Surgery Update

Matt has been doing really good since the surgery.  He only stayed in bed that first day, and then the next morning he was up and about the house.  He has gotten pretty good at using his crutches.  At first I was nervous that he was going to fall again everytime that he got up, but I think that it is okay now.  He definitely should've been practicing before the surgery, but we never even thought about it.  

The doctor wanted Matt to start riding the stationary bike the day after surgery because the motion is good for the hip.  He started off doing it twice a day for 10 minutes, but he has worked up to doing it three times a day for twenty minutes. 

Caden also likes to "ride" the bike.  He doesn't let Matt forget to do the bike either because several times a day he tells Matt "bike" because I guess that he thinks it's time.  Matt also went to his first physical therapy session on Monday.  They stretched out his leg and showed him some exercises that he can do to strengthen it.  Matt says that it feels really weak right now, so we are thinking that it is going to be awhile before everything is back to normal since he can't even walk on it for 6 weeks.  He was really tired afterwards, and we haven't really been going anywhere because it takes a big toll on him.  Matt has been having numbness in his left leg the past few days.  The doctor had warned us that there may be short term nerve damage, but we were concerned because it was not on the same side as the surgery.  The doctor had Matt come in to see him, but he said that the numbness is because they put both legs in traction for the surgery.  He said that it should get better.   

The doctor also showed up some picture that he had taken during the surgery.  Here is the torn labrum. 

Here is the labrum after he fixed the tear. 

Here is the area on the bone that is missing cartilage and the blood clot that will hopefully form new cartilage.  I asked the doctor about the fall causing damage to the blood clot, and he said that it is actually pretty secure and had already adhered to the bone.  That means that it is likely that there wasn't any damage done.  He said that when he first tells patients not to walk on the leg he tells them to be more careful then they really need to be because a lot of people don't listen.  I guess that he had me all freaked out for nothing, but I'm glad that it's not so fragile.  He still isn't supposed to put any weight on it, but a step or two probably isn't going to mess everything up.  The doctor also seemed excited about all of this, and told us that Matt is a really interesting case.  Apparently this has not been studied a lot for the hip area, and is fairly uncommon.  It is more common to do this in the knee, but he said that researchers think that it may actually be more effective in the hip.  We can only hope that is true.

Here is where the bump was on the bone that the doctor shaved down.