I got back on the matts for the first time last night. No drilling or rolling, just some warmup stuff. A few slow windshield wipers and egg beaters then forward and reverse hip escapes for about 50-60 feet. It was rough and I'm sure I looked like a brand new white belt doing them; I certainly felt like one. A little sore today, but nothing I'm not used to at this point.
Had my 5 month follow up on replacement #2 on Friday. I'm cleared for all activity I'm comfortable doing. I go back in March for the one year follow up on both. I still feel a really long way from being able to roll, but I'm going to keep doing mat work and try to add to the things I'm able to do as I go. I think I may try to get back to rolling in December.
"Had my 5 month follow up on replacement #2 on Friday. I'm cleared for all activity I'm comfortable doing. I go back in March for the one year follow up on both. I still feel a really long way from being able to roll, but I'm going to keep doing mat work and try to add to the things I'm able to do as I go. I think I may try to get back to rolling in December."
I am sure it is killing you not being able to roll, but seems like you are doing it right. Good to hear it is going well.
"I am sure it is killing you not being able to roll, but seems like you are doing it right. Good to hear it is going well."
The hips are going well, but one of the questions on the survey was whether or not I had any back pain and I do. They did a lower back X ray and saw that it has degenerative discs and advanced arthritis. Neither was news, but the extent was. I've got an MRI scheduled for next week to see if those things are causing nerve issues and the pain. My back has bothered me for 20 years, then stopped bothering me for the last year or so (probably since my hips have limited my activity) and started again 6 or 8 weeks ago.
"The hips are going well, but one of the questions on the survey was whether or not I had any back pain and I do. They did a lower back X ray and saw that it has degenerative discs and advanced arthritis. Neither was news, but the extent was. I've got an MRI scheduled for next week to see if those things are causing nerve issues and the pain. My back has bothered me for 20 years, then stopped bothering me for the last year or so (probably since my hips have limited my activity) and started again 6 or 8 weeks ago."
More bad news :(. I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm going in next month for my checkup, and I'm thinking we'll talk about back issues as well. I don't have a problem moving around doing stuff, but if I stand in one place for too long my lower back starts hurting quite a bit.
From the minute I got out of the hospital bed to walk out of the hospital, it seemed like my operative leg was shorter than my other leg. My suspicions were initially confirmed by a PT: my right leg is about a half inch shorter than my left. This can affect back pain, from what I understand.
Maybe you're dealing with a similar issue?
I'm going to confirm my suspicions with my doctor, of course. I'm thinking that since they almost couldn't find a replacement part that fit my big birthin' hips, they may have had to settle on something that wasn't as optimal, and therefore not as long as it should be, but like I said, I'll confirm it with the surgeon and then report back here.
I'm surprised you aren't sparring at all. My surgeon was pretty cool with me going back to full contact sparring, with very minimal limitations. It's frustrating that the hip is not as functional as I would hope, and can cause pain in certain circumstances, but nothing that would prevent me from rolling.
Noboby died.
Rub some Gracie Combatives on it, and go practice how to have posture, and foot movements with your favorite takedown or striking coach.
Pay attention to small things.
You may as well now, you will have to, to have any chance of doing the things, that you just brute forced through before, later.
If I could only pick one set of techniques to master, it would admittedly be falling skills.
But, after than, I would grudgingly acknowledge, it would be posture, and how to move correctly.
Then after that, if the God of Evil Yawara came to me, and said, pick one technique, to take with you,
Into the Chinese Hell of where you are going to have way too much time on your hands,
and only a little room or gear to practice:
For me, it would be de-ashi-barai.
We could, after all, spend several lifetimes, practicing just that one technique.
Among others to be sure.
But, there was a reason that one was the first in that curriculum.
In any case, I would say I was sorry about your hips
Except for my friend, who can't get anything below the waist to even try.
At which point, he would say, he would like to buy your hips,
those hips, or what's left of them,
And you could, name your price, for them.
So, there is that.
Apologies in advance, for those who might read these words, and say this or that.
But, speaking as someone who must be an ablelist,
Because I will never get those parts back,
And, philosophies and kind words do not pay the rents....
I shall prefer, competing methods.
And doing what I can, to spending endless ages, doing nothing other than worrying about the things, that I may not be able to do, especially those things, where even I could not predict, what I was capable of, until I found myself, there.
I think, instead, I shall do everything that I am capable of, or want to do, that does not harm others.
And, if I should choose to make an outrageous spectacle of myself,
who should make everyone else very uncomfortable,
I suffer from knowing, that is not my problem, but theirs,
and I do not suffer nearly as much from knowing that,
As those that suffer, because they do not.
"More bad news :(. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm going in next month for my checkup, and I'm thinking we'll talk about back issues as well. I don't have a problem moving around doing stuff, but if I stand in one place for too long my lower back starts hurting quite a bit. From the minute I got out of the hospital bed to walk out of the hospital, it seemed like my operative leg was shorter than my other leg. My suspicions were initially confirmed by a PT: my right leg is about a half inch shorter than my left. This can affect back pain, from what I understand. Maybe you're dealing with a similar issue? I'm going to confirm my suspicions with my doctor, of course. I'm thinking that since they almost couldn't find a replacement part that fit my big birthin' hips, they may have had to settle on something that wasn't as optimal, and therefore not as long as it should be, but like I said, I'll confirm it with the surgeon and then report back here. I'm surprised you aren't sparring at all. My surgeon was pretty cool with me going back to full contact sparring, with very minimal limitations. It's frustrating that the hip is not as functional as I would hope, and can cause pain in certain circumstances, but nothing that would prevent me from rolling."
