I'm now in the 3rd week of recovery. Most of the recovery plans indicated that it should be safe and desirable to start using a stationary bike after about 14 days. I tried a short session last Friday (day 15) and managed to do 10 minutes without any pain.
Then on Saturday I thought I'd do it again, but extending to 30 minutes. I managed this, without pain and it felt great afterwards. However, by Sunday morning I had the same pain in my buttocks as before the repair. This got gradually worse. At my physio session on Monday (day 18) I mentioned this to the therapist and she said I've probably just caused some inflammation in the wound.
I must say that I can move my leg in most ways, without pain. The only hassle is the pain from the labrum. I haven't tried cycling again yet. Common sense says I've got to rest for a few days until the pain subsides again.
So I had my hip arthroscopy done on Thursday. The surgery took about 2 hours with about an hour in recovery afterwards. It's now been 3 days since the operation and I'm relatively pain free. It was tricky to get around on crutches at first - the hardest part is getting up the stairs. And my hands hurt!
The fall
I slipped and fell during a run last year and twisted my right leg sharply in the process. Trying to get up, it felt like I broke my leg. But I didn't because I could stand and walk. We were miles into the forest, so there was no way of easily getting to civilization, so I carried on. The pain got much less intense after about 10 minutes and I thought it was only a superficial injury. We finished the run and sat down for lunch at a pub. An hour later I got up and felt like I was going to die. My leg was completely lame and I could hardly walk to the train. I made it home and took a long hot bath that eased the pain a bit. The next day it was much better. So started my next 7 months of almost constant pain. I had physiotherapy, sports massages, ostheotherapy, MRI scans, X-rays and saw so many different doctors. The pain was constantly there. But I had no idea what caused it. I managed to sort of keep up my running and in this time completed 5 half marathons, and a bunch of 10kms. But it progressively became worse. I also gained about 4kg over this time, simply because I couldn't run as much as I used to. This is what happened.
The diagnosis
After the MRI scan was done, the radiographer determined that I have a possible labral tear. This is a tear in the tissue around the hip joint that keeps the whole structure together.
It made sense. I never felt as if the joint was damaged - I could still run significant distances. But the dull pain in my buttock was always there and I couldn't pinpoint it. It didn't change if I stopped running for a few weeks, I felt it when I sat down and walked.
Exercise
I stopped running in the first week of January after I saw my CT scan images. It gave me such a fright that I felt compelled to end my running there and then. To me it looked like my femur is full of pits and is falling apart.
It took another two weeks to see the doctor who told me that it looks all right. Lesson learnt - don't jump to conclusions. Up until the end of 2016 I was running anything from 30 to 60km a week, burning in excise of 5000kCal. I realised that if I just stop dead I will gain weight at a frightening rate if I don't change anything.
Fasting
So in preparation for surgery, I started an intermittent fasting routine, while trying to stay active with walking. I tried to do > 12,000 steps a day four times a week. This worked really well and from early January to surgery day I managed to lose almost 7kg. This is me on intermittent fasting without running:
The procedure
I don't have much information about what the surgeon actually did unfortunately. I was supposed to have a labral repair in combination with the ABICUS procedure. This last procedure repairs any cartilage problems with stem cells. I didn't undergo that.
I've been going through last week's shots and I found this unprocessed photo taken in Brick Lane. You can see that the sky is completely overexposed, there is a lot of lens distortion, but I figured it had some potential.
This is the image as imported from the camera and exported from the RAW image. I made no adjustments.
Grit and grime - raw photo
I then cropped the photo and corrected the lens profile distortions and processed it for black and white. (You can see that the lines on the buildings are not vertical and not straight). The first adjustments were to correct exposure, reduce the highlights (the white sky and the reflected light) and increase the contrast.
The I did a lot of dodging and burning (on the face, the jacket and the bricked areas) and it looked like the following photo. You can see that the face is less shiny and the two halves are more similarly lighted.
