The Joy of Modern Surgery #3

Monday will be 3 weeks from my first total hip replacement. I worked this entire week, a mere 2 weeks from such a major surgery. I knew it was a quick recovery, but this is pretty amazing, given how long recovery used to be. I am still using a walker, but have taken steps without it.

The word “recovery” is interesting. The goal, per the surgeon, is for me to be 90% recovered 12 weeks after surgery. At that point I will replace the other hip, so I am just 9 weeks away.

I still have some swelling related to the surgery, but it is localized near the incision. The muscle that they moved away for the surgery is very tight and it will take most of 3 months to relax.

Part of “recovery” is physical therapy. I first did physical therapy in the hospital, the day after surgery. Most of the exercises in the hospital were very basic— sliding the leg, lifting the leg, marching—plus daily living things such as climbing a curb, getting in the car, getting into bed, and entering and exiting the shower.

Physical therapy at home, which I am having, isn't like physical therapy out-patient. It has greatly expanded as I recover.

Yesterday's session was really good and painful. How can it be “good” and “painful”? That is because pain is a signal and this pain is merely informing me that I pushing my body more. So yesterday's exercises were much more intense and a struggle to do, but that was good. I could do them, when it would have been impossible a few days earlier.

My physical therapist has really pushed me striving for proper posture, as this will help me to develop the better patterns of behavior to heal and recover. Over the years, I had developed bad patterns because I was compensating for injuries and just trying to get things done. As such, this ends up leading to more pain, but is helpful.

One problem I still have is that I am just too tall. I have a super sized walker, but it is still too short. And I was first using it with mostly my arms, which meant I was putting a ton of pressure on the walker. Now I am trying to walk so that I barely put any pressure on it, while walking with better posture. It is a challenge.

I also noticed this issue while washing dishes this morning. In order to get my hands into the water, I would be forced to lean over, defeating the goal of maintaining good posture. I never really thought about this previously, that I have needed to lean forward, slightly bent over, to do a simple task like washing dishes. I ended up just sitting on a bar stool.

They said in the hospital that most people move on from a walker to a cane after 4 weeks post surgery. I will likely do that, at least some of the time. Before surgery I occasionally used a walking stick, so I can just start using that again.

I had another follow-up with the surgeon this week. X-rays showed that everything looked great. They removed the inner bandage and I likely won't even have a scar after this is all done. Bruising is almost entirely gone.

So far I am very happy to have done the surgery. The only negative issue I had was the recovery room fiasco I related in the first post in this series. I am very excited for my second surgery and being fully healed early next year.