Hip replacement 1 year on
My ceramic hip is nearly 1 year old! I have a check up booked for 12th July. This will be a couple of weeks after the aniversary which is 21st, summer solstice.
I am hoping for an xray and time to chat to the physio or surgeon but it is unlikely since I have no problems except that I do a lot more than many people!
I have had many concerned voices about the movements I do both in Pilates and dance. 90degree bend , no problem that I can feel. Squat, possible with care. Salsa, Mambo etc., no problem! Hips and back seem to move better than before, it is hard to get back to reminding myself that I have a piece of glass in there and metal in my leg! AND its a lot smaller than the original. Am I doing it damage I sometimes wonder. Only time will tell and an xray if I got one now might be a good indicator.
Reasons for my arthritis are as elusive as ever, although I have not forgotten my search! I try to put into practice what I find feels beneficial in preventing it getting any worse. Paying attention to diet, not too much acid producing food. Exercise, pilates and dance. I particularly like holistic healing dance practices such as Five Rhythms and Nia. Meditation, difficult for one so busy and anxious as me but worth doing just to get back to that connected place of awareness. Moving meditation is brilliant!! To walk or dance led by only ones breath, body or music. Sleep too has always been important, so imagine my horror at suffering from insomnia!
More on this next time I am awake at 2am! hearing those wonderful birds!
Eventually I will complete that exercise list and post it somewhere and upload my story to Dancerhips website.
I am busy at the moment getting into teaching Nia dance. Who would have thought, certainly not me! that I would be able to teach dance and after a hip replacement!
Lin Grahame
11/6/11
Add a comment June 11, 2011
Tags: Arthritis and exercise, Arthrtis and alkaline diet, Five Rhythm Dance, insomnia, meditation, moving meditation, Nia Dance, Pilates
Truely amazing!
People ask me how my hip or hips are and that is really the answer! Here I am nearly 10 months after my hip replacement operation and just about to start providing Nia dance classes as part of my Holistic Health business!
I thought that my ambition to bring movement and dance into that business may never happen, and probably wouldnt have without the new hip. Its only occasionally that it comes to my mind that my two hips are very different. In movement terms I don’t notice anything. I do notice more balanced mobility in my pelvis and back, perhaps it is even more balanced from the way I was before the arthritis showed itself.
So I am fulfilling this ambition and living joyfully as I promised I would the night before the operation.
I promised I would pay attention to what gives me joy and spend more time doing that and being happy and grateful.
I am very much looking forward to sharing the joy of movement with others through Nia, and providing a space for people to find the real relaxation of body mind and spirit that Nia brings.
Add a comment April 13, 2011
Tags: Nianow.com, niascotland.com, sanas-ancientwisdom.co.uk
Holistic Touch, Beauty Therapy catches up
On Saturday while I was working at the Edinburgh Theosophical Society, I had the thought that it is an honour and a privilege that clients trust me with their body mind spirit becaue that is what massage is.
Done with mindfullness it influences the wholebeing. This is the power of touch!
Today I have got around to reading an article in Psychologies magazine entitled Special Treatment by Helen Brown. In this she talks about the massage therapist being able to hold and heal every part of a client’s suffering. What appears on the surface to be physical therapy influences far deeper. A good massage touches not only the physical but the energy system to balance and heal. This ability often comes from the therapist themselves having learnt through their own journey of imbalance and imperfection. The wounded healer is a strong force in many people.
It is great to read that many so called beauty therapists are embracing this work that holistic practitioners have always known.
lin 7/3/2011
Add a comment March 7, 2011
Tags: Helen Brown, jingmassage.com, psychologies magazine, The Edinburgh Theosophical Society, The wounded Healer
Snowdrops, it must be spring!
Christmas seems to have come and gone and January much the same. Nia White belt intensive in London was brilliant although tiring. Ann was a brillaint teacher and inspiring! I also met some great women!
It was perhaps a little soon after my total hip replacement.
Since then I have really felt fitter and stronger and only think about the ceramic metal and plastic that is the miracle of a new hip occasionally.
I am enjoying moving freely and feeling stronger. I am enjoying Nia class with Jinti and Karen in Burntisland and also a Dance Movement Psychotherapy Group in Edinburgh with Kedzie Penfield.
I am really excited about teaching Nia dance and working lots on the preparation of that, but sometimes I need to remember the gift of this new hip and the fact that I am actually not as young as I used to be! Looking after myself Body Mind and Spirit is important in making as much of that gift as I can while not beating myself up about it and being realistic about what I can do.
Add a comment February 4, 2011
Tags: anniann.com, Jinti Wright-Boycott, Karen Small, Kedzie Penfield, niascotland.com, Thespaceupstaris.com Nianow.com
The future looks exciting again!!
It is 18th November, about 5 months with my new hip and I am enjoying pain free movement most of the time.
