8 week post surgery summary

Quick overview of how I am at 8 weeks.

Walking mostly normal, when I sit for awhile there's a slightly pained stiffness to shake out. When I'm not careful, there's still a bit of guarding and/or limping. Still not walking "briskly" or "purposefully". That still hurts.

Biking started outdoors yesterday! Doesn't feel good yet and I'm really not ready for traffic. Distracted and guarding. The hip flexor doesn't appreciate the angles on the Puppy. That's fine, I'll rest it. Biking to/from the truck will reduce the walking by eliminating the 2x 0.7 mile walk to the parking I use.

Stairs are OK but fatiguing. JulieB pointed out that my down-steps can be lazy, my knee bends in. Need to focus on using the 4-5th toes so the hip muscles are engaged. So working on that. Today I'm adding in 3x 2-flights of stairs at work.

PT exercises are more "off the table" but still pretty tame. No lunges or jumps, most recently added in steps and weighted prone leg bends and lifts. No ladder drills yet. Soon. I hope.

I can move around much better, moving to sit on the floor still not easy but I think it's because I'm guarding. Not unreasonable, as it's still uncomfortable to do that motion. A tight discomfort.

Driving is OK as long as I assist the leg on the clutch and parking brake to minimize the hip flexor usage. Same goes for getting in/out of bed, putting feet up on couch to rest, and the like. There's still a pinchy feeling at the hip flexor.

Doing Dr L once a week on Tuesdays, Julie 2x a week on Weds and Thursday. PT at home the other 5 days.

Swimming now 3x a week, working up to 1200 yards/session this week. Still not climbing in/out of the pool from the deck, instead using the steps in and ladder out. And admittedly the ladder-out isn't a good selection for the hip flexor. Biking indoors 2x 20'day but that will change over to outdoor biking as I can. Doing elliptical for a few mins at PT and then 20' on swim days. My goal is 60' of activity (biking, swimming, elliptical, strength on some days) per day. That's pretty tame for me.

Sweeping the patio wasn't comfortable yesterday. Anything that twists the joint it seems does that. Same goes for crossing my legs, a habit I probably have broken by now. I dearly miss breaking a sweat, doing something rigorous and so far swimming is as close as I can get there. But I find that too much of that aggravates the SI joint in my hip as well as my lumbar region. And my neck. So I gotta balance that all out. Still don't like swimming though!

Overall, soooo happy to be biking, even if a short trip. Recovery really in fits and starts, ups and downs. Progress best measured week by week, instead of day by day. Repeating chores that I do once a week (like walking into Dr L's office) are my measures.