Goodbye walking stick - hello hurdles

This may well be the happiest week of my life ( minus child related stuff ). I have packed away my walking stick after 119 days (17 weeks) on crutches and a walking stick. My gratitude to surgeon Peter Wilson who only weeks ago had me in his office questioning whether I'd ever walk again unaided.

I thought I'd be walking normally after 8 weeks and the fear set in a few weeks ago. The support of my friends and work colleagues has given me the strength to stay positive. Thanks to family who visited me in hospital and especially to my sister in law.

Im grateful for the cakes, soups, casseroles, chocolates, cuddles, wine, company, DVDs, lifts, quiche, mags, books, understanding, kind and uplifting words, cleaning, rekorderlig, prayers, crutches, tissues and shoulders to lean on.

Thanks Peter Wilson, today I had the most gorgeous day walking around Red Hill's Ashcombe Maze with my kids and I wasn't sure whether I'd ever do that again without my walking stick (you told me so). It was slippery.  I walked across rocks through a stream. Tonight I was able to carry by daughter from the bath and carry shopping with both hands.  It's the little things. 

Happy 3 month anniversary yer bastard hip.

Yes well things haven't exactly gone to plan - well my plan that is. A recent meeting with my surgeon reveals that this op was far complicated than my last op which comparatively speaking seems like a (limp free) walk in the park. My bone graft is still doing its thing, god knows how long that's going to take. I'm going back to see Peter with a list of questions. In the meantime, my waking stick and I are still joined at the hip. I know I have to be patient, but I don't know whether I 'll need my walking stick for three months or three years or forever? Hopefully I 'll get more of an indication soon. I have periods of walking normally, this might be around the house or at the supermarket, but my limp quickly returns, as does the discomfort. I also discovered that I shouldn't be doing any rigorous exercise, so the last physio I saw took me off course for a week with inappropriate exercises. It's hard not really having any control over my recovery. It's like watching grass grow.

It's been how long?

So, it's been eleven, yes ELEVEN weeks since my hip replacement. I've even been back at work for five weeks - where the hell does time go.

What I have learnt is that being positive doesn't make a walking stick go away or weird aches and pains disappear. I can go for a half an hour or so here and there without my stick but something still doesn't feel right.

I'm seeing my surgeon again on June 12th and will have some X-rays. I wonder through a few tears if I'll be like this forever? Certainly my kids won't mind - they've grown accustomed to it

A three month plus recovery period certainly wasn't on the radar.
I've got a lot of running around to do, especially with two kids under ten. Who knows. I might have to pop Bianca's bubbles with a walking stick.

8 weeks post hip replacement

For a week now I've been using my walking stick and could feel my walking gradually improving. Trying to remember the pace at which I last recovered was sketchy so today I popped in to a Physio to get the lay of the land.

I slunk in, knowing that I could have been doing more reps and a more diverse and challenging suite of exercises than what I was currently doing. This was confirmed pretty much straight away when he asked me about my current Physio regime.

Ok so 20 reps of 5 different exercises twice a day would see me walking normally in about 20 years so I'm amping things up.

The Physio gave me a stretchy green rope to attach to a chair so I could introduce some resistance training, that and he nominated and showed me 6 exercises, three lots of 15-20 reps three times a day. I've never exercised that much with normal legs.

Anyway I've set myself a two week challenge so I'll check back at week ten and see whether I'm cane free.

Six weeks post hip replacement

Life if gradually settling into a familiar pattern for which I am eternally grateful. I am back to work and back driving. I have a disabled pass which enables me to get a decent parking spot - life couldn't get any better surely!! The weird pain stopped and I
have stopped taking pain medication during the day. The nights can still feel a bit achy but nothing too bad. My limp is still quite pronounced and you can still see where my thigh has wasted away. The job is to build the damn thing up again. I have no idea when I'll walk again unaided but I will probably move next week from my crutches to a walking stick. Melbourne's wet weather is regularly providing a perilous path, slippery leaves, shiny pavements - all things you'd generally take for granted, send my body into self preservation mode.

I'm about to start a painting and the children's book I'm working on is coming along. Don't be jealous, but check out my Joint Replacement Card - I can't wait to flash it at the airport as someone prepares to check me for explosives.

Week 5 post hip replacement recovery status

I considered the blogging of my hip replacement recovery initially to provide a handy resource for folk either undergoing a replacement or a revision and secondly a bit of a project designed to keep my eyes on the prize (walking unaided without a limp)

Not many forty something year olds have had two revisions. They only last around 15-20 years so I'm already thinking about how old the kids will be when I'm having my next ones. Frankly it's not a pleasant thought.

Yesterday (hello) the thought occurred to me that no two hip replacement recoveries would be the same. At the same time, suggestions that can make the often painful journey more tolerable are valuable so I hope this blog provides some sort of value to someone other than me.

In the case of Total Hip Replacement revisions, these are complicated operations that can often go pear shaped so I consider myself lucky that my right hip revision, now two years old, is gloriously pain free. My new hip, now 5 weeks old is still sore.

This week my surgeon Peter Wilson said this was normal so I have to take his word for it. In particular I have a bit of my thigh that aches every morning and I can't wait for it to stop. You ask yourself, has something gone wrong, did I screw up by cleaning the kitchen without my crutch? It's a waiting game. Is this pain temporary or permanent?

As you can see from the photo below,I have a sort of a steel ring which is basically holding the bone around the titanium rod in my femur.

I hope my new bone is having a party down there and regenerating like a time lord in doctor who.

My $32,114.00 hip replacement

This amount covers bone grafts, the revision, hospital accommodation and er....there must be other stuff?