Hello, all!
It's been a while since I've posted. That's because I've been busy working full time and playing on the weekends when I'm not helping the in-laws to empty my father-in-law's house because he's moved to a retirement apartment. He has a ridiculously huge collection of books (like 15,000 -- I may have mentioned this before) and collections of other things too as well as the usual stuff a house has. Busy, busy, busy!
Health update: My heart imaging and tests went swimmingly. No problems and the Cardiac Electrophysiologist tells me that my heart looks great. I have an appointment for an ablation on May 29 to stop that weird AFib thing that I've got going on. It happened AGAIN last Monday and AGAIN I went into the ER and AGAIN was "CardioVert'ed" with 150 joules from the defibrillator. Not horrifying, but annoying and potentially dangerous so it's getting fixed next month.
HIPS: The hips are coming along. I still have considerable stiffness after sitting for any length of time (even 10 minutes) but after I've walked a bit, I'm ok. Only stiffness.
I can now squat down to pick up something off the floor - haven't done that in like 8 months or more.
I can now tie my shoes with BOTH hands.
I can now put my right and left feet on my knees (it's difficult, but do-able and not painful) in order to put on my socks.
I can now do TEN MILES on the exercise bike with no repercussion.
I can now walk FIVE miles outdoors with no repercussion.
I've been walking about 15 miles a week and I'm back to dieting to lose this extra weight I've gained back by being laid up for so many months.
The 5k coming up next weekend? Not even a thing at all. It won't even be challenging.
The pain that I have occasionally and the ROM that is limited seems to be slowly improving weekly. It's not DAILY improvement so it can be a little disheartening when no improvements are noted in a week or so, but over time, it's better. I am WAY better than I was prior to the surgery. WAY.
I am off drugs entirely. No 'hard' drugs and no tylenol and no ibuprofen. (only a single dose here and there if I know I'm going to be exerting myself unusually).
I don't think that I could at this point do a long or steep hike. Uneven ground is still more difficult than flat sidewalks or even exercise bikes. I can see that June might not happen for hiking but I'm still hoping for August.
I haven't driven my motorcycle yet, but I have sat on it, felt that it seems OK and decided I will do it shortly. I'm doing some maintenance now (oil change, filter changes, new battery) on both my bike and the DW's so when that's done, it's RIDIN' TIME! (weather permitting...it rains here A LOT).
Feeling guilty that I'm not on Bonesmart as much as I'd like and not giving as much input to the newly-diagnosed or those who are upcoming in their surgeries, but I have just had a lot going on. I hope that my occasional update will be sufficient to give some comfort to those worried that even a BTHR has a positive outcome.
Hoping you're all feeling good!
I remain (quite) optimistic!
Australia
Way to go Dr Toonz!!! Sounds like you are doing very very well regarding the BTHR recuperation. And hopefully the A fib will be fixed easily. 
