I hope everyone is getting to enjoy Midsommar, as my friend living in Sweden puts it. Things are good here, hip is healing up with time. Now on Day 24.
Considering the "work" done to bone and muscle
Anything that involves power tools is going to take a while ...
.
I've been steadily decreasing the drugs (during the day especially) and yesterday was my first daytime with Tylenol only. Yippee! This went along well and I am hoping that this time I can continue. I am still trying to take one of the Tylenols about every 3 or 4 hours, not wanting to wait for pain. And I am icing after walks and doing Legs Up Wall in the bed when I feel the need. . I am taking one Oxy 5mg overnight but did not get up in the middle of the night to take anything else. I sleep so well with these so I might continue for a little while longer. I'm not worried about addiction, actually -- but I really do need my brain back.
I was curious about walk lengths so I logged into MapMyRide (haven't used it for a while) and put in my little walks, which I am continuing to do a couple or maybe three times a day with the hiking poles. To my surprise, the 'shorter' ones are now 8/10 mile, and the longer one (only done this once) is 1 mile! Next time I will try to time them; I think that they are still around 15 min or so each. Over the last 10 days I've just been increasing them (with the poles) a little bit each time. Still in my flat neighborhood. After walks, usually I ice for a half hour or so, mostly on the back of my pelvis instead of on the incision. And I still ice up at night, even if it's only one time.
I've also been doing some situps and started to experiment
a little with the hospital PT exercises. My quad is recovering! I can now bend my op leg to 90 degrees while standing on the other. And I can stand on my op leg and stretch my other quad, it's really quite happy
about that. I'm doing these in front of the kitchen island for safety but did not need to hold on to the counter. I am also stretching my calves on our slant board, that is seriously great.
One more thing, for all of us recovering hippies. If you've had your walking shoes for a while and were using them before your surgery then it might be time for a new pair. I have not replaced mine yet but I probably should and I am continuing to be super mindful of gait when I am walking. Maybe I'll wear my trail shoes today, since I really didn't wear those for quite a while before my surgery so they should be OK.
It's about time for me to look into scheduling my 8 weeks of onsite PT. So if any other local folks would like to recommend their excellent PT I am all ears. I liked the therapist I met on video, but always like recommendations -- and she has only had early morning appointments which are just not going to work for me.
Thinking about this recovery (the Take it Easy plan) vs the last recovery (the Go For It plan) ... I have had almost no bruising, just a little around the knee which has now dissipated. First time through my entire leg was bruised. Of course, different surgery, different surgeon, different blood thinner protocol afterwards, but still. And my quad is far further along now than it was first time through, maybe I've annoyed it less.
...