Post Philippon Visit

Ok for anyone heading into see Philippon, you will completely understand this - my appointment was for 11:30. I saw him at 3:00 and sat in an exam room the entire time. :-) What you love about Dr. Philippon - when he's with you he's completely and totally with you for as long as it takes to figure things out. What frustrates you about Dr. Philippon - you typically wait at least 2 hours to see him past your appointment time and many times it's longer because he is totally focused on someone else. I always try to remember that it could be me that he's focused on making someone else wait so I steel myself to wait and take a book, water and snacks. :-) My hip was screaming by the time I got to see him. I had some adductor work done in PT on Sunday and found that it was incredibly tender and tight. I thought that might be my entire problem. It really pinches my external rotation right now and seemed to improve after some serious release work. When I say serious I should add that I am nicely bruised now. He asked to see me walk and immediately told me that I was getting an injection. Yay I think . . . wheel in the ginormous needle. He is amazingly good at sticking a needle into a hip capsule. I am always amazed. I felt pressure but absolutely no pain. What he found, however, is scar tissue. He commented that the scar tissue was pretty thick and inhibited his getting the needle into the capsule. Yikes!!! My biggest fear realized. I tried to not burst into tears even though I could see the concern on his face. He prescribed some specific things for me to do and told me that I have to come back again next month for another injection. Wow . . . talk about a punch in the gut. There are two things that come to mind for me over and over: 1. when does this end? 2. The movie - Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. I expect to wake up to Sonny and Cher every morning until I get this right --- whatever this is. I take comfort in the fact that I did EVERYTHING according to plan and that I simply cannot control this. It frustrates me endlessly because I cannot control this. :-) I felt immediately better after the shot and continue to have relief from the pain I had before. It's not perfect but I can walk short distances without pain so I'll take it. Continuing to do my glute and T.A. exercises diligently and will see what comes with another month. In the meantime, I am sending all of my positive energy into healing myself. I still take comfort from the fact that my right hip is perfect . . . absolutely 100% perfect so I know it can happen. I told Dr. Philippon that if another surgery becomes necessary, we are doing it in Pittsburgh not Vail since I had such good luck with my right side. He laughed. Off to do circumduction and a round of glute exercies. Later!

Update

10 weeks post surgery and many, many up's and down's. Ugh! It started out so easy and then changed so quickly once I started walking. My own personal theory is that I still have lots of old, bad patterns that need to be broken but it certainly is scary! I am back in Colorado today to see Dr. Philippon and find out what's going on. I saw Brooke yesterday in PT and she could definitely see an issue with my walk. My left side is inflamed and it's higher and way more guarded than my right. She did a ton of work on my adductor and it seemed to help a bit. It's so tight that she bruised me trying to work out a knot she said was the size of a quarter. Yikes!!! Could it be that easy? I so hope so. On a positive note, I have been working really hard on my glutes and am having some great success. I know I still have farther to go but I am starting to see and feel some actual muscle again. YAY!!! I'll post again today after I see Dr. Philippon. I'm always buoyed by his confidence and enthusiasm and that's much needed today. Later!