Like I said, I knew there were back problems already. I went to a chiropractor for several years and they did regular X rays, so I knew there were problems. But I stopped going to the chiropractor 3 years ago because they doubled their rates and stopped taking insurance.
I can't stand in one place either, but it just makes my hips tighten up and get sore. This does seem to be improving with time, but I worked a tradeshow two weeks ago that had me standing in the booth for hours at a time and it sucked. I had to excuse myself a few times and go for a walk or sit down.
My surgeon found some hip alignment issues with me before surgery. I was REALLY hoping that was the cause of my back pain and would be fixed after surgery. He was able to use the exact same replacement parts on each side and I can see in my new X rays that the alignment seems to be much better, so I doubt this is still an issue. I won't rule it out because sometimes changing something, even if it's to correct it, can cause problems.
My surgeon told me a few months ago I could ease back into activities as I was comfortable, and that included BJJ. I'm just not comfortable with it. My legs feel so disconnected and weak. There are a lot of things that I used to take for granted because they just happened and now I have to think about them for them to happen. This is also getting better, but not nearly as quickly as I would like. There's a scene in the movie Good Will Hunting where the professor tells will that there are only a few people in the world that can tell the difference between the two of them, but he's one of them. That's pretty much how I feel. In the things I do every day nobody else can really see the difference, but I can. That bothers me.
I think I mentioned earlier in the thread that I missed rolling really badly the first few weeks, then one day I went to the gym to work out and I didn't miss it any more. It was like someone flipped a switch. I've always wanted to come back and planned to some back, and I still am planning to. I just don't feel driven to come back right now.
Had the follow up for my MRI on Friday. No real surprises there. Stenosis of the nerve channels in my lower back and inflammation. We are thinking the inflammation is due to the realignment of my hips after surgery so we're going to try some physical therapy to try to reprogram my body for the new arrangement.
I other news, I'm thinking about getting back on the mats next week. I've been doing movement drills for a while with no issues and I'm getting bored with them, so I need to step things up a little at a time and see what I can and can't do.
Just had my 6 month checkup, and everything looks all good. I still have some numbness on my upper thigh, which is apparently fairly common for anterior surgeries, and the doctor said it should go back to normal after about a year or so.
My surgeon seemed more concerned with long distance running than bjj/Judo, so I basically have the green light for pretty much anything I want to do.
I'm including a picture of my x-ray so y'all can check out what I'm working with here. For reference, I'm squatting 205 (~95kg) and deadlifting 280 (~130kg) for reps on this bad boy.
Still feels like I've got a ways to go before I'm 100%, but I'm improving every day.
I'm at 9 months on one and 6 on the other and still have some numbness in both. Depending on who you ask it seems common for it to never go away.
I still haven't tried any deadlifts with any real weight or squats more extreme than sitting down and standing up from a bench. My flexibility just isn't there, but it seems to be improving.
Physical therapy seems to be helping my back, but still too early to know for sure. At this point my philosophy on PT is the same as it has always been: They don't really fix things, they just hurt you in new ways to make you forget about the pain you came in for.
"I'm at 9 months on one and 6 on the other and still have some numbness in both. Depending on who you ask it seems common for it to never go away.
I still haven't tried any deadlifts with any real weight or squats more extreme than sitting down and standing up from a bench. My flexibility just isn't there, but it seems to be improving.
Physical therapy seems to be helping my back, but still too early to know for sure. At this point my philosophy on PT is the same as it has always been: They don't really fix things, they just hurt you in new ways to make you forget about the pain you came in for."
I was going to say the same thing "Depending on who you ask it seems common for it to never go away" I have not had the hip replacement, but I have had major multiple surgery on my fingers and 11 years later still have no feeling. Same with my nose surgery, there has been almost no nerve regeneration. Yes this is variable on person to person.
The Amazing thing is how well you seem to be doing regardless of that numbness !
"The Amazing thing is how well you seem to be doing regardless of that numbness !"
For sure. I'm happy with it. It's a huge improvement over what it was like before. The doctor definitely mentioned that it might not go away at all, so I'm prepared for that as well. This is something anyone reading this should consider when choosing between the anterior vs. posterior approach, as I understand that they don't cut through any nerves when doing posterior replacements.
"For sure. I'm happy with it. It's a huge improvement over what it was like before. The doctor definitely mentioned that it might not go away at all, so I'm prepared for that as well. This is something anyone reading this should consider when choosing between the anterior vs. posterior approach, as I understand that they don't cut through any nerves when doing posterior replacements."
They shouldn't have cut through any nerves for the anterior, just moved one aside. But the moving traumatizes it and causes the numbness.
"They shouldn't have cut through any nerves for the anterior, just moved one aside. But the moving traumatizes it and causes the numbness."
The way my surgeon explained it to me was that he cut through some branches like on a tree, and it can take some time for the "branches" to find the "trunk" and reattach themselves.
