Hip Surgery

Yoga and Hip Replacements

Yoga and Hip Replacements

Hip replacement surgery is a daunting prospect for anyone. Fortunately, the first suggestion of the surgical option usually comes well in advance of the need for the actual operation. You have time to get used to the idea. Nevertheless, a visit to the orthopaedic surgeon starts to shape your thinking towards the inevitable. This is especially true when levels of pain and physical limitations are increasing.

If, like me, you try to find more natural ways, of dealing with health issues, then surgical intervention can seem scary in the extreme. Now that I’m five years on the other side of double hip surgery, I can say that your hip replacement surgery may give you your life back. I’m thankful to modern technology performed by a highly skilled surgeon.

Healthy Hips: A Yoga Sequence for Strength and Flexibility

Healthy Hips: A Yoga Sequence for Strength and Flexibility

Very few people seem completely content with the way their hips work, a sad thing to say about such a pivotal part of one’s anatomy. For some of us, our hips are too tight and for others too flexible.
Here’s a sequence that will give your legs, groins and hips a good workout. For you supple yogis out there, focus on keeping firm to centre, holding the muscles around upper thighs and hips close to the bones. […]

Eveyoga: Yesteryear and Today

Eveyoga: Yesteryear and Today

Celebrate a birthday or two with meEve yoga is where you’ll find the Yoga Suits Her blog; on January 1st 2016, she will enjoy her sixth birthday. I want to share with you another birthday. Saturday I turned 71 years old. To celebrate, I thought I’d show you a few yoga pics from the distant past, not-so-distant past, and the present. I dug through stacks of old photos from 1980 to present day to find this selection. My albums include pics of some of my old students, as well. […]

Yoga And Hip Replacement Surgery

Yoga And Hip Replacement Surgery

Hip replacement surgery is a daunting prospect for anyone. Fortunately, the first suggestion of the surgical option usually comes well in advance of the need for the actual operation. You have time to get used to the idea. Nevertheless, a visit to the orthopaedic surgeon starts to shape your thinking towards the inevitable. This is especially true when levels of pain and physical limitations are increasing.
If, like me, you try to find more natural ways, of dealing with health issues, then surgical intervention can seem scary in the extreme. Now that I’m five years on the other side of double hip surgery, I can say that your hip replacement surgery may give you your life back. I’m thankful to modern technology performed by a highly skilled surgeon.

When Hard is Good: The Challenge of Yoga

When Hard is Good: The Challenge of Yoga

The Challenge of Tennis
Daniel and I played tennis the other day. So, what’s unusual deal about that?
I haven’t played tennis in maybe 15 years. It was too painful for me to play when I had hip arthritis, so I stopped. During the period that I was suffering, I stopped riding my bicycle, too. I didn’t do much bush walking. I let other people do the heavy lifting. You get the picture.
Little by little, the list of physical activities I could participate in dwindled until yoga became my last refuge. […]

Two Stories – One Message: There's Life After Hip Surgery

Two Stories – One Message: There's Life After Hip Surgery

(Eve – 3 yrs, 5 months post-op)
Are you having a painful time with your hips and avoiding seeking medical treatment? It’s a good idea to get an x-ray to see what’s going on. The problem may be muscular, structural misalignment, or, as in my case, osteoarthritis of both hips. When I saw an orthopaedic surgeon a few years back, I discovered I needed to have hip replacements, and it was scary news. But ultimately, it was better to face the diagnosis than hang out in denial. […]

Cah-razy: The Hard-to-Imagine-But-Somehow-You-Did-It Thing

Cah-razy: The Hard-to-Imagine-But-Somehow-You-Did-It Thing

via pinterest
My husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last week. For many people this milestone could be considered an improbable achievement, given that the median duration of marriage was 12.2 years in 2012.
Twenty years of marriage is almost time enough to experience three seven year itches. It’s time enough to fall into dull routines and think that you’ve said everything there is to say to each other. […]

Advanced Postures: What’s the Big Deal?

Advanced Postures: What’s the Big Deal?

I watched a video today featuring Richard Freeman talking about yoga while his students were doing Ashtanga Vinyasa – Mysore style – in the background. Some of the poses they were performing were ones I used to do. Others I’ve never been able to do, and, at this stage in my life, am unlikely to achieve.
(If you can’t see the video below, try refreshing your screen….)

Do I feel sad about not being able to do these sorts of advanced poses? Not at all. […]

Did You Have an Adventure Today?

Did You Have an Adventure Today?

We on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, the region that’s known as the Manning Valley, are incredibly privileged to live and in such a stunningly beautiful area.
Today I got to explore the coastal part of it that includes Khappinghat Nature Reserve and Creek, and Saltwater National Park.
Friends John and Julie took Daniel and me on an adventurous bike ride up and down dirt tracks and bush trails for 2.5 hours.
It was tough for me – not being a regular cyclist – and also, I was the only one in the group who’s sporting titanium/ceramic hips […]

Yoga Practice: What’s It For?