I am able to enjoy dance class and have found a Dance Movement Phsychotherpay Group and Nia dance.
I am still learning how much I can do and have had great help from Bill Taylor, physiotherapist. I am hoping to have some Pilates 1-2-1 sessions soon.
It will always amaze me how little physiotherapy there is available without going privately. I was out of hospital after three days with only instructions on basic exercises to do. No Physio sessions were allowed. The Physiotherapist at my local GP surgery said that he could not see me without the surgeons instruction. So if you can’t afford to have a private physio then there is none!! It is up to you entirely and it is scarey! You are not sure how much to do and the fear of dislocation is everpresent especially in the early weeks.
Physiotherapy for joint repelcements I feel is perhaps more important for the younger more active person. The person who wants to return to their former way of life and excercise. There are more and more poeple in this category these days! Wonder why? Is it because the surgeons are happier to do the operation earlier because the prosthetic is more durable and last much longer before revision is requred? I also think that the earlier it is done, the more one can return to a “normal life” because the muscles are not wasted due to imobility and the desire to exercise and rehabilitate well is strong. Some other interesting stories can be found at www.dancerhips.com
Deep squats seem to be a definate NO and a diagonal spine stretch on the floor with the right knee and hip bent going towards the left can feel a bit risky!!
I am really excited about the prospect of being able to include Nia dance into my portfolio and about the Nia White Belt training in London in December!! To be able to do this seems like a second chance and a real gift!
Lin grahame
Add a comment November 19, 2010
Tags: Dancerhips.com, Nia Dance, Nia London, taylorphysiotherapy
where did the last six weeks go!!
I started thinking and planning my return to work!
Pilates classes were due to restart on the 27th of September so the publicity had to be put out, room had to be booked etc.
Planning also was going in to other workshops I wanted to run so the focus was very much on work rather than my journey by necesity!(sanas-ancientwisdom.co.uk)
I am now back at work work and my hip is great!
12 week xray was good and I was discharged from hospital care! check up next year!
Residual muslce imbalances from posture with hip pain are I think gradually going with the help of my physio and myofascial release massage(Healing Outside In)
I do still have questions about what I can and can’t do and what risks I am taking doing what I do. The backup and physio from NHS is really only just to get you moving and does not address what you can do beyond that. There are many different opinions on what you should and should not do.
I am the process of writting the pilates type exercises that I found useful.
Conclusions about how and why are also still in the early stages but new insights come most often when one has time to meditate and reflect.
I had a lovely week in a very warm Rhodes and learnt to swim!! (again) Everything is different with an artificial hip or I am sure anything, and it takes time to get to know it and work with it, like a well known friend or colleague!! So I am still learning and realising that there are positives and negatives to everything. It has made me change the way I do things and I hope to change more and perhaps that was always the intention and the lesson!!
Lin Grahame 7/10/10
Add a comment October 7, 2010
Tags: Healing Outside-In, Pilates, sanas-ancientwisdom.co.uk
week 9 post total hip replacement, the joy of total imersion in water
Getting about mostly without a stick now. This week’s highlight however was definately a visit to the local swimming pool yesterday.
I would have done this sooner but for a lingering Staphylococcus infection caused by a stitch coming out at the top end of the operation wound.
Gingerly I walked down the steps into the warm water but soon I was walking in deeper water and doing most of the exercises from the shallow water pool program from “Heal your Hips” by Robert Klapper and Lynda Huey. I was able to add a few of my own from my previous workout before the op. ( see later blogs when I will list my exercises)
Climbing out up the side pool ladder my legs felt really heavy!
Then it was time to try the Jacuzzi. Loving baths as I do, I have found it very hard to do without! This was a real treat and I felt as if I was bouncing along on clouds afterwards. I have very tight Quadratus Lumborum muscles and most of my lower back is also stiff and sore at times. This felt as if it really got pummeled and eased.
Today I had physio and got onto the floor for the first time. I just need to use the massage couch as a prop for a couple of weeks to get down and back up safely, but otherwise ok. I lean forwards onto the couch with my hands and go onto my knees. I end up on all fours (quadruped) and then go onto my left buttock, keeping the operated side safely out of inward rotation and adduction, then both buttocks and then onto my back. To get up, the process is reversed. During this movement, there is a nice stretch for QL. sitting on the buttock on one side, I bring myself up onto my hand and pause.
I also learnt to use the theraband to increase resistance to my leg excercies and walking.
Onward and upward or should I say downward with regard to the floor and water!!
Lin 25/8/10
Add a comment August 25, 2010
Tags: Heal Your Hips, Quadratus Lumborum, Robert Klapper and Lynda Huey
weeks 7 and 8 post op
This is when I got to thinking I could/should be getting on with this that and the other! I began to feel very tired and was reminded of what one lesson is here- to allow more yin energy into my life. I still had a bit of infection in the wound until two days ago so could not get stuck into exercises in the pool- wait another week!! Do the things to nourish and rest my body, stretches before increasing the excercises, breathing, meditation, tune into my intuition for what’s next!!