Grit and Grime in black and white
It didn't work for me unfortunately. And then I switched it back to colour. And this was the result:
Grit and grime
I like the colour photo a lot. It is a little on the dark side, but that is what Brick Lane feels like. Gritty. A lot of this is personal taste and for some reason I like the dark stuff these days. People.
Another excursion to Brick Lane. Got a few nice photographs I think.
First, a chunky but very determined-looking man on his way somewhere.
Determinism
And a fierce-looking woman.
Imagine
This guy seems to be from Jamaica and had a radio at his feet and danced the day away.
Dude
This is my favourite one of the day. I like the shape of the umbrella and that she was looking down, seemingly lost in thought.
Another Day
This one is special. Petticoat Lane market and she seemed startled or even shocked. I like the angle of the photo, the size of her eyes and that she looks over her shoulder.
I've spotted this man a few times near the street market at Nottinghill Gate. He always looked really upset and bitter. And I saw no-one ever engaging with him. It is just sad.
Paul invited me a few weeks back to join them for drinks to remember her. I didn't know anyone there, except for Paul and then he introduced me to Mike, Simone's uncle - Jenny's brother. On 6 February it was twelve long years since Jenny also passed.
On 8 February last year Simone sent me this picture of her mother and it is really precious to me.
A beautiful photo of Jenny
This morning I wrote him a letter to share some of my memories of Jenny and to think of her.
Jenny du Preez
The day she died, Monique wrote this beautiful poem:
Hi Sweetie,
You were a woman old, wise and wealthy
self taught and well read
In your bright life you saw
a painted Paradise with harps and lutes
and you said “Damn those who would make life a hell”
Some frightened you – some gave you joy and happiness
But you had that joy, dear
to whom all sinners in the end must come,
filled with faith, without idleness or pretenses
In that faith you lived and died.
Jenny and Rudolph
And I wrote this one:
To my friend Jenny
The entire Sweden is crying for you today.
Yesterday I saw white snow everywhere
This morning it is wet and cold and gray.
I can see it in the trees and the clouds and me
Yes I know you told me to never look back
or to cry
And the way you told me to reflect on everything
and move on.
This time it is me who is crying
I cannot but remember you.
We just talked yesterday
and everything was going to be fine.
Remember the many walks and brunch?
Our ditch in Kista?
Thank you for listening
and always telling me why.
Thank you for being you
and making me live every day.
I will miss you
but your smile
and friendship will be with me
We visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford yesterday and it is a wonderful place. Stacked full of the strangest artefacts and the occasional surprise, it is really a worthwhile experience. Amazingly, I asked whether photography is allowed and they said yes. This is Herman in the main display area. You can see that it stretches over three levels and the lower level is filled with hundreds of display cabinets.
Herman in the Pitt Rivers Museum
This totem pole is at the far end of the hall and it stretches up almost to the ceiling.
Totem pole
Looking back towards the entrance:
A packed museum
On the right is this... call it a garment. Eskimos wear it to protect from the weather. And it is made of seal intestines. This is a closeup photo of the embroidery:
Intestine garments
I really liked these wooden carvings:
Carvings
I just had to take this photo. He didn't look too excited about being so close to the shrunken heads or Tsatsas. Compare how small the objects are.
Herman looking at Tsantsas (shrunken human heads)
A colourful mask:
Inuit mask
Another Inuit mask:
Mask
And traditional Victorian mourning attire:
Victorian funeral attire
And Indian toys and dolls:
Inuit dolss
And these are my favourite objects - Egyptian Ushabti dolls. They were made to resemble a real person and then buried along with the pharoah or master. I first read about them at school in Wilbur Smith's River God and I've been fascinated by the idea of Taita's Ubshabti (as described in the The Seventh Scroll).
Egyptian Ushabti dolls
This hall as closed and all the dinosaur fossils covered by plastic. But look at the glass ceiling:
Glass ceiling
This fossil also caught my eye - it is a plant, but with so much detail!
Plant fossil
And a fossil of a prehistoric animal:
Fossil
This is Pyrite - I think commonly called "Fool's gold". They have a huge crystal in the collection:
