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.