Day 76

It’s 76 days since my hip replacement surgery, and my recovery continues at its usual slow pace.  I wake up to pain in the mornings, because lying down causes my legs to stiffen, and then I hobble around, take some ibuprofen along with coffee and a piece of fruit, and wait till I feel better.

Oddly enough it isn’t my hip that usually hurts.  Mostly it’s my quads and the muscles on the outside of the shin.

I’m getting more and more active, and I’ve returned to my karate class, where I mostly do forms and some other light practice.  I feel so much better afterward, and after exercise generally, that I really need to do more, but my stamina is reduced from what it was a year ago, so I’m trying to push the aerobics.

My chief problem is that my hips have rotated in three dimensions, such that my right leg is now longer than my left.  (This also happened before surgery, though sometimes left alternated with right.)  I presume most of my pain comes from muscles trying to support this inequitable arrangement.

My legs look like they belong to different people.  My right leg, which supports the replacement hip, is more muscular, and my left leg looks thinner and weaker.  The PA tells me that the hips will eventually revert to normal, but they seem not to want to do that.

I still walk with a cane, at least when I’m not doing martial arts.  I often leave the cane behind when I’m walking around the house, and sometimes forget where I left it.  The cane is mainly useful in helping me get out of chairs, which in this house tend to be of the all-embracing variety.  Comfy chairs can be a trap!

My Spy Watch tells me that even in my current condition, I’m doing between two and three times the daily steps I did before surgery.

Progress is being made.  But it’s slower than I’d like.