An athlete's approach to a double hip replacement
Toolbox
By LINDA FREEMAN Correspondent - Published: December 28, 2008
There are both expected and unexpected events in life with which to deal. Some blindside us as calamities. Some are simply goals established that need to be met. Some include negative stress, some include positive stress. Some are completely out of any sort of control.
Based on recent personal experience, I believe that there is a positive link between training and the challenges presented by injury, surgery and rehabilitation.
Each of us, at some point in our lives, will face disappointment, discouragement, accident, loss or illness — often caused by factors out of our control and requiring courage and energy to combat. I have just experienced eight months of physical challenges, resulting in surgery, and have some thoughts I'd like to share.
Because of my previous life as a professional ballet dancer, I had badly damaged hips. Notwithstanding, I had switched careers to that of a fitness professional-athlete and have devoted the past 20 years to teaching and living a strong and healthy lifestyle. Those 20 years have rewarded me with huge interest.
When it became apparent that the degeneration in my hips was no longer tolerable, I was scheduled for bilateral, total hip replacements. Yup, as we say in Vermont, that's right: I had both hips replaced. And that's where the 20 years of regular strength training, good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle have come home to benefit me.
It is not uncommon to have both knees replaced. Total hip replacement is a bit more invasive. However, I had the best team of doctors — my family doctor and friend, surgeon and anesthesiologist — that could exist for my needs. Each possesses the highest level of skill and knew me well, knew my background and worked with my physical strength to make this happen.
Here's the important part: I was scared to death. I wondered how I would even survive, much less rehabilitate, the surgery. (Yes, I am prone to overreaction.) So, I treated my pending surgery as an athletic event to train for. Here's how I did that:
I drew up a careful strength training plan, working within my limitations, for the weeks preceding the surgery with a definite "taper week" (that final week to refuel prior to the event). I tried to train hard and mix that up with better-than-usual nutrition and extra rest. I planned every detail over which I had control and left the rest to those who knew better. I got my house in order, arranged for my clients and my professional responsibilities, even bought and wrapped my Christmas presents.
When the early morning of December 1 finally arrived, I was as ready as I could be.
I chose to "buy local." My surgery was performed at Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin and my experience was ideal. All the secondary events went off without a hitch.
To my delight I was given a very cool, little black beanie to wear into the operating room and kept it on for my entire stay. (I later changed into my black Victoria's Secret sleep T-shirt and, let me tell you, was stylin')
Everyone was encouraging. I had full faith in my team. I loved that, when introduced to the resident assisting in the surgery, he had a strong handshake. I loved the very cute, little nurse who wheeled me into the OR and warned that it would be crowded and noisy, but when we arrived it was empty and still, which gave us a giggle.
I loved that I knew that both my husband and my surgeon thought I could do this. Both are athletes and my husband is a coach. If you've ever been coached for anything, you'll understand what I'm saying. When your coaches are standing there saying, "You can do this," then you just know that you can.
Hours later, the tone of my anesthesiologist's voice gave new meaning to "music to the ears." He woke me with good news, but more importantly, he sounded happy and, yes, even celebratory. I was euphoric.
I was in recovery for a long time. Following my training analogy, I had trained hard and had performed to the max during my endurance event (mind you, I slept through it and others did all the work, but it was still "my" endurance event). Therefore, I was depleted and my doctors needed to monitor me carefully.
Before I knew it, I was in my room, asking my poor surgeon a million questions and glowing from his prediction that I would skate-ski and kayak again.
I am humbled by the advances of medical science and by the skills of the medical profession.
I was starved and pumped but was surprisingly not ready to jump out of bed. I was more than content to vegetate. Did I mention that I was starved? The first night, I kept asking for whole wheat toast and peanut butter.
The second day was awesome. I got to walk. I got to move my bed next to the window so I could watch the cars going to and from First in Fitness. Most of all, I got to enjoy my visitors and my nurses.
Let me tell you, the nurses are amazing. Once again, the underlying theme of training for an event, performing the event, then recovering after, became apparent. Many of the health professionals with whom I dealt are athletes and hold physical fitness in high esteem.
The nurses and I conversed easily about the role of consistent fitness pursuits and how beneficial these pursuits are to our daily lives. Time and again a nurse would share his or her story with me: the single parent with young children, the young man who raced cross country in school and is now trail running, the nurse who loves Pilates, the nurse who was interested in some of the competitive programs we offer at First in Fitness and, perhaps my favorite, the nurse who enthusiastically shared with me tales of his competitive athletics, including swimming and running, and then tapped his prosthesis and showed me the fantastic way in which it helped him spring at the ankle joint. It was another humbling moment.
Though I continued to improve, though I loved the visits of my daughter, her husband and my three grandchildren (the 2-year-old kept focusing on my legs and musing, "bones, bones") and though I loved the support of my husband and my boss and my physical therapist, I was always aware of the surrounding environment in which pain and suffering coursed uncontrollably through helpless bodies.
In my own way, I was able to take control of the controllable. I was able to put into use the upper body strength that I had long worked for and I was able to rely on my natural healthy energy to help me out. Yet so many others were less fortunate. Again, it was humbling.
By the morning of Dec. 4, after yet another night of wakefulness — partly in sympathy with the poor woman who suffered so in the next bed — my doctor said, basically, OK, you're out of here. Once settled in my own bed and surrounded by my computer and my books, my thoughts began to sift into little organized drifts.
My son and I spent a lot of time talking that first weekend as he had come home to keep me company.
Though facing the situation that I experienced is uniquely personal, perhaps you, too, might find it useful to approach a potentially troubling time by reducing it to training for yet another event (athletic, competitive, charitable, recreational, goal-oriented).
Prepare as well as possible. Approach the moment as rested and ready as your body and your life allow. Surround yourself with a good team. Rely on your team and your coach. Let family, friends and professionals help you. They stand by ready to do so. Take what they have to give and be refreshed. Nourish yourself emotionally as well as physically.
I have a little book of collected helpful statements, motivational quotes, training guidelines and spiritual pick-me-ups that I found equally useful for my half-marathon and for my surgical event. Believe.
Now I am ready to gradually become whole. Step by step, with the help of home health nurses, physical therapy, appropriate diet and exercise and lots of rest, I plan to return to my previous profession humbled and with a new zeal for what I do.
If I could share one thing with my clients, my friends and with you, it would be this: Make your fitness a priority. Though there is much in life over which there is no control, grab hold of the variables over which you do have a say.
Exercise, nourish, rest; avoid undue stresses, both internal and external. Your physical and mental strength will support you when you need it most. When sidelined by injury or illness, approach it step by step. Be patient.
There are lessons to be learned from just about everything we do.
(Linda Freeman is a certified personal trainer and director of personal training and group exercise at First in Fitness, located Berlin and Montpelier.)
43