease my way back up and ta-da!!!!!!  I’m standing up straight!  Going down the stairs though, that’s another issue!  This is not hyperbole by the way, this is an accurate portrayal of my daily morning routine.  I am 34 years old.

Aside from all the noises that my body makes, I think physically I’m actually starting to really improve in most areas.  With a strong emphasis on my physical therapy, targeting my core, getting my diet back into a reasonable-ish state, and getting back to being active six or seven days a week, my life feels like it’s returning to a fairly normal routine.  I’m slowly starting to drop some weight, but also things are starting to shift around and re-arrange.  After testing the limits of my wardrobe, I’ve got some wiggle room again, which is nice.  I’ve progressed to 30 minute runs, and am able to swim 3000 yards without having to use the pull buoy due to hip discomfort.  I can do a pigeon stretch on my bad hip, and my nightly pain sessions on the foam roller have finally loosened up my quad and IT Band.  I’ve still been neglecting the bike, but that is for reasons not related to any of this.  In addition to those reasons, I need to get a new fit as I’m highly susceptible to hamstring issues and with my back can’t afford to have an aggressive aero position, and bike fits aren’t cheap, especially since I just got one last year (then the store went out of business before I could get in my two follow up fits that I had already paid for).  For now I just lowered the seat a bit and that seems to have helped.  I’ll get to my prep phase training program in my next post.  For now, let’s round up what’s good and what sucks regarding my hip surgery:

What’s good:

• Most everything!  I can swim, bike, lift, golf, and run without pain. 
• I’ve been able to swim a little bit of breaststroke in the last week, which is great for some variety and warm-up/cool-down/active recovery purposes.  I can swim butterfly and backstroke fine, however I just don’t want to.
• I’m able to work out hard enough now that I’m actually getting in great cardio.  Until a few weeks ago, I could train just enough that I wasn’t overworking my hip and back, but not hard enough to really stress my heart.  Now, every workout gets a bit longer, or rest intervals get a bit shorter, or my intensity gets a bit higher.  Training sessions have gone from the 130-150 heart rate zones to the 150-170 zones, which is about where they should be for the bulk of my training.
• I am pain free!  Well, mostly pain free.  I’ve substituted actual pain from injuries into muscle soreness pain from exercising, which is most welcome!  If you love the feeling of pushing yourself and feeling the pump and burn of your heart, lungs, and muscles, now would be a good time to check out all the new gear over at Love The Pain.  Use my code IDIPHON at checkout and get 15% off on everything.
• It took about 5 days for the shot in my back to work, but as I said earlier, it seems to have done it!  My body and bones still make a lot of noises, but they don’t hurt (as much...usually).
• My outlook on training and also just living my life has changed pretty dramatically with this injury, but in a positive way.  I am extremely competitive, especially with myself, and I love to set and smash aggressive goals.  The current state of my body has made me acutely aware that I have to redesign my goals and expectations, and also made me understand that that is not a bad thing.  I can’t do what I once could, and now I have to be much more scientific, measured, and in-tune with my approach to everything.  I’m(trying to be) much more zen-like in my training, and I don’t shame or guilt myself when I deviate from the scheduled plan if my body tells me I need to.  I also don’t let others dictate or alter my approach.  Rule number one of my Masters swim team is “Do what the coach tells you to do, unless you don’t want to!”  I have my own goals, my own expectations, and my own limits, and I’m going to stick to them, at least until the time that I don’t!

What Sucks:

• I am completely lacking power or explosiveness.  If there’s one thing that will still cause me pain or discomfort, it’s doing anything explosive.  This means taking flip turns easy, still using light weights (mostly using body weight, which is technically not using a light weight), still running easy, and still being highly conscience of my limitations.  Like my last post said, I’m still trying to find my “new 100%.” My body will tell me when I've done too much.  For example, I am still not ready to kill it on the dance floor.  I've gotten loose in the hips after a few bevvies a few times, and that doesn't make for a great next day.  I've found if I get over 15,000 steps I will suffer the next day.  By the way, I use a Polar Loop to count my steps, mostly because it's inexpensive and totally water proof.
• I’m still pretty fat, but I’m really not that concerned.  Joining a swim team that practices four times a week has really helped me on the diet front, as I really don’t want to work-out feeling like crap, and I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of the team (at least not by my swimming), as I do enough of that already.  My body weight and figure are both trending down, but I’m still 20-25 lbs over race weight (which is still 10-20 lbs over my ideal race weight).
• Netflix dropped a whole bunch of new seasons of shows that I like, and there are plenty of great shows on TV currently, but now that I'm mobile again, I don't have the time! By the way, that Walking Dead episode was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen on TV.  Not just the gore, of which there was plenty, but the whole intensity and feeling of despair and brutality.  It was truly a discomforting watching experience.  I love Westworld so far also.

Honestly, that’s about it that sucks.  I’m less than five months post-op and basically living a normal life in most aspects.  If you've been reading the blog, you know that there have been tough times, and there will still be tough times ahead.  However, after three years of constant and sometimes severe pain, four or five months of rehabbing is nothing!  If you’re having hip pain, I could not recommend this operation more!  Stay tuned for less hip related news as I am getting back into full time training.  Check out my other pages on the website as I have been neglecting them...I'm only one man with a full-time job and three sports to train for in addition to rehabbing and taking care of my family.  If you're shopping on Amazon, you can support this site just by getting to Amazon from any of my links.  

I have to get my butt back on the bike, literally, and continue working on my diet, but lookout 2017 Clydesdale National Championship, because I'm coming!  

​Cheers and keep grinding!