So my left hip has been bad for about 5 years…and as is and was my want…I’ve been ignoring it and just continuing to grind away at it. It has been painful…proper painful.
A couple of weeks ago pretty much at the spur of the moment I thought ‘Fuck this. I am going to get a new one.’ Pulled the strings I needed to pull and got myself squared away and scheduled for surgery.
I went in on Tuesday the 4th of May and had surgery late that afternoon early that evening. I was on my feet testing out my new hip a few hours later on a walking frame. Felt fine. Sore and painful…but not as sore and painful as it was before surgery. Zero issues or complications and slept through the night without much of an issue. Stayed awake until 11ish and woke the the next morning 6 ish.
Saw the physio around 10am and showed off my skills on the walking frame. They gave me some pretty simple and straightforward ‘rehab’ exercises to do that were mainly focussed around getting some blood pumping and had zero issues with any of them.
By the afternoon I was on crutches and spending time on my feet every hour. That next day the Wednesday I got the last of my IV antibiotics early in the afternoon. In hindsight…I probably could have gone home then but stayed overnight. I stayed mainly because I felt uneasy about how simple and straightforward everything had gone and was waiting for the ‘catch’.
So I stayed overnight Wednesday morning….saw the doctors and the physios the next morning and got the thumbs up to head home. It just seems incredible to me that they can replace my hip and have me out of hospital 40 hours later.
So, I got home and over the next day went from getting around on 2 crutches to getting around on 1. Made an effort to get on my feet every hour and do my rehab exercises.
On Monday the 10th of May I had the first of 4 weekly at home physio visits. Part of the assessment was around having a look at how I could walk without my crutches. So gingerly I took a few steps and then a few more and then the physio said ‘Yeah, don’t use the crutches anymore’ and I was completely unprepared for that mentally for no other reason than I was told I’d be on them for at least a couple of weeks. Anyway, I’ve not used the crutches since.
My routine now is…get up and caffeinate…do my ‘rehab’ exercises…which are as basic as calf raises, hip flexion, knee flexion, hip abduction and then go out and walk the block (6-7mins). I am doing it 3 times a day.
Will Heffernan 