Exercise

Due to not being able to swim and feeling that I needed exercise other than walking, I purchased this recumbent stationery exercise bike in order to keep my hip mobile and also in the hope of strengthening my bad knee. It is the best thing ever for keeping everything in good working order. I got this one from Amazon.ca

Covid 19

I was supposed to have my annual check up with the surgeon in his office but due to the pandemic it was conducted over the phone.

Although my anniversary date was April 1, 2020 I could not get an appointment until May 4, 2020 despite arranging it in January. I had been sent for X-rays before this date and thankfully everything was looking good. I did mention I get backache when I have been on my feet at work for some time. I mentioned that my foot and toes were still numb but the surgeon was not overly concerned about that, whilst acknowledging it was strange.

The base of my foot and toes have feeling but not 100% as it should be. For my backache the surgeon suggested I go for physiotherapy. My backache is at my right side around my waist and started to reach my abdomen later on.

It was not overly severe but 8 hours on my feet was a challenge.

Physiotherapy

I went to a local physiotherapist at a place I had visited before for a massage. In the initial appointment the therapist expected 5 or 6 appointments should help my back issue.

She was made fully aware of the right hip replacement and also the meniscus tear in my left knee. I also explained that my leg had been lengthened between and inch and an inch and a half  during hip replacement. She asked why. As a sports therapist (I found out later that she deals with sports injuries) I would have thought she would have possibly heard before that during hip replacements if one leg is shorter than the other that it is corrected.

The first 3 sessions went fine. I was given exercises to continue with at home and things were seeming to be on track. On session 4 she did not massage at all but instead gave me acupuncture needles. The acupuncture did not seem to do anything and when she did it again at session 5 I asked what it was supposed to do. She told me if it didn’t do anything it was stimulating blood flow. I was given 30 minutes of acupuncture the first time and a little less the second time. I don’t know how normal it is for a physiotherapist to be dealing with 2 patients at a time but I was not impressed that instead of talking to me about my recovery she stuck acupuncture  needles in and left. when I was leaving the room it was obvious she was also dealing with another patient in another room at the same time. This ticked me off a little. After all I am paying for her time as well as service.

Issues

Session 6 with the therapist on August 19th 2020 turned out to be my last because of the events that unfolded.

Before we get to the real problem there were other little things that bothered me. Her attitude had become a little more curt than previously, although I had seen a hint of it previously. She asked me to stand with my heels to the wall and lean forward to see how my back felt. Initially she did not like the way I stood and asked me to stand  normally away from the wall, which I did.  She then criticised how I was standing, although it was no different from any other time she had asked me to stand. She told me to move my right foot because it was not straight. I explained that due to the arthritis in my foot I was unable to stand any differently, despite her already knowing this fact. She got snippy and moved my foot inwards to where I told her it was very uncomfortable. She then asked me to stand against the wall again and bend my knees. There is only so far I can go with the meniscus tear in my left knee but she wanted to push me past the point of comfort and I refused when I felt pain.  Her attitude went downhill from there.

She was massaging the area where my lower back/side was sore when I told her that it hurt, like REALLY hurt. In hindsight I should have told her to stop. She said she had to work a knot out and carried on. I was in really bad pain and told her so. She said it was tight and that it would go better. I left the physio feeling sore and a little “strange” for want of a  better word.

I went to the grocery store close by for a few small items but didn’t feel so good. When I arrived home I just had that weird “off” feeling so really did not do very much.  I woke up feeling sick at 2am and started to vomit (on an empty stomach) for the following 9 hours until 11am. I knew I was vomiting due to pain as the pain in my lower back/side was unbearable. This happened again a few days later and I realised that I could waylay this if I took painkillers. The pain however just seemed to worsen from day to day and working on my feet was  becoming more of a challenge. There were days when I had to call in sick because of how I felt on waking, or soon after waking and days when I had to leave work due to pain.

I had gone from a person who never had a sick day in 6 years until my hip replacement to someone who was struggling to be at work. If I didn’t go home early I was constantly needing to sit down or get fresh air. This was totally out of character.