New hip for New York – Prehab and Surgery

ligteresSince the most recent injury occurred in October I haven’t stopped training. It was a choice I made knowing that if I stayed strong and fit that I would be able to recover from a surgery much quicker. I continued to squat and deadlift and had to alter some sessions to adjust for pain that I had which some weeks meant that I didn’t deadlift or I would change my stance for squats but it kept me in a good frame of mind. It was really important to stick with my routine of training and walking the dog as much for mental health as it was for my physical health and I’m truly grateful that I did.

Prehab for me looked like –

  • Powerlifitng training (low load, higher reps squats / deadlifts / bench press / accessories) Monday, Wednesday, Friday
  • 30min Cycle HIIT + 10min GPP Planks + 10min GPP pull ups – Tuesday
  • 45-60min swimming (1500m) – Sunday

The surgery itself ended up being slightly less complex then anticipated but just as fascinating to watch on the DVD as expected! Dr Molnar used 3 key holes to shave back the hip socket surface to create a better surface to stitch the labrum back to. Drilled four small holes into the socket to stitch and anchor the labrum back down and the surprise extra tear was the ligamentum teres which also needed anchoring back down (but wasn’t seen on the scan so we didn’t know it was there). All in all it took about an hour or so to clean it up with quite a bit of that time spent actually positioning me for the surgery.

 

Spent the night at St George Private but was up on crutches to get to the toilet within about 4 hours post surgery. The pain was very well controlled – a good squirt of local anesthetic is injected into the hip before they stitch you up and I didn’t have the ice pack on it for long because I ended up having the postanesthetic shivers and couldn’t warm myself up real well (thank goodness for heat blankets!). I was cleared by a lovely young physio the next morning who checked I was safe with crutches and stairs and then was discharged (yes – she knew I was a physio and my apologies to her for almost spewing on her thanks to the pain medication) and sent home – in my very reclined car seat.

 

Time to rehab for New York!

Deb Chen, Physiotherapist