July 9, 2019 - First post-op appointment with the surgeon

First post-op appointment today with Dr. Hagen. The last two weeks have been fine. I iced my hip a lot during the first week and was able to wean myself off the narcotic pain medicine after just a few days, transitioning to scheduled tylenol instead. I'm only using a half tab of percocet and a valium before bed to help me sleep through the night on my back with a brace on (I'm a stomach sleeper). I haven't had pain in my hip really at all, just generalized discomfort wearing the brace all the time. I went into the appointment hoping to be cleared of the brace.

I updated Dr. Hagen. She was quite unhappy to hear the physical therapist I went to didn’t want to do any exercises with me until my brace was off. Dr. Hagen said the instructions I gave the physical therapist specifies exercises she should have been doing with me over the last two weeks. Additionally, the physical therapist recommended I get a recumbent bicycle for exercise at home so we spent $200 buying one. Dr. Hagen states I should be riding an upright bike only. Fortunately for me, I was unable to ride the recumbent bike as it flexed my hip too much so I was going to wait until after the brace was off. But now I come to find that I should be riding an upright bicycle only. Another weird thing about the physical therapy place I went to was how multiple staff told me how young I was for being there. After mentioning these things to Dr. Hagen, she recommended I find a new physical therapist, or to have my current one call her if I decide to stay their client.

Besides that, she was pleased with my healing. The sutures were removed from my hip. She said I could go without the brace but recommended using it on days with lots of activity. I was super excited to have the brace off, I’ll be able to sleep a lot more comfortably without it and stop taking the night meds! She was impressed with my range of motion she tried on me. I have been very diligent with home exercises so I think that helped despite having no physical therapy for the last two weeks. I still need crutches to walk as my right leg is weak but at least I can start bearing weight on it.

After the appointment, I called another physical therapy place that accepts my insurance and scheduled an appointment with them, then canceled my current physical therapist who screwed up so badly. Unfortunately, the new physical therapy place didn’t have an opening until Monday, which will put me at three weeks post-op without any physical therapy when I was supposed to have started the first week. I will continue my home exercises and get my upright bicycle set up to use since I’m allowed to bend my hip up to 90 degrees now.

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