December 10, 2008 Well here I am, 5 days post-op.

My surgeon says everything went to plan. I had an epidural and woke up later with my new hip!

To be brutally honest, the only surprise is how much pain I am in – I kind of assumed everything else would happen, but for some reason – the pain has taken me by surprise!

One unforseen complication is that the swelling in my leg has triggered an arthritis attack in my knee on the operated side whic is severely hindering my physiotherapy.

Sleeping is a problem, not really because of the pain, but because my body is saying “if you don’t let me sleep on my side, i’m not gonna let you