Hip Replacement Day 7

Almost a week has now passed since the surgery.

The visiting nurse came, took my vitals and checked the bandage. So far, no signs of anything problematic.  Just a lot of bruising and swelling around the incision site.  Bandage is staying in place. I'm apparently recovering as expected, she's happy with my vitals, and that's the second and last at home nursing visit as part of the process.

Next was PT.

PT is indeed a workout. And my visiting physio therapist is good at making sure I make the most of it.

The leg raise while lying down is going much better and I do have better range of movement and can easily get the heel to the level of the knee on the opposite leg now. Much easier to get in and out of bed, too.

Some things still get me completely though.

For example, go sit on a chair with your butt parallel to the floor and your feet flat on the floor. Without using your arms for support or leverage, stand up.  You probably just did, no problem right?

Welp, I cannot get up from that position -- at all -- without using my arms for support, I get totally stuck and can't elevate from there at all. Hip is not ready for that yet.

Raising the leg as if marching in place is also rather hard.

Something to keep working towards.

Walking is very good though, and I'm able to get around pretty good walking- wise, and other exercises are no issue.  No problem making it up and down the two stairs and moving around the floor of the house.

PT therapist suggested I start elevating the leg to deal with the swelling in addition to the icing I'm doing, which I shall start doing immediately. She can see it is rather swollen which is part of the mobility problem and the muscle tightness.  To be expected, but if we can start getting the swelling down quicker the recovery will also be hopefully quicker.

Impressively, I'm not limping around now when I walk, whereas I was pretty much limping on a daily basis, with some days much worse than others before the surgery. A good sign.

Pain is around a 3-4 which is tolerable.  About to take a pain pill and have a nap as doing PT wears me out pretty good.  Overall, I  have a lot less energy right now and get tired a lot, and much more easily, but that's part of the process and apparently totally normal and they want me to sleep it off and recharge, whenever I'm not doing PT or getting up to walk around a bit.

So far, so good.