12 weeks post-op - all change!

OK. Two stages to this post. The first was written by Nick and myself together whist waiting this evening for Nick to have his sports massage. The second was written after the sports massage....

Pre massage...

Nick's overall view - A bit unsure about it all, I thought doing OK but physio not so sure. Heading back to see consultant next week on physio's advice. Chose to lie in this morning rather than get up early for physio exercises and this helped - no pain at breakfast time.

• Sitting - 'not bad', by the end of the day becomes a little problematic, meaning back, leg and buttocks sore
• Standing - if moving, OK. Dislikes standing still. Very sore and tends hunch forwards into wrong posture. Says it can feel strange to stand straight.
• Sciatic pain - has some pain in his thigh and buttocks. He's not sure of it's sciatic pain or not.
• Straight leg raise. Yesterday, before warm up about 40-50 degrees, after warm up about 60 degrees. Muscle tightness and a little pain in thigh is restrictive aspect
• Exercise. Done a few sessions of tennis, about 20 minutes each although feels that he may have overdone it. Tried football - not a good idea.
• Physio exercises - no change.
• Bending forwards - in physio yesterday managed a few inches past knees.
• School - managing full days days at school, but finding it tough to keep up with homework.
• Emotionally - says he's feeling 'alright, OK'. Happy to be back on court.
• Worried about the possibility of potential other problems.

And after the sports massage...

• Feeling great.
• Achieved personal best on straight leg raise - 65 degrees
• Standing straight without pain
• Complete turnaround from before

Which I think shows you how his mood, state of mind and physical state can change so easily!

 

Posted with Blogsy

10 weeks post-op: ups & downs

10 weeks post op and I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure where Nick is at. This week has had it's ups and downs, some improvements and some setbacks....

• Last week he managed three half days at school and then the half term break started. On the positive side, it felt like he was managing greater chunks of time at school, and by the end of the week he managed a double lesson without having to get up in the middle. On the other hand, he still needs to lie down at break, lunch and free periods and he didn't manage a full day.
• He had a school trip to the theatre one evening for his GCSE controlled assessment - 2 hours and 20 minutes including the interval. When he got home he seemed OK - certainly a lot better than I was expecting and he didn't want a painkiller. But the next morning he was absolutely exhausted and didn't make it into school until lunchtime. But at least he made it.
• Sitting - still a problem, but he hasn't done much in the last few days as he is taking the half-term break as an opportunity to rest as much as possible
• Posture - generally good except when in pain
• Straight leg raise, about 60 degrees on one side, 90 degrees on the other
• Exercise - not doing much. Doing his physio exercises (same as last week) but focusing on his pelvic tilts. He thinks that they are getting easier, but he's not sure. I'm doing a lot of hamstring stretches with him.
• Tennis. His physio said that he could try some gentle hitting, max 15 mins every 2 to 3 days. He hit against the wall in our garden yesterday and said that it felt OK. He was a little stiff in unexpected places afterwards, but the stiffness seems to have gone today so I suspect just a case of waking up some muscles.
• Sciatic pain - not routinely mentioning any. A little reoccurrence when stretching his hamstrings out fully.
• Buttock pain - seems to gone completely, at last.
• Bending forwards. No change and he is getting increasingly frustrated by this. I noticed that when he bends over with his knees bent then he is quite lopsided. When I took the photo below he swore to me that he was even, and didn't believe otherwise until I showed him the photo.

 

• Sports massage. Is loving them. And coped much better with school the day afterwards. Next one tomorrow.

Emotionally. Tricky this one! He sort of lost the plot a little over the last few days and ended up doing pretty much not much at all other than lying on the floor. In the end I lost my temper with him and that seems to have jolted him out of it and today he has been back to doing his exercise with gusto. And he has resumed his school work too. I felt pretty crap, but I knew that he needed it.

Overall, if I am being honest both Nick and I are a bit concerned that he has not improved more. We both keep being told that it will take a long time but sometimes I wonder if we are clutching at straws when we see an improvement. And I spend a lot of my time trying to stop myself worrying about it. But it's not easy! I keep deciding to book an appointment with our GP, but then I don't as I wonder whether we are just being impatient. I am beginning to try and find out where he should be at at 3 months post op as we are nearly there and 3 months seems like a long time.

 

Posted with Blogsy

9 weeks post op

Two main aspects to the last week...

1. Nick is gradually increasing how many lessons at school he can make in a day, and
2. Working on improving his pelvic mobility.

Our weekly summary.....

• Sitting. Can make it through a double lesson (1 hr 20 mins) but gets up in the middle to loosen his back. Doesn't enjoy the double periods and really they are still a struggle for him but he is managing them
• Standing. As before, stands well when not in pain but tilts his pelvis when in pain
• Finds lying down the only really effective way to alleviate pain. Still needs quite a lot of lying down time to recover. Is now lying on his front propped up on his elbows as part of his physio exercises which he seems to like
• Muscles - Nick says that they don't feel tight any more so it looks like all that stretching has finally paid off!
• Bending forwards. Still not great, about a quarter of the way down his shin but he is trying not to focus on this in favour of focusing on improvements elsewhere
• Physio exercises - see new 9 week post op tab. Now working on pelvic mobility
• Has asked for another sports massage as he found it really helped
• Emotionally - says 'Don't feel too bad', and he seems generally more cheerful

Schooling

Has managed three full days and one half day. He was ill with a 'mini-flu' type thing on the fifth day. So missing some classes and only just about keeping up but this is an improvement overall. The downside of the extra time at school is that he spends more time in pain, which results on poor posture, and it can be hard for him to do his physio exercises. He now gets up at 6 am to do a set before he leaves - not easy for a teenager!

Pelvic tilting

His physio felt that Nick needed to correct his posture, and in particular his tendency to tilt his pelvis when in pain. However, Nick finds it really hard to do pelvic tilts, so he is having to learn how to do them. See tab on 9 weeks post op exercises. Hard work getting him to do them often enough (they're just not cool for a teenage boy).

Nick is the taller one on the left. For this photo he is trying to stand straight but is still tilting his pelvis. The other boy is my older son, one year older than Nick - he does a lot of strength and conditioning work as he is rower so perhaps not a very fair comparison for Nick!

Emotionally

Nick seems much more calm and settled now. It's possible that being back at school helps to distract him from his back, plus he gets to see all his friends again which cheers him up. But he is really looking forward to the half term break next week so that he can rest more plus have more time to do his physio exercises more often.

 

Posted with Blogsy