Childhood Friends

Shae got a visit from her long time friend, Shira. The two of them have been friends for years, and first met when they were on the same swim team when they were 8 years old. They are now both 15 and are still really great friends.

Then:



Now:

Sutures Removed

Today, Shae finally got her sutures removed. She was excited the entire morning, and couldn't wait to get them out. We went to see our Miami Orthopedic Doctor, Dr. Gorin, and he took out her sutures. Dr. Gorin has been so good to us and has helped us with all of our family injuries and has taken great care of us.

Now that the stiches are out, Shae can soon start applying tissue oil and/or ScarGuard MD to her incission area. The scarguard is like a clear nail polish that you paint over the incission area and it keeps the scar from staying flat so that it doesn't rise or discolor. It works incredibly well.


Dr. Gorin and Shae


Removing the Stiches with these Tools




Before and After:

21 Days later and she Survived!

Day 21 after surgery is seriously the world's greatest day. Shae is officially done with her CPM, foot pumps, anti-rotational straps, brace, and she can get her stiches removed today. She also is getting closer and closer to coming off of her crutches and today she walked small distances around the house with only one crutch. We have to take it slow so that she doesn't develop a limp.


But She did it, and she survived 3 weeks with foot pumps, anti-rotational straps and boots, the CPM, brace, and crutches.

Therapy with Tropical Storm Bonnie

Sunday morning Shae woke up and did her circumduction and range of motion, and then got mad at me when I made her get in the pool to do pool therapy. Shae had only wanted to go to the mall to try get the new iPhone, but there was a huge storm coming and I knew that if she didn't do her pool therapy in the morning then she wasn't going to get it done today.

It is hard though when it comes to rehab because it feels like it is endless and that all you ever do is physical therapy. And when you are young and have had surgery during summer vacation, you have some days where you are just frustrated that you can't just get up and go out and instead have to do physical therapy 6-7 times during the week. But, with time and patience Shae will be back to normal and will feel even better then before, now that she has a fixed and healthy hip.

So, after nagging Shae to do pool therapy and convincing her that we could all get a suntan, she finally got in the water and just my luck, after being in the water for about 15 minutes, it started to rain and she was not happy. The rain was cold and hard and it was not enjoyable to be in the water.

However, after finishing pool rehab, Shae finally got to go to the mall to get her phone and she got to enjoy the rest of her sunday because her therapy was all done for the day.






At the mall getting her new iPhone

Just a spoonful of sugar, makes the medicine go down

So today is Saturday and yesterday and today, Shae has been full with visitors. But today, Shae woke up, did her range of motion and circumduction with my mom and then she got in the pool for pool therapy. She did her usual aqua jogging, walking, circumduction, and kicking, and finished just in time before her friends arrived for a visit.

The best medicine for a patient is definitely sweets, and Shae's friends brought cupcakes and cookies to make the pain go away. She also got magazines, flowers and a balloon. Her friends Frankie, Sarah, Karina, and Eric came over to spend the afternoon with Shae. They hung out in her room and then of course made their way to the pool later in the day.




And yesterday, Shae's friend Madison came with a bunch of movies and she got to see Shae do physical therapy.

Ups and Downs

Shae had a rough day today while dealing with the pain and discomfort of weight shifting, walking in the pool, and increased physical therapy. She held it together pretty well but I could see that she was frustrated. I called Howard Head to talk to one of the physical therapists, to just double check that everything Shae was feeling is normal. They told me what to alter and overall they said that what Shae is experiencing is normal. The hip takes some time to heal and we just have to be patient.
With that said, I found this motivational story that my mom had given me a couple of years ago and I thought that it fit perfectly for Shae's recovery.


Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

Learning to Walk Again

Shae is getting closer and closer to Day 21, when she is supposed to start coming off of crutches. So in order to prepare her and her hip for walking, we started to do weight shifting during her therapy sessions. She stands next to the therapy table and sets her feet apart and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Then she does the same thing but now with one leg in front of the other. It doesn't feel very comfortable, and Shae complained of feeling tightness and pressure in her hip. But it does take some time and patience to get used to the new movement.

When you learn how to walk again when you are coming off the crutches, it is really important to engage the glut when you place your foot on the ground. I would always remind myself that every time my heel touched the ground, I had to have an engaged glut. This can sometimes make the pain go away or will at least make it easier to deal with, and it helps to support the hip.

