Let the reHIPilitation begin!

Today, yes today, the day after surgery, I started Physical Therapy.

Let me just preface this blog entry with a little history of my past Physical Therapy experience. I had the same Therapist as I saw today. I was seeing him for the same hip issue, but before it was a confirmed labral tear, requiring surgery. The orthopedic doctor and I were hoping physical therapy would strengthen any weaknesses I may have had and decrease my pain. So, I started doing physical therapy. I was one of the strongest people in there, mostly because my "sport" was weight lifting. Jokingly, one day, I gave myself the nickname "Iron Maiden" (a name a friend of mine jokingly called me when I started lifting weights). Somehow, the name stuck in PT. And everyone in the entire clinic referred to me as "Iron Maiden." Pretty awesome, if you ask me. 

So today, I return the same PT clinic, one day post-op, and let me tell you, it was pretty intense. 

It started with getting onto the therapy bed and lying down... whew!

That. Was. Tough.

The first exercise I did was to improve my internal rotation. This is the motion of your foot and knee turning toward the opposite leg while lying on your back. Mine was previously pretty limited. Now, even more so, and with more pain. I had to turn my foot in 30 times. I laughed at the exercise when the Physical Therapist first instructed me on it. I started doing the exercise, got to 19, and had to rest. I had so much pain in my hip just from that! So after a minute or two of rest, I finished the set of 30. Yay!

On to exercise Number 2: Quads. I heard the PT tell one of the aids to show me next exercise. He warned him, "She's going to laugh at you for how easy it is. Just ignore her." So this poor kid comes over to show me what to do, and what do I do? I laughed. He put a pool noodle under my right foot and told me to tighten my quad and hold it for 3 seconds, then relax. I did it. He said, "Okay, do that 30 times." Easy enough, I thought. And that was pretty easy. 

The PT comes back over to me for the 3rd exercise: Glutes. Great, what is this one going to be? I had to lie on the bed with both legs straight out, squeeze my butt cheeks together, hold for 3 seconds, and relax. Thirty times. Another easy one! I got this! So, I'm lying there, squeezing my butt together, and the PT sits on the bed next to me because there's no one else there. (It's lunch time.) I turn to him, while I'm squeezing my butt, and say, "You know, you may not think this is awkward, because you do this all day, but me sitting here squeezing my butt cheeks together while you're sitting there just watching me... that's kind of weird for me." Did he move? Nope! He sat right there the whole time I was flexin' them glutes! One set of 30, and I'm done.

The fourth exercise was for the hammies. It consisted of pulling my heel down and back to work the hamstrings, without actually moving my foot. Just tensing the muscles and relaxing. Thirty of those. Check.

After that, I got an ice pack for my hip for about 20 minutes for all that strenuous physical therapy I had to endure. All joking aside, working my hip/leg like that definitely increased my pain. I had taken a pain pill before going knowing I'd probably need it. I took one shortly after coming home as well. The two images posted are the exercises I did today and that I'm supposed to do twice a day until I go back on Wednesday. 

I challenge you all to do these as well, both legs. See if you can complete the one set of 30 twice a day. Let me know how it goes. See if you feel stronger. What have you got to lose besides some weakness? Do it while you're watching TV or checking Facebook and Twitter. If you need to rest between, rest. If you feel sore, ice. Trust me, I'm a doctor!