Physical Therapy and Other Tools

Therapy modalities and tools have been a must for my recovery. I have had the very great fortune of connecting with the best physical therapists (two of them), and adjunct therapy team. Additionally, I’ve had access to excellent tools to use at home. Beyond that, I have my own mental/objective tool that I’ll share at the end today.

Physical Therapy

For these surgeries, it was imperative that I work with PTs that are not only top notch, but also experts at hips, particularly these exact surgeries. My favorite local PT (he helped me through my bilateral ankle surgeries) was excellent for me until things got complicated and strange, at which point he knew to send me back to my doctor. From there, I started working with my Dr’s favorite PT. She worked alongside him, almost exclusively with his patients only, and was several feet away from him on the days I was in. This was super helpful on several occasions when we needed to bounce back to him with questions and the inevitable problems. Amazing plus amazing, I have been so fortunate.

Chiropractic

We have a great chiropractor locally. He is super technical which I appreciate, especially given the difficulty of my situation and need for accuracy. My work there could only be sporadic at best, though, since it is difficult to do adjustments when the pelvis needs major bone healing.

Muscle Activation

Oh boy, so many muscles have gotten turned off over the last nearly three years! This was SO HELPFUL after each surgery, a shortcut to getting my body to work symmetrically again.

Laser Therapy

My husband’s newest business is light therapy, so he made sure I always had handheld lasers/LED light units available to self-treat immediately in the hospital after my PAOs and then at home after each surgery. I’m currently using this one, the LZ30-Z. We believe this has been a factor in my ability to do each surgery without a single pain med. It also helps the scars heal better and with less discoloration.

Exogen Bone Stimulator

This is a new element, added just for this most recent surgery. Since I am allergic to the metal of the plate and screws, we are interested in hastening the bone healing so we can minimize the time I am exposed to the metal. So, twice I day, I’m bone stimming!

InHarmony – Vibroacoustic Therapy

This is also a new element. We have both the Sound Lounge and the Meditation Cushion. I am partial to the meditation cushion – maybe because it vibrates my boo boo spot best. I normally wouldn’t gravitate towards something like this but I absolutely love it and keep telling friends about it.

Apollo Neuro

I’ve been using this for several months and love it, too. I use it first thing in the morning to help wake up, after workouts, and then at bedtime/when I wake up at night. This is an awesome tool for helping me get back to sleep, especially these days with my itchy, sweaty, wake-up-too-many-times nights.

Cupping

With silicone cups. I haven’t done this in a year or two now but in creating this list I am reminded to do it again. I want my scars to heal as smoothly as possible and know this is a good piece to add in again. I’m not embarrassed by/ashamed of/bothered by my scars – I actually embrace them as my own kintsugi, that I am made more beautiful BECAUSE of them – but given that I’m working my way into bodybuilding, a pretty tooshie with a good shape will be better. I’m dedicating myself to beginning this technique again today.

Please Note – The Exogen and Physical Therapy are the only elements prescribed by my doctor.

Pain Point Inventory

This is my own SOAP Notes-like tool that is super helpful for me to track my progress. After each surgery I identify the unique pain points, listing them all out. They overlap in so far as how they feel at first, but they are fairly obvious to at least identify. For example, incision, bony cuts, holes where bone was harvested, muscle attachments that have been disturbed, allergy, deactivated muscles, etc. I like to check in with each point each day and track, especially as separation begins to appear between the points. It is much easier to identify what is causing which sensations at that point.

Here is my list from this most recent surgery with today’s actual assessment, 9 points:

Right iliac crest – incision plus bone harvesting. Non-issue.
Muscle tear – This still burns but not as much. We’ve treated it with one round of PRP and it is slowly responding. It still bulges a tiny bit. It is longer top to bottom than it was after the RPAO and extends under the right side of the abdominal incision. I’m working on closing it with engagement.
Abdominal incision – I’m able to start moving it to separate the layers of scarring. Otherwise it is a non-issue.
Linea alba incision – This is a lot less tender now. I can work on it moderately. It still has a slight ridge.
Rectus insertions – These are sore and a bit swollen still. They had to be removed and then reattached, stretched over the metal plate. They are likely also irritated from the metal.
Fusion site – I barely feel pain here. I can press on it no problem. I can squeeze my glutes every which way without pain. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to squeeze my glutes or smoosh myself in any and every way like this without pain.
Screw sites – ouch. I can feel all of these. They are tender and bother me a lot, especially on more active days. This also makes hip flexion and side-lying sleeping painful.
Right adductor attachment site – I don’t understand it but this side where the screws meet muscle attachments are the most painful.
Allergic reactions – WTF. (Medically and technically accurate terminology.)

Overall assessment – everything that hurts will go away either on its own (1, 3, 4, 5), when we remove the hardware (5, 7, 8, 9), or with more care (2). Number 6 was the purpose so everything else is worth it.

Additionally, despite the painful hip flexion due to the hardware, I can tell that my ROM is improving, like the capsules are finally easing. I always felt that fixing the keystone would fix everything else, that the hips were fiercely protecting the pubic joint. It sees to be true.

All current pain is circumstantial only. This is the most important piece because it defines what I do with it.

This is going to be successful.

I find analytical consideration like this to be helpful in avoiding focusing on whatever little point is most bothersome on any given day. There’s progress happening somewhere, I may just need to look at the big picture to see it.

There you have it, my more technical side to recovery.

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