@brooklyn and
@allahere and anyone else who is agonizing in their first month out about the sleep problems and the walking problems and the leg length problems, and the pain med problems, and the fact that they aren't healed and out enjoying life like the Arthritis Today magazine ads show....
In the first month to six weeks out, you have a newborn hip. Like all newborns, it needs TONS of rest. Ideally that rest would be sleep, but when sleep eludes, just the rest alone helps. While you're resting, you can ice. A lot. All the time. While you're resting you can watch TV, read great novels, do crossword puzzles in pen for the fun of it. You can haunt the forums here on BS to find kindred spirits and lots of empathy. You can go into our library and read every article. There's a huge compendium of information that you didn't even know you wanted to know. You can talk and text on the phone. You can write. You can plan. You can daydream. You can rest so completely that you might even fall asleep.
Especially if you are adequately medicated for pain. If one med doesn't work, pester your doc for something else. Pain takes a lot of different forms, but if you are in pain, you won't get good sleep. And you won't get good walking.
In between all that rest you take short walks. And you do a few of the easier PT exercises. And it's better to do a few more often, than to do a lot all at once. One of the problems with going to PT is that you are there for half an hour to 45 minutes so you do a lot of reps of some really difficult things. If you can do them without pain, great. But the second any straining even sort of starts, it's time to stop....even though the PT chides you and tells you not to wimp out. No strain/no pain. If it's painful, the answer is no. Or... don't do outpatient PT yet. You can always add it later if you need it. Listen very carefully to your body on this, because it's a fine line between helpful PT and soft-tissue injury that will be difficult to manage.
Stop stressing about dislocations. You follow your basic restrictions and it simply rarely happens. When it does happen, it's usually not something you could have prevented. Likewise infections. They are an awful thing to happen, and we all worry about them, but you really haven't much say about it now. Worrying to the point of stress that impedes good recovery is so counter-productive. Worry more about soft-tissue strains....you can control this, so simply do so.
When leg length differences are noticeable, for most people time is the crucial factor. You wait it out, the problem goes away. The heel lift is always available to you if you are one of the ones for whom it doesn't resolve. But you won't know this until you give it some time. So give it some time. In the meantime, if you are getting out for short walks and finding that it increases your pain to do so, consider new shoes. There is NO GUARANTEE....but wearing your former shoes means you have wear patterns that maladapted to your impaired gait before surgery. You are adjusting to a new gait now, and new shoes will allow you to do that without extra impediments. I have a wonderful shoe store in my city that lets people return shoes within 30 days of REAL wear. If you can find something like this, it takes a lot of pressure off of buying new shoes when you don't know for sure if they are the solution. But sometimes it is that simple.
So...treat yourselves like newborns. Mostly rest. Eat good food. Change your diaper occasionally. Just let your bone grow around the implant. Let your tissues heal. Protect yourself from pain. Take a timeout from the world so you have no obligations. Therefore you sleep when you can, and when you can't, there's no need to stress. It will pass.
Rockabye baby.
Shh.
Nite nite.
Sharon
United States
. I am only 2.5 weeks post op and I can tell you so far, that first week was the hardest and I had lots of meltdowns! I had the same problem as you with Percocet years ago when I broke my ankle. I've been on hydromorphone this time around. I also do not like being on meds in general because they make me feel ill. I tried going off them at the two week mark and noticed a difference in what I could do and it wasn't good. So now I'm trying just taking less and have started back on my tylenol arthritis to help take the edge off. Talk to your doc or pharmacist to see what you can do. I recognize I still need them at least a bit if I'm going to be able to rest and progress but I cannot wait to be off them!! You will continue to have good & bad days but I promise it does get better. Be good to yourself 