Weight Shifting

The Little Engine that Can :)

Yesterday Shae and I did pool therapy together, and since Shae was 15 days out of surgery yesterday, that means that she was ready to start doing walking in the pool. She will slowly start to weight bear to get off of the crutches this thursday, and hopefully can start fully weight bearing by monday. So, in order to start preparing her hip for that, the rehab protocol says to start walking in the water.

However, it wasn't too much fun for Shae because she said she kept feeling a pinch in her hip. I remember feeling a pinch in my own hips when I had my surgeries, but Shae was complaining a lot and mostly in her hip flexor areas where she had the psoas release.

Today, my mom and I did Shae's range of motion and circumduction, and then we did her exercise routine. It consisted of hamstring curls, quad pulls, glut engagers, inner thigh isometrics, ab isometrics, quad rocking and cat/camel, and more. It is now 11:41 at night, and I asked Shae how she is feeling after today and yesterdays PT sessions. She said that yesterday she was okay but today she has been throbbing. A deep throb and a sharp pain that shoots down her leg.

It's hard when you get in pain after you have had a couple of good days. But it is important for her to remember that she is only 2 weeks out of having major hip surgery. There are going to be many good and bad days and the more that therapy increases, the more she is going to have to be strong to get through it. But pinches, sharp pains, and deep throbs are hard to ignore, and so resorting to the game ready ice machine is a must, in order to help with the pain after therapy.

So, with all of that said, it is important for Shae to remember that throughout her recovery, she is going to go up and down mountains, and she is going to have to get over those to get to the good pain free days. You can do it! Keep up the good work!

Friends For Life

Having FAI surgery with Philippon is definitely an experience of a lifetime. Not only because it is life altering, but because you meet some of the most amazing people. Shae has made some great friends during her recovery from surgery.

Here is Shae with another fellow hip patient. He was really cool and he loved Shae's crutches, and he was fascinated when he found out that she is a DJ.


Shae had surgery with this young lady, Kelsey. She came all the way from Alaska for her hip surgery.


Here is Shae with Daniel. He is also a hip patient, and we all had a lot of fun together, and we became really good friends with him since we were all in Vail for so long.


And here is a picture of all of us with Angela. Angela is a physical therapist from Brazil, and she was in Vail for 2 weeks in order to learn more about rehabing the hip after FAI surgery.

I get by with a little help from my friends :)

Today was the first day that Shae had friends visit her since she has been home. You could definitely see that it was the best medicine for Shae, because it completely distracted her from thinking about her hip. That is also one of the positive sides about finally coming home after surgery, because you get back to your normal surroundings and being around people helps you heal and get your mind off of things.




Her friends Tatum, Alex, and Emily came to visit and brought her balloons, brownies, and some fun gifts to keep Shae busy.
It was really sweet and special for Shae.



Shae had a smile from ear to ear the whole time they were with her and after hanging out in her room, they went for a little swim. Shae kept her aqua jogger on so that she didn't use her hip at all, but you could see that being with her friends totally made her day special.











Jessica also came to visit Shae today. Jessica is like a big sister to all of us, and we always have a great time when she is with us.

Home Physical Therapy

At the moment, Shae doesn't have a physical therapy place to go to because there are very very very few people who know about FAI and how to rehab the hip surgery. It is incredibly unsettling and it makes you nervous and anxious all the time because when you are in Vail, you have complete and utter confidence with the therapists and you never have to think when you are in rehab. You just feel at home, and they pretty much just take you under their wing. However, the minute you leave Howard Head sports rehab and Vail, you become responsible for your own rehab, and need to make sure that your therapist at home will follow the rehab protocol and that you will do rehab religiously.

My Mom is going to meet with two different therapists next week and then we will decide which one will be the best for Shae to go to. However, in the meantime we have to do therapy at home.

So for now, Shae will do her exercises, massage, and range of motion 3 times a week, and will do pool therapy the other 3 times of the week, and she will bike for 20 minutes every day and will rest on sundays. It is really demanding, and I tend to say that surgery is somewhat easy, compared to the rehab which is the hard and demanding part. You have to be really determined and focused to do your rehab properly in order to get better.

This morning Shae road the bike for 20 minutes, then our very good friend Mei, who is a massage therapist, came to give Shae a soft tissue massage on her hip and then she did Shae's circumduction and range of motion with her.

Then my mom and I did Shae's exercises with her. Some of the exercises that she had to do were hamstring curls, glut leg lifts, quad pull ups, glut squeezes, and more.

She worked hard and rehab at home went really well today.

