9 Weeks

Entering week 10. I am starting to take the new hip for granted and therefore impatient when it gets in the way. I remind myself that I used to be amazed that people were running and skiing at six months and this is only two. So, I count the good things. I am sleeping better. The hip seemed to wake me up every 30 minutes, less if I were trying to sleep on my side, which I prefer. There is much less of that now and the rest is welcome. I can walk without a limp, especially after the first step or two. My back hurts a lot less. I was able to pull the airplane out the hangar and put it back when it didn't start. I can imagine sitting on the motorcycle for a bit before I sell it. I would like to use the bike and plane maybe this fall and next spring before selling them. The hip will help.

Trying to get stronger has been a bit of a yo-yo ride and I have slacked off in the last week as a result. My courage often slacks when positive feedback is lacking. Some miles, 10 to 20, on the bike means a couple of days limping and I am just not inclined, quite, for more limping. So between weather, flats and schedules I haven't been on the bike, sheesh, for 10 days now. I did some tentative squat thrusts at the gym yesterday and tweaked some muscles right around my hip, but I don't think I got the socket or related parts. I did not receive specific PT instructions but I think I will start inventing my own to see if I can speed things up.

Butt In

Another week where changes are small enough that it is difficult to identify them. I notice that I can get in and out of cars easier, almost normally. I've been on another couple of bike rides and like before, my left leg and hip are a little weak still but don't hurt more than a minor dull ache while I ride. Later I have more of a dull ache after riding for a day or two, one that is enough to wake me up at night. At night I can sleep on either side now but the hip accumulates an ache that wakes me up in a half hour or so. Putting on shoes and socks has now become less than arduous. And . . . I can hot tub.

Walking around there is not much of a limp left. Sometimes my left foot pigeon toes and particularly while I'm climbing stairs my left knee wants to knock knee in a bit. My back hurts MUCH less than it used too. I'm told that I'm more upright and don't quite stick my butt out like I used too.

So, butt in and butting out for now!

7th Week Notes

I am afraid there just isn't as much to compare and contrast on recuperation as there was at first. It's tempting to talk instead about the chipmunk that got trapped in the Torrey house for days or maybe weeks, dined on chocolate, slept on the feather pillows, chewed up a third or more of the window screens and apparently tunneled out by chewing through a wood window and squeezing through a quarter inch slot of aluminum. Or maybe something about the strange late summer flower bloom in Torrey. Or something about my first piano lesson. Or the new camera lenses I picked up, or the amazing $20 Galileo telescope developed by the IYA2009 Cornerstone Project (see https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/), or my other 2 telescopes, or even coping with the vigorous diet I'm trying to hold to while being dazzled by the ever more exquisite (cuz I'm hungry?) cooking of K. That would be more interesting, but this blog is not about that.

Speaking of Torrey, however, coming down here yesterday about 18 days after leaving here does profile some progress. I take all the stairs one at a time, that is normally, even with a load of luggage in my hands. The low couches aren't quite as low. I am faster in and out of bed. I am not using a toilet riser. I feel again that another disclaimer is needed. I am not writing this because it is so damned fascinating, but just to keep track of how recuperation goes. Anyway.

I have yet to be able to sleep as well as before the operation. After 10 minutes or so of trying to sleep on my side, and I can lay on either side now, an ache builds up to the point that if I have fallen asleep it wakes me up. But that is getting better slowly. On the upside, on Friday in the gym, with Kirsten and Brian there to keep tabs on me, I let it rip on the elliptical machine to get my heart up near its max of 170. I did that several times. On the downside, the last time I quit because my hip was aching too much and it continued to ache like that for a day and a half. I think I ended up stronger. Tomorrow we want to do a 17 mile bike loop around Torrey that has some pretty good hills. I don't think that will be hard on my hip. It feels like I am getting past the point of tending to the healing cuts and getting to the point of buidling muscle and regaining some flexibility. I am not as flexible as before the surgery yet, but getting close.

My nurse points out that while my pain level hasn't changed a lot lately, my pain management regimen has changed. I am not taking any prescription meds and not even ibuprofen or Tylenol some days. They were getting hard on my stomach and I generally feel better without them. Onward!

6 Weeks

It has been 6 weeks post op and I am now free to sit in water. Can't beat that!