Yoga Practice: What’s It For?

comfortinstylemag.com via Pinterest
If you have been doing yoga fairly regularly, has your practice improved over the years? What I’m talking about is your ability to do more and more advanced asanas over time.
Isn’t this what motivates many people when they take up yoga classes? They have noticed a gradual deterioration of certain physical abilities and they’ve heard that yoga might be able to fix this decline and even improve their condition.
It is true that there are myriad benefits that accrue from doing yoga routinely. […]

Yoga: When the Phone is Ringing, It Helps You Connect

Yoga: When the Phone is Ringing, It Helps You Connect

Judy is in a rehabilitation centre at the moment ‘finding her legs’, as she is 15 days out from double hip replacement surgery. She is a veteran yogi and also trained as a yoga teacher, and probably has about 35 years of Iyengar yoga under her belt.
Judy’s doing another kind of training now with the physiotherapists at Hunters Hill Private Hospital. […]

The Ups and Downs of Urdhva Dhanuasana

The Ups and Downs of Urdhva Dhanuasana

People keep asking me whether I can do everything I used to be able to do before I had my double hip replacement. What a hard question!
Here’s a shot of me in 1990 doing a backbend, pre-hip arthritis.
 
And, here I am 22 years later teaching my bionic hips how to extend.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Those of you out there with your perfecto-meters will note that as a 68-year old, my shoulders are stiffish, but, hey, I used to be overly flexible.
It’s a funny thing. […]

Hips Are All the Rage

Hips Are All the Rage

Is there an epidemic of hip replacements going on? I know of three yoginis who will have the surgery done within a month time frame – mid-March to mid-April. To be fair, I also know women who haven’t done yoga who, for various reasons, had to have replacements.
If you’ve been following this blog, you know my story of bi-lateral surgery, performed more than 3 years ago. […]

Medical Merry-Go-Round

Medical Merry-Go-Round

Oh my! My head is spinning!
I left paradisiac Mitchells Island at 9 am to drive south as I was scheduled for root canal therapy in Sydney in the early afternoon. The dental specialist that performed the procedure, an endondontist, did the 75 minute treatment while I was looking up at the ceiling watching Mr. Bean videos, hearing easy- listening tracks on the stereo, and, at the same time, trying to do mindfulness meditation. […]

A Sutra a Day: IV-10 – The Most Basic Instinct

Source: dreamstime.com via Debby on Pinterest

 
One of the strange but ever present states of affairs in all beings is the desire to live forever. Even those in the presence of death every day have this illogical impulsion. This is what inspires the instinct for self-preservation in all of us.*
I just finished a must-read novel by Barbara Kingsolver called Flight Behaviour. […]

A Sutra A Day: II:9 – Good for Any Age!

Source: mindbodygreen.com via Kay on Pinterest

 
I’ve been featured in an article in the August/September Australian Yoga Journal that’s entitled “Yoga at Any Age”. The gist of the article is that yoga has a myriad of gifts to offer and the value of them increases with age.
My particular input into the article emphasises that the hip arthritis I dealt with over the years propelled me into more reflective yoga practices. […]

Physical Freedom

Physical Freedom

Tomorrow is a 2 year anniversary of my release from Hunters Hill Private Hospital where I did 12 days of rehabilitation after my double hip replacement surgery.
On my return home, my husband Daniel made a great video clip of my walking up the stairway without needing to use a stick. He put some backing music to it – Patsy Kline’s Walking After Midnight –  and stuck it up on the Internet as a YouTube video.
I tell people now that if anyone is having qualms about the surgery, they needn’t. […]

Upside-Down Bow – Arcing the Spine in Urdhva Dhanurasana

Upside-Down Bow – Arcing the Spine in Urdhva Dhanurasana

Symmetry in action, Urdhva Dhanurasana is a challenging pose for most yogis. If we could only get the backbend arc to be even from the top of the spine to the tip, then the experience would be pleasurable and gratifying. Anything less, we feel heavy, pinched and sometimes defeated. Like many adults, by the time I came to do yoga, it had been many years since I’d done backbends. The first ones I attempted in a yoga class made me feel exhilarated. My teacher was a hard task master. We students did 25 Urdhva Dhanurasanas, followed by 10 “easies”. […]

A Walk on the Wild Side

A Walk on the Wild Side

If you read “Yoga Suits Her” for inspiration, I hope I’m not letting you down by saying there was no yoga practice happening for me today.
This is because yesterday Daniel and I headed off for Barrington Tops National Park and here I am – with miracle of WiFi in our lodging – still connected to you.
I’ve heard about this part of the world ever since I moved to Australia from the US 35 years ago, so it’s a thrill to be here for the first time. […]

Go-To Poses

Go-To Poses

Yoga is portable. If you have been attending classes for umpteen years and have not yet made the transition to doing yoga at home, you may not have made that discovery. So, here’s another incentive talk 🙂
Nowhere is the portability of yoga practice more appreciated than when you’re on the road. Even in the most modest lodging, you’ll find space to do a few back-saving postures.

The “hanging partial squat” or “bed chest opener” are so necessary after driving Highway 101 for many hours, as we are on this vacation. […]

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