Home Sweet Home

There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed, especially when you have been away from home for 6 weeks. Vail was great, but we love being home, everything is more comfortable and easier to deal with. Shae still has to be on the game ready ice machine, the calf pumps, and the CPM. However, we double checked her protocol today, and she only has to be on the CPM for 2 weeks, and she will be 2 weeks out of surgery in just three more days. So we were all really excited about that, although Shae wasn't because she says that the CPM makes her feel better because it loosens up her hip.

At midnight tonight, we realized that Shae hadn't done her CPM. So, we decided to watch some junk reality TV to kill the time, while Shae did her CPM. We watched The Real Housewives of NYC, and the Housewives of NJ, and then we finished it off with Bethenny getting married......and we had to delete some shows or our TiVo was going to explode from all the shows we recorded while we have been away for so long.



Then, Shae needed to go to the bathroom. But it's a HUGE ordeal to sit her up, move her leg, help her stand up and then to walk to the bathroom. So Talya was teasing her and pretending like she was just going to make Shae sit there and wait, even though Shae really neeeded go. And she was getting really frustrated but laughing at the same time.




Bed Time

Pool Party???

This afternoon Shae asked if she could go do some pool therapy because she was feeling a little tight and sore in her hip. So, my dad had bought her an aqua jogger from sports authority this morning, so she was ready to go.
We got the aqua jogger and her op-site bandages to cover her incisions, and then we got her in the pool.

She started with aqua jogging, then kicked a little on her back, then did her SAIRS exercise, and then finally finished it off with self-circumduction.

Getting in the Pool:



Aqua Jogging




SAIRS Exercise


Self-Circumduction

Physical Therapy at the Van Embden Home

Since we only got home last night, Shae's physical therapy for today was done by my mom and I. Shae road the bike for 20 minutes, and then my mom did Shae's passive range of motion and her circumduction. She said she felt really stiff and that is from the plane from sitting for so long. My mom also gave Shae a soft tissue massage, all of which we know how to do from watching the FAI hip rehab while being in Vail for so long, as well as from all of the videos we took while in Vail.

Airport Travel with a Hipster

Traveling with a hip patient that is only a week out of surgery can be difficult. However, since our family has now done this surgery things 3 times, we have learned how to get around an airport a lot easier. First of all, Shae got a wheelchair to get her through security, around the airport, and to and from the airplane. She is on crutches but it's still really hard to walk all over the airport and to stand to get through security and with the wheelchair, they just wheel her through security and she can just sit and relax.



On the airplane, Shae struggled again with stiffness and with stretching out her surgical leg. She did have a comfy pillow from home with her, but she occasionally had to get up to walk around in order to move her leg and to help the stiffness. Shae was lucky though because we especially requested the very first row of seating on the plane, because it has the most leg room.



Sleeping Beauty



Finally Home, and waiting for luggage

Shower Time

Showering a hip patient can definitely be challenging, but using a chair makes it a lot easier. The hotel in Denver had a shower inside of the bath, which made it hard for Shae to keep her legs inside of the bath as it was not comfortable. So, we had to keep her legs hanging otuside of the bath, and it was really funny because just her red painted toes were sticking out of the shower curtain.

Bathroom Fun

Many people who know us girls, know how close the 4 of us are. But do they REALLY know how close we are and How we will take any measures, in order to not miss out on anything?

Well, after dinner, the four of us went to the restroom. Shae, myself and my Mom went into one stall in order to help Shae, and Talya went in another. But the three of us were laughing and having fun, and Talya felt left out. So, next minute we turn around and we see Talya crawling on the floor trying to get in the restroom. She was laughing hysterically and saying "I didn't want to miss out on anything, and I was feeling really left out."

That's devotion, and just shows exactly how close the four of us girls truly are.

Italiano

Since we are flying out of Denver early friday morning, we drove from Vail the day before so that Shae didn't have to deal with the stiffness from the drive and the flight all in one day. It is also much easier to just stay the night at a hotel that is close to the airport, and then to take the shuttle to the airport in the morning. So, we stayed near the airport and then we went out for dinner. We made sure that Shae did her CPM earlier this morning so that we didn't have to bring the CPM with us to Denver, and instead we will just get the CPM when it arrives in Miami. The only machines that we brought with us to Denver were the calf pumps and the ice machine. And since we are going to need the ice machine tonight and the minute we get home to Miami, we are taking the game ready as a carry on when we fly out tomorrow.

We went to this beautiful Italian restuarnat for dinner. The walls were hand painted, and it was decorated as if it were an old theatre, it was really a pretty restaurant.