“When do you want to schedule your surgery?”, asked my doctor.
After all, I was sitting in an orthopedic surgeon’s office, so it wasn’t a complete surprise that he was suggesting I have a hip replacement. I just thought there may be some other interventions we hadn’t tried yet.
Nope—this was it.
“You’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole”, he declared as we looked at my X-rays together.
I knew that—I just wasn’t prepared for the finality of this decision.
It had taken a lifetime to get to this point. My hip was compromised by a deformity in the femoral head, compounded of the years by a number of injuries and sports and recreational insults.
So here I was at the beginning of July, facing the unavoidable—making the decision to schedule my replacement surgery.
October 23rd is The Day.
I’m in good company—according to the CDC, over 332,000 hip replacements are performed every year in the US. There are a number of options for hip replacement surgery, each with its own risks and benefits. I’m opting for the anterior approach, where an incision is made through the front of the hip and the large anterior hip muscles are retracted in order to access the joint.
Joint replacement surgery is a BIG deal, and is usually very successful, but in my experience, most patients put far too much hope in the surgery itself—and not nearly enough faith in their own innate ability to prepare, work, heal and recover.
We need a Pre-hab component, and our mindful movement environment is ideal.
To get ready for this surgery, I’m using all the amazing resources at my disposal to insure an outstanding, beyond expectations outcome. As a Physical Therapy, Pilates and CoreAlign® center, our studio has lots of wonderful Balanced Body toys—and more importantly, practitioners who know how to help me connect to my body and work through the multitude of compensatory patterns I’ve developed due to pain and loss of range of motion.
Even though I’ve been doing these practices all along to keep myself active and relatively comfortable, I’m now upping my game as the date of surgery gets closer.
Why? Because the best time to train my body-mind for recovery is before surgery. Post-operatively there will be additional stress on my system, and for the first few weeks, my body needs to focus on healing. The blueprint for optimal movement needs to be set now—not after surgery.
Stay tuned for the next post in Lindy’s series as she uses mindful movement to “pre-hab” and rehab from major surgery.
