Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Psoas the World Turns

One of the things planned for my surgery is a psoas "lengthening", where the surgeon cuts the muscle partially.  When it heals, it makes the muscle longer in length.   There's are a number of people who have had this done and say that it was the most difficult part of their surgery recovery.  It takes a long time to get that muscle strength back and it's a critical muscle in lifting your leg, like when you go up stairs.  Both of my hips will "crack" or "snap" pretty often, which is the psoas snapping across the hip.

My MRI shows that the psoas is crammed right up against my labrum, and could potentially be part of the reason why my labrum tore.  Like this:

This psoas has caused me a ridiculous amount of trouble over the years.  It's always unhappy and spasming, causing an immense amount of lower back pain.   It also resulted in crappy posture - I would slouch over towards that hip when sitting... you could call me Quasimodo.   Physical therapy worked through a lot of that earlier last year, after yet another bout of back pain.   Interestingly, I've always hated how I slouch in photos, but I've since realized that it was a compensation for that psoas as well.

What happens when one psoas is far too tight:

A few of the millions of photos of me in that same position:

On one hand, I am really hopeful that the psoas release will finally give me more functional motion through that hip, will "straighten" me out a bit, and will resolve many of my back issues.  None of the conservative treatments up to this point have fixed it fully, though routine massages and PT have certainly helped keep things at bay.   Stretching just makes my hip extremely unhappy.

And on the other hand, I am really nervous about the recovery.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, that is really crooked! You are going to feel SO much better after surgery/recovery I bet.

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  2. All of your pre-op training is getting you more than ready for this procedure. I think you are going to surprise yourself. I am continuing to improve each day from the psoas release and am hopeful you will too! I couldn't fathom lifting my leg the first days/weeks after surgery, but now it is so much easier. Sending my best and am enjoying following your story!

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    1. Thanks! I'm happy to hear you are doing well with the psoas release, so many stories out there!

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  3. "Both of my hips will "crack" or "snap" pretty often, which is the psoas snapping across the hip."

    Is that what that noise is supposed to be? Mine crack all the time (operated one less now), but I thought that noise was supposed to be air/gas/whatnot going on. Now I'm confused!

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    1. I would guess there are likely different reasons for the cracking/snapping. But mine is definitely a snapping from the tendon - it's a different sensation than cracking knuckles sort of thing. My IT band also snaps across my knee - similar feeling!

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  4. I had to stop reading things a few weeks out from surgery because it was making me not want to have the procedures. I've learned that the people who are doing well are out living their lives and not on the webs:) Okay, well, I'm still on the webs a lot!

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  5. Wow, those pics are pretty trippy. Maybe there was a silver lining in all of this after all!

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