Minimally Invasive Hip Replacement (April 2006)

Who Why How   Brief Overview   Weekly Summary   Daily Summary   Read Journal  

Tuesday 5/16/06 - Monday 5/22/06 - 43-49 Days Post Surgery

I saw Dr Cohen for my 6 week check up. The bone is cementing to the prosthetic nicely. Apparently he had a difficult time dislocating my hip to perform the surgery. I won't go into more details, but I believe that they had to contort my body more than usual and the resulting sever over stretch of the ligaments and tendons resulted in the increase in pain I have been feeling. When I've increased my activity, my tendons, ligaments and muscles have responded by contracting tightly a number of hours later, usually while I'm sleeping. Megan, my physical therapist figured that was happening and suggested that I stretch after activity. This has helped greatly. If I wake up at night with pain in a particular area, I get up and stretch that area until it relaxes. It works for me.

I tried bicycling again and hiking on flat trails in the desert. My distance and endurance are limited to about a half hour, but there's nothing else stopping me.

I discovered that I didn't need Tylenol PM for pain, so I stopped using it. My sleep has not returned to normal though. I wake up after 4-5 hours with some minor pains. I take 2 Ibuprophen and stretch, but the last 2 nights I couldn't go back to sleep. I have stopped napping during the day, so that is not the issue. I know that this too shall pass. I may get very tired in the mean time.

Sometime last week I left my cane in the house without thinking of taking it, and I haven't thought of taking it with me since. It is still in the same place. I've had no adverse response to walking 100% without it. Last night friends were walking normal fast from a night pops symphony concert at Demeester outdoor theater and I kept up and felt fine. Although the entire surgery site is not totally healed. I could still 'feel' it. I don't think I've mentioned this before. My left leg feels shorter than it was. I suspect that it was always slightly longer than my right and now they are the same length. On occasion, I find myself walking to the left and have to concentrate right now to walk in a straight line.

I also realized that I kept putting off writing my daily journal because I didn't find time. That is a good thing. But I still want to keep track of my progress, so I'm going to write weekly until I've regained all my capabilities. I'm very encouraged this week.

Places Traveled

Getting In Touch

Top of Page

Browse...Thumb through the pages & enjoy yourself here...
Explore as long & return as often as you want...
Thank you for visiting...