@An54 My surgeon said, when he came to see me just before I checked out of the hospital, "NO physio until I see you two weeks, just walk". At two weeks (this past Tues) he again said to me, "NO physio for your hip for six weeks, let that hip capsule form and the soft tissue trauma heal".
Yesterday I went to visit my long time physio, for post op modifications for my upper body and core exercises. He did an assessment of my crutch walking and said to stay on the walking device that improved my gait. He said to trail one crutch and feel really comfortable on that before going onto the cane. I had told him of my OS's instructions of NO physio, and that I had done nothing but walk to the loo and around the kitchen island on the way back to my recliner the first week etc. He was curious about my range of motion with a heal slide. I could bring my op knee up quite nicely. He was thrilled. He started spouting off angles to me, but as I've not worried about any of that, I asked him to give me a percentile range. He said I was moving my knee up within the 90% average for where I was time wise post op. He also said that by keeping as active as I could with two bone on bone hips pre-op, that had been money in the bank for post op. Of course I had my horse rehab experiences etc., but it has been so great to have a surgeon that is saying hips need to settle at this stage so just build up the walking, and to see the progress come along nicely from following that approach. Slow and steady wins the race, I'm sure of it. It does take enormous patience though, and I'm only two weeks out. I look at you at just over two months and think wow, how wonderful. The fitness is coming, as you continue to dance. I met a gal last spring, who was at a friends house, getting on a quiet horse, for the first time since her THR surgery the year before. She had walked and hiked for fitness for months and months for a year before getting on a horse again. I totally understand that mentality now!
Of course, after zipping around on crutches for the last few days, and completely doing too much of that, I've had complete energy drain, and I hope that will be wake up call to not over do it again. I have been following the daily activities for living guide, and now make my own breakfast and lunch in week two, but thats it. Hubs likes to cook, so does dinner. It works. Heading into week three I'll do more around the house. It is so hard to go so slow, but this little foray into the ODIC showed me how fast one can get into trouble, despite reading about it!
I forgot to ask my surgeon how knees compare to hips, in terms of physio, but I will. I think, as said here, that knees require a different approach. My friend with recent TKR surgery is horrified that I'm just walking...as she has sets and sets of exercises to do. I guess knees need that!
United States
