Surgery Diary: 1 Month Post-Op

 I've finally passed one month post-op, which seems like a lifetime and no time at all! I don't realise just how much progress I've made in the fast few weeks, until I take the time to reflect on it. 

Warning: There are photos of stitches at the bottom of this post!

If you don't already know, last month I had a complex hip arthroscopy after a sports injury. Since then, I've been documenting my recovery on my Instagram and also here, on my blog! If you want to read about my first two weeks post surgery you can do that here.

I started week 3 walking full time on two crutches, but up to 75% weight. Quickly, I was able to walk around the house with one (or no) crutches, although only for short distances. 

One of the good things about surgery is you have a great excuse to be lazy. So, a significant amount of week 2 was spent ordering pizza in my oodie and watching way too much greys anatomy. I did quite quickly realise I was capable of hobbling around the house crutchless all the time, which exponentially increases the amount of snacks you can carry!

I had an online with my NHS physio, who gave me a list of challenges to complete in the next few weeks. If there is anything that you should know about me, it's that I'm highly competitive and don't take challenges lightly. The main challenge was to balance on my left leg for one minute without dropping my hip - this might sound easy, but it was not! I am not easily defeated though and persevered, even adding movements to the free leg for an extra challenge, and got it from 20 seconds to 90 seconds within the week!!

Week 4 involved finally taking the jump, and leaving the house with only one crutch! This felt like a huge step in recovery and a big step towards "normal". Although I still couldn't go huge distances, it definitely gave me a bit more freedom. You don't realise how many things you can do with two crutches - once you're down to one you can suddenly order yourself a coffee and carry it! 

Most of week 4, however, was spent knee deep in university work that I'd missed while I was in hospital and had been putting off ever since. As we are approaching the end of the semester, it was obvious I couldn't keep putting it off forever. Even though I spent a lot of time working on essays, I still found time for some self care and it was nice to feel a little more like me again. 

Week 4 wasn't all good. As I began walking more, some of the chronic back pain I'd had for the past year prior to surgery returned. It really threw me off. For me, this was the worst case scenario. I would have surgery, do everything right, and still end up in constant pain. I was really lucky to have an appointment with my private physio, who noticed my pelvis was uneven and had a go at realigning it. Fingers crossed, that seems to have done the job so far! Thankfully I have an appointment lined up with a pain consultant over summer if this pain doesn't subside.

If you're a bit squeamish, I recommend stopping here!

I had my stitches out two weeks after surgery, so the past two weeks the scars have been healing up nicely. I have the fun job of applying vaseline twice a day to stop them scabbing over and scaring worse. I'm really really trying not to hate the scars but honestly I find them so ugly! I'm really hoping they fade more over time.