Wait and listen to my body. It is certainly a lesson in that, because in this situation you have too, to do anything other caould damage your recovery!
Not yet getting onto the floor so pilates exercises and stretching are done standing or lying on my massage couch.
Walking is good, without a stick unless either stiff from sitting awhile or going a long way.
I have Good stretches for my Quadratus Lumborum muscle and hip flexors sent in a wee video after my visit to Bill Taylor physio
I had a great massage from Joolz Flynn in Edinburgh (Healing Outside-In)
I am taking Milk Thistle to nourish my liver and Manuka Honey, yum yum!!
The wound infection healed quicker when I started self Reiki with that intention.
Just sit and imagine looking out on the water from this lovely cafe seat in Findhorn!
Lin 18/8/10
2 comments August 18, 2010
Tags: Findhorn, Healing Outside-In, Manuka Honey, Milk Thistle, Pilates exercise, Reiki Healing, Taylor Physiotherapy
SEVEN WEEKS POST OP
Over the last seven weeks I have improved a huge amount from those first days at home when I was awake in the early hours of the mornings with a sore back and listening to music or out walking on my trusty two sticks!
In those early weeks there were some beautiful mornings to walk out and I enjoyed the quiet solitude and the warm sun on my face. This is one of the things I want to keep in my life. Although the sun coming up is a yang energy, I felt very relaxed and peaceful on these walks. My walking distance increased each day and now I walk for about 30minutes at a steady pace, mostly without the sticks. A walk by the river Forth at South Queensferry is always a favourite of mine.
I did have a few ups and downs of course.
Pain in my solar plexus area bothered me for a few days around week three. This was perhaps still a bit of shock or all the tablets were affecting my stomach.
It passed as most things do. I had aches and pains around the joint, buttock and groin often when I did too much walking or sitting!
At four weeks post operation my previously healed wound was red and had a pus-like discharge around the very top over my buttock. A trip back to the Golden Jubilee Hospital was necessary. This area had always felt as if there was a knot just below the surface, probably a stitch not disolved yet.
Sure enough, Mr Allen, the surgeon, thought it was probably a stitch. It was something which often happens apparently. It was swabbed and found to be infected with Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria. I was put on antibiotics and sent home with extra dressings. This infection was quite stubborn and is only just looking dry now.
Travelling back to the hospital was not easy on public transport at this stage but I made it! To get patient transport proved to be just too difficult! The telephone was often on answer machine or the service was fully booked! How some other people from other areas got a taxi service is a mystery!
Even with this going on, I felt good most of the time, with only tiredness a problem. I was doing more exercises than I was given, adding in the ones from the pilates repertoire which I thought were applicable.(listed later) I was also doing bridging and step ups that were recommended for six to twelve weeks post op. I was also walking much further than the goals for that time.
By the beginning of July I was able to take less pain killers and by four weeks I only took paracetamol or cocodamol at night, mainly for lower back pain. Now I am taking Milk Thistle to help my kidneys and liver to recover.
Sometimes I felt depressed, still do, especially when I am tired. I get to thinking that I will never be the same again, I have lost something, and some things that I will never be able to do again! At those times I have to remember that I have a long way to go in recovery and what I can achieve is unknown, but it will be the best it can be with attention and work. As always there are worse things could happen and I have also to remember that I believe it is my path, my journey and as such is a gift!
8/8/10
Add a comment August 9, 2010
SIX WEEKS POST OP/2/8/2010
My new right hip and I have known each other and been working together for six weeks today and it is a bit of a milestone because I can now stop taking aspirin and wearing the big white surgical stockings!! My legs can rest free tonight! I am also free to lie on my side! I feel quite strong and it’s time to get down to some serious physiotherapy!! I plan to see a Physiotherapist who knows me well, later this week and also to get a massage or several!! Hopefull pilates 121 will follow and some other from of body work. I need to address my scoliosis, the strain of six weeks of lying on my back along with the months of functioning with lack of hip mobility that went before the op.
I am now allowed to drive again which I will need to practice and be careful not to end up driving everywhere again!
I have also found a new feeling of relaxation. I am finding a way back to meditation and am getting a wee peep at how I can feel when totally relaxed!
I can sometimes feel perfectly safe and looked after and that feeling allows me to relax, or I wonder, is it the fact that I am relaxed, that allows me to feel safe ! Fear and tension are so linked, even when the fear is of just everyday stuff like time keeping or feeling of what one should be doing!!
That sentence does not seem to give enough strength or weight to what it means to me!
Add a comment August 2, 2010
