I received the cortisone shot one week ago, on Friday, March 6th. I'm so grateful to the doctor who gave it to me. He's at a primary care clinic in Fresno, the only place in 50 miles from my location that was willing to give me a cortisone shot based on my own surgeon's recommendation and not requiring me to sign on as a new patient (requiring more appointments and imaging). He looked at the imaging I had done last month and the order from my surgeon explaining her reasonings, he did a quick assessment of my hip joint (movement and a portable ultrasound look on his phone with an app. I've worked with ER docs with this app, it's very neat!), then proceeded to give me the shot. He saved me the time and expense of flying back up to Seattle for a 10-minute procedure. I'm very grateful.
My hip was quite sore the week before the injection since we were touring on vacation. I walked the 3-mile Rim Trail with my dad at the Grand Canyon National park, which I don't regret because it was a beautiful walk and I loved seeing my dad react to the grand canyon for the first time (he'd never been before!). But my hip was quite sore for many days afterward. I did nothing for a few days prior to the injection to get the swelling down as much as possible before they injected my joint with more fluid (aka medicine). It helped; when I walked into the clinic my pain was much better. And I'm glad I did get the swelling down because the joint was very achy for two days after the injection; I could feel the pressure of the extra fluid inside my joint. The first day I noticed improvement was Monday morning. From then on, each day my hip would feel a bit better. The doctor who injected my hip recommended I rest the hip for 2-3 days post-injection before returning to daily activities, but no hiking until two weeks after the injection. He said usually they recommend waiting one week before returning to rigorous activity but he suggested two weeks for me since I had surgery in that hip. I am, however, able to spin my bike on a trainer and do some low-impact PT exercises.
It's been one week and, I must say, my hip does feel much better. Without the pain, I feel stiffness and weakness in that joint. I spun on my bike today and, while stiff at first, I was able to do 20 minutes without pain. It felt good to finally sweat and get some rigorous exercise! After spinning, I did some stretching and low-impact exercises to start building up the muscle strength again. I've been working for the last three days so I didn't get to exercise until today. Work hasn't triggered the pain but I've been in triage where I do a lot of sitting. I still get some pinching sensations in different positions, particularly with sitting and crossing legs. I had that pinch before surgery but not after surgery so I don't know what a return of that sensation means for my hip health. Hopefully, that occasional pinch will resolve with more exercises and stretching. In the meantime, I plan on doing more bike spinning and PT exercises/stretches for the next week. I have next Sunday off so I plan to do a flat two or three-mile walk and see how my hip responds to that. That will be the real test!
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