6 Week Recap

Last week I flew up to Boston and met with Dr. Murphy for my six week check-up. After several x-rays and some strength tests he determined my recovery was looking great and in about 6 weeks I should be able to ditch the crutches. His exact words if I recall correctly were 'there is no reason to believe this won't last indefinitely.' Of course this is without any long term studies on PAO surgeries and with the stipulation that I should take the next six weeks very carefully and highly consider not running in the future.

Looking at the x-rays with four very long pins in my hip was a little bizarre, especially with the gaps between the bones. He mentioned that the fuzziness indicated my bones were starting to heal and grow back together which is good news. His big concern is that I will be too active too soon but I assured him that I have been very good about giving the hip the rest it needs. I am to start putting >25<50% of my body weight on my right leg when walking.

The last part of our conversation centered around the amount of pain in my left hip since the surgery. I have obviously been putting the majority of my weight on that leg now and it seems my dysplasia is getting more significant as the weeks go by. With Dr. Murphy's suggestion, we scheduled my left PAO for August 21st of this year. He has never done two surgeries that close together before (6 months), but wants to ensure we take care of the left hip before it deteriorates too quickly.

The next step is to begin PT which includes lots of swimming and my regular excercises. My plan was to start swimming today but it turns out I have the beginnings of what looks like a staph infection on my elbow. It started out looking like a spider bite and over the past two days has grown considerably. My entire elbow is swollen and red hot. I am going to the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out and when it clears I will begin swimming.