Seven weeks post-op right hip, 14 months post-op left hip.
I have been incredibly independent from the start this time, so not much to complain about. However, with this surgery being right hip that was operated on this time, driving has taken longer. I had started to feel stuck even though I have sisters who have been very willing to give me rides when they are available. But, as the flare progressed, I needed more medical care, which translated into more appointments, which in turn meant more rides. Also, their schedules started to fill as they returned to normal school and work tasks. It was hard to try to schedule things when not knowing availability for rides. I have also been more or less stuck by myself at home during the day. I have not really had time to feel lonely or anything because rehab exercises, ice, rest take pretty much the entire day. However, I had projects I wanted to be working on and have not been able to get to them. I do still get a lot of reading done and some crocheting as ways to fill the time when on the exercise bike, or icing, or in waiting rooms.
Well, I can drive again! I started about a week ago. I was told to start out just trying in a parking lot, or non-busy residential area. That went well, so drove myself to PT a couple of days later and that also went well. Drove myself to church. Drove myself to run errands, etc. Yay! I am also cleared for elliptical! First attempt felt great and went well. It was hard to hold back to the duration and pace I was told to start out with as trial. It felt amazing to be able to move more again! I then swam consecutive laps in a lap pool for the first time since surgery. I had done up to ten laps at a time here and there or had done consecutive laps for 35 minutes at a small pool, but that was different. This was 35 minutes of non stop laps in a normal length pool. My pace is not what it was pre-op, but since this is the first I have tried to this extent since surgery and since I am not kicking, I was impressed with how well it went and how many laps I got done. I am kicking with left leg for freestyle, no kicking at all for breaststroke. I can do a tiny bit of gentle flutter kick with right leg for freestyle, but it does not amount to much yet (have only done a couple of partial laps and there is no power in it--really just working on getting it used to the movement again).
PT went well yesterday--he told me I am walking well, gait is looking pretty good, he can tell I am getting stronger. The op hip is doing well. It is the rest of my body that has been the set back. I was given the OK to back off on how many times a day I am doing exercises since we are advancing with more strengthening. Hopefully, this means things will be and feel less time-consuming and tedious. It has been exciting to advance in rehab and to get stronger, but has been hard when it feels like my entire day is taken up with rehab. He also said it is fine to go back to taking one or two days off a week from intentional exercise! Yay for another shift back to more normal routine.
Aha moment! This article explains some of why I felt like I was always hungry in spite of always eating and eating well those early week after surgery. I knew healing from surgery itself placed higher energy demands on the body and I suspected crutches also did, but was not sure what effect crutches had, especially when limiting how much I was up and around. (I was finally weighed recently and I did lose weight after surgery in spite of trying to hold weight stable. Of course, there was also muscle atrophy from being partial weight bearing as well.)
Overall, still doing really well with respect to recovery. Some of the massive flare is starting to calm down. I am more optimistic again. There are still challenges to work through, but they seem less insurmountable.
Week 7 left hip last summer.
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