New Hip for New York – Rehab & The Trip!

So since the last blog post I’ve rehab-ed and been on my epic trip to New York and Aspen! Post surgery I spent the first two weeks off work as advised by the surgeon and was doing very simple exercises such as high knee marching, calf raises and hip abduction. I started physio (soft tissue release to help reduce inflammation and increase hip range) 72 hrs post surgery and used the crutches for 2-3 days before progressing to one crutch for another 2-3 days and then it ended up being easier for my lower back to not use crutches at all.

After the two week mark I was back in the gym with just some simple upper body exercises. Everything was light and easy and I progressed my hip exercises to include theraband deep hip rotator exercises and more functional exercises such as lunges, leg press and step ups which all helped in preparation for my trip.

I had a great time on my trip – we walked 20,000 steps most days in New York seeing all the sites such as Top of the Rock, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, a couple of musicals on Broadway AND the New York City Ballet! I continued to do my exercises while away to keep my glute strength up and make sure I was ready for snowboarding in Aspen. Dr Molnar had strict instructions (he’s also a snowboarder!) for snowboarding which were stay on the groomed intermediate runs, no snowboarding between trees and a beer at the end of the day! Which I stuck to, bar one incident when it was snowing and I didn’t see the signs and went down an un-groomed run – I realise why he said stick to the groomed runs – I was no where near fast enough to react. The two hardest things for my hips during the trip were 1. trying to move my luggage and snowboard bag around at the same time and 2. sitting on a plane for 16 hours.

If someone asked me if I’d do it (have the surgery) again knowing what I know now – I would say yes… my recovery has been fast (I went snowboarding at 9 weeks post op so I’m pretty chuffed) and smooth with the big difference being that I was strong to begin with and I think that’s made all the difference.

I hope that sharing my experience does help those who’ve never been through orthopaedic surgery – it’s not as scary as it seems and it’s definitely not the end of the world (although it may seem so when you’re first faced with injury). Where there’s a will, there’s a way – I’m glad I found mine.

P.S. If you do have any queries or questions feel free to email me at deb@inspiredphysio.com.au

P.P.S. Shout out to my clients (stocked me up with chocolate pre surgery!), staff, friends and my partner Chris – I wouldn’t have been able to sort this out without their support and help pre and post op both physically and mentally. It means a lot to know my squad’s got my back! xx

Deborah Chen, Physiotherapist