I have now had my new hip for exactly 4 weeks so I decided it was time to test it a bit and try a walk without my walking stick. The route took me in a nice 1 mile loop along pavements around my house and I didn’t miss my stick once! (I did carry it with me just in case it was needed though)
Author: hipopman
Day 28 – The Old Broad Bean Trick
With guests due to arrive for lunch at noon I decided to do the 1.5 mile walk into town and back and pick up some shopping as soon as the shops were open. It was harder going than I expected as my knee is still slightly swollen and was hurting with every step. It seemed odd that my hip was almost pain-free but the knee was slowing me down!
With an hour or so until our guests were due to arrive, I decided there was time to get the frozen beans out again and see if I could get the swelling down a bit. With a heated pad on my thigh and the ice pack on the knee, it soon felt much better.
After lunch I managed another 1.5 mile loop and so far the knee feels a lot easier.
I must remember to keep that pack of frozen beans to hand!
Day 27 – Freedom at last!
I finally managed to get into the driver’s seat of my car today and have a quick drive around the town. Hooray – freedom at last! I don’t think I will be driving far for a while as it is quite uncomfortable but at least I know I can. The hospital said it would take about 4 weeks so that is about right.
I continue to pound the pavements to keep the hip moving and regularly walk a mile or more at a time. The main limiting factor now is my knee which is still slightly swollen so it’s time to try another ice pack……
Day 26
After two days of Christmas festivities, I woke at 5.30 today feeling absolutely shattered. It had been a very interrupted night so that may have been the cause but I suspect that I had done a bit too much over the last two days and was paying the price. After some breakfast, I actually did something I almost never do and went back to bed and slept soundly until nearly 10.00. I must have been tired!
When I finally got up and about, my hip was strangely aching. I can only assume that I must have been standing up too much. Nevertheless, after a nice walk, a few doses of paracetamol and a nice relaxing day, I feel much better.
My only other problem now is that the “knot abscess” still has not fully healed. A week of antibiotics seemed to help but 4 days after that ended it is still not properly healed. As the weekend is coming up, I decided to take a quick trip to doctors and was prescribed some antibiotic cream. Hopefully that should knock it on the head.
On a positive note, the doctor was amazed to see me arrive at the surgery without a walking stick!
Day 24
Happy Christmas!
Not a lot to report on the hip other than to say that it is working fine. Spent the whole day at home entertaining family for Christmas and hardly noticed the hip. No need for a walking stick and didn’t notice anything that I couldn’t do. Maybe the alcohol lubricates it!
23rd December – Day 22
It is now exactly 3 weeks since my operation and I continue to see progress every day. I realised yesterday that I really don’t need to use my walking stick while I am indoors so my task today is to do without it.
It is also time to prepare the house for all our Christmas guests so my aim is to do everything I possibly can to help my wife. Annoyingly I still can’t bend down far enough to do one job that always used to be my task – clearing out the wood-burning stove and re-setting the fire. Unfortunately my wife will have to keep doing that for a while. I can however now re-fill the log basket and carry that in perfectly happily.
22nd December – Day 21
I went to my first Christmas drinks party of the year today and was intrigued to meet another chap who had a new hip 6 months ago. I had taken my “tinselled up” Christmas walking stick in case I needed it but he encouraged me that it really wasn’t necessary and I stood and chatted quite happily without a stick for about an hour and a half.
After lunch it was a lovely bright wintery afternoon so we decided to drive to Cliveden and take a walk around the grounds. I originally planned a gentle, flat, 1.5 mile loop though the gardens but when we got to the top of the one hundred or so steps that go down to the river I could not resist trying them. It was rather slow going but I made it all the way to the river bank and then back again via the steep sloping roadway. A lovely 2.4 mile walk. The farthest yet. Thank goodness for the walking stick though – particularly on the muddy slopes.
21st December – Day 20 – A wet and windy walk
I have come to the conclusion that the more I walk the better I feel so it’s time to get out and pound the pavements again. Unfortunately it is typical English, December weather – wet and windy. With 40kph winds forecast, my wife is slightly concerned that I might get blown off balance so she kindly agrees to come with me. This is a new route that takes in both swooping hills and narrow muddy footpaths so it is a great 1.5 mile workout. The Endomondo app on my wife’s iPhone makes a good job of keeping track of progress and I see my average speed is now up to 2.2 miles per hour.
Another walk in the afternoon brings my total to 3 miles for today – the most I have done since the operation. It aches a bit now though!
20th December – Day 19 – The Stick
I promised that I wouldn’t keep going on about sleep problems but I really feel I have turned the corner with this now. I slept for nearly nine hours last night with just a few short wakeful periods so feel so much more refreshed. My main problem now id waking with an extremely dry mouth. I have read that this is a possible side-effect of the Rivaroxaban so I am looking forward to that course of treatment finishing in ten days time.
I am delighted to say that the bruising and swelling in my left leg has nearly disappeared. The leg is however still very tender and in places quite “lumpy”. Thinking about this, we decided that it needed a little help so have started to use “The Stick”! We originally bought this to roll over muscles after long bike rides to help disperse the lactic acid and reduce cramp and stiffness. If used lightly however it rolls gently over the skin and seems to be doing a great job at returning the leg to normal. I have only used it a couple of times so far but results look promising….
Only about 1.5 miles of walking today as my hip felt a bit more painful and didn’t seem to be moving quite as fluidly after sitting in my office chair for a while. My wife thinks it is simply a reaction to the fact that I had to do some admin work!
19th December – Day 18
It is a bright, clear but cold wintery morning so I decided to do a 1 mile walk looping around local roads straight after breakfast. My pace is picking up and my ability to handle uneven terrain is also getting better which is lucky given the number of tree roots cracking the pavement. I am still using my stick but as far as I can tell I think I have a reasonably balanced gait without any obvious limp. It is rubbish collection day and one of my neighbours has kindly left a plate of mince pies for the dustbin men – I resist the temptation to try one!
I just had a visit from the Community Physiotherapist who seemed almost shocked that I answered the door walking perfectly normally without a stick! Apparently my recovery has been remarkably quick compared with many other hip patients she has seen. She puts that down to me being (relatively) young and fairly fit beforehand but the more I think about it the more I suspect that quite a bit of it must be due to the skill of the surgical team and the specialist techniques that they use to minimise the trauma and speed up recovery.
After another lovely walk in the weak winter sunshine this afternoon I think I have done about 2.3 miles in total so I think that is enough for today.
Once again I sit down to watch some TV after supper and suddenly feel really tired. With a lot of effort I manage to stay up until 9.30. Wow, the high life!
hipopman 