I swore to myself I wouldn’t do this. I wouldn’t be like many of the other blogs about PAO’s. I wouldn’t abandon my readers when I started to feel better. I saw a pattern in those blogs I found. They all seemed to stop after a few months of recovery. My boyfriend took that to mean, they all felt better and didn’t have anything to write about anymore. I knew that wasn’t the case. I knew, after researching the heck out of this surgery, that there was no way that was the case. Plus, how did everyone seem to stop around the same time when we all are different, with different bodies and different surgical and post-surgical experiences. I told myself when I started LH (Literally Hip) that I wouldn’t do that. I’d carry my readers through to the end of true recovery which is minimally one year post op per side and if I had nerve issues, it’d be closer to two years post op each side. Well I am here to say I’m sorry. I did stop writing for three months, but I can assure you, it was not because I was healed, recovered and feeling better. Also, I stopped writing when I was only 5.5 months post op. So I guess I half failed, but nonetheless it was failing on my part. Now that I have written this sworn testimony, I am bound to stick to my promise! Right? Well let’s hope so.

Here’s my somewhat brief overview of the past three months leading up to my next PAO:

July:

• My last post was mostly about some bad news I’d received from my neck surgeon. I also had my screw removal date set for the beginning of August and a tentative date set for my left PAO (LPAO). I finalized some big decisions that month. I ended up in June/July, cancelling my screw removal and moving forward with having my left PAO, left arthroscopy and right side screw removal done in October.
• July 17th was my birthday!
• July 20th (not quite six mos post op) was my last hip PT session. Not because I was discharged and rehabbed fully, but because I needed to save sessions for the next hip before the end of the year…..stupid insurance companies…..
• I spent a week away with Lucy, house sitting for a dear friend in Carpinteria. I explored Santa Barbara, Ojai and just relaxed. I was having a lot of stress and welcomed the chance to get away for a bit. The best thing from that trip was experiencing Ojai by bike. Yes I said bike! I still couldn’t bike hills, so when I was in the rental bike shop asking for recommendations and the guy started drawing all over the map, I asked how far each distance was and if there were hills. I got the typical elevator eyes look (looking me up and down as if to say “you look perfectly capable”). I didn’t even let him ask a question before I said, “you’d think I wouldn’t have any issues, however I’ve recently had a neck surgery and so have to sit straighter up on the bike so my neck doesn’t flex for an extended period of time. I’ve also recently had a hip reconstruction, so I can’t bike hills and don’t know how long I’ll tolerate the bike seat for.” He just chuckled and replied with a “WOW!” I knew he had no idea by just looking at me, which I guess at this point and after so many of these interactions, I should just take as a compliment. He rented me an electric bike and off I went with ease. I biked around 15 miles all around Ojai and into the hills and orchards. It was amazing and now I’m obsessed with electric bikes and want one soooo bad! I had absolutely no pain anywhere in my body. Impressive I know!

August:

• August 2nd was six months post op!
• I completed bone growth stimulating my neck after 260 days. That was a good day!
• I did one month of Barre classes. I tolerated about 3-4/week with some modifications. My hip actually did quite well in the classes, it was just very weak and the modifications were mostly for my neck issues.
• I wore heels for the first time to my friend’s wedding!
• I started massage therapy and acupuncture for my neck and then added on more appointments for my hip/full body. Both practitioners were so great that I figured they could help the rest of my body too!
• I took my first beach walk in soft and hard sand and with Miss Lucy Lu too. My hip was sore and tired after, but no worse for the wear.

September:

• Going through these recoveries, I think I finally hit a crisis of sorts and chopped my hair and added bangs, which I’ve never had in my life! They’re already being grown out…so you can imagine how well that all went lol. I do however, like the length for recovery and think it’ll be oh so helpful being short while I’m on crutches again.
• I traveled to Europe (London, Budapest and Munich) for almost three weeks. I told my friends I was a yes person and to not think of me with any restrictions. I wanted to walk, hike, dance, tour etc without first asking myself if I should be doing the activity. I walked up to 10 miles each day and even did some biking through those cities. My hip felt great! It was my feet, shins, legs and back that took the beating, but in a good way. Everything hurt so good because all those muscles were very weak. I even got shin splints, which I don’t think I’d had since college during my dancing days! All the aches and pains were well received and made me feel a little closer to my normal, active self. It was such a wonderful time with friends and having one last adventure before the next PAO. I figured I needed to get it all out of my system before I was back to being a bump on a log for several months.
• I took my first yoga class in almost two years when I was in Munich. It was a very gentle yoga with no flow, so I didn’t have to worry about my neck much at all. The teacher was so receptive to helping guide me through modified poses. My hip did awesome and again just felt weak. This is to be expected since I hadn’t finished rehabbing it. I’ll finish when both my left and right are up and running together again haha. It was such an easy class (even though I did struggle through parts of it) in comparison to the yoga I used to do and teach. However, for what my body and I have been through in these past couple years, this was a HUGE milestone for me!
• We drove to and from a wedding close to Big Sur. I drove half of both lengths and my back and hip did great as the driver and the passenger.

October (pre surgery):

• My first baseball game since hip surgery and I sat without any cushion or pillow in the stadium seats totally fine!
• Chris’ birthday and our nieces 3rd birthday!

That basically catches you all up on my recovery, body aches, pains and gains and life in general for the past few months. Next up…LPAO update and recovery progress. Thanks for sticking with me and LH through the ups and downs of this past year!