3 months post-surgery

This week marks 3 months since my ligamentum teres reconstructive surgery.

The scars are healed and starting to fade a little. I use BioOil every day and was told to press down hard on the scars when applying, particularly on the knee scar, to stop big lumpy scar tissue forming, and this has worked quite well. This is what they look like now. Could be worse!

I've been trying to keep up with the exercise bike/cross-trainer physiotherapy every 2nd-3rd day, and a 3km walk at least once a week. This is getting much easier. I don't really have much pain in my hip or knee now, just a LOT of stiffness. I still can't bend my knee back behind me though. You don't realise what those tendons at the back of the knee do until you get one removed! At night I still take Panadol Osteo, and some nights if it's really uncomfortable then I take Panadeine, but during the day I'm mostly OK without taking anything.

Over the last week I've been busy and only managed one session on the bike/cross-trainer, although still did a fair bit of walking. This week my left butt started to ache, just below where the top of my jeans sit, which is where I used to have most of the hip pain, and my lower back has been really sore so I was a little worried it was because I hadn't done enough physio this week. It turns out this happens to everyone at some stage, somewhere between 10 weeks and 6 months post-op. For some people it happens more than once. The physio said everyone comes in worried they've either over or underdone the physio, but it has nothing to do with it.

It's basically because the graft is really starting to attach, new tissue and scar tissue is forming, nerves are starting to re-form and it's all very tight because it's new. The physio tested the new ligament and it's all intact and working exactly as it should, so there's nothing to worry about. I'd been feeling a bit hunched-forward and that I'd suddenly developed a big duck-bum, but he did a little work at the front of my hip and also on the achey butt bit and it all suddenly loosened up and now the duck-bum isn't quite as pronounced!

Stairs are still a little difficult, and I find walking up a slope more difficult than on a flat surface. But I'm not limping any more so that's all good. I still get really tired much more quickly than before, but hopefully I'll start dropping some weight as the movement increases so that should help.

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