Some days the swelling is worse than others and is warm when at its worst and it seems to be tied to the amount of excercise - is this a good thing or a bad thing? Am I causing more tissue trauma if the swelling increases or not?
When you reference exercising I'm not 100% sure of exactly what you're doing but I'm assuming you're confused or you wouldn't be questioning it, sweetie.
Please re-read the Big Tip from the Recovery Guidelines -
BIG TIP: Hips actually don't need any exercise to get better. They do a pretty good job of it all on their own if given half a chance. Trouble is, people
don't give them a chance and end up with all sorts of aches and pains and sore spots. All they need is the best therapy which is walking and even then
not to excess.
Think of your legs as injured, because they are. They are trying to heal and they are healing, so please beware of inhibiting the process. Try to look at it this way, if you sustained the same type of injuries from a car accident, would you feel you should be exercising your injured legs? Doubtful. Flesh was cut, muscles and ligaments are separated to expose the joint capsule, power tools are used. Imagine of the soft tissue damage that's occurred. Please consider "walking" as your only form of exercise for the time being. At only one month post op from major surgery you're in the very early days of recovery of two injured limbs. Is there any way you can avoid walking "the steep road" as you've described it for the time being, taking a more level, alternate route?
Please refer to the Activity Progression for THR below. Use it as a rough guideline to keep yourself in check from from overdoing -
http://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/activity-progression-for-thrs.13187/
Consider continuing to ice, elevate and exercise by walking only for a few weeks and hopefully the pain will lessen and you'll notice improvement. We can also tag the forum Nurse if you're interested in her opinion on all.
Wishing you comfort as you continue on your healing journey.
@JR 2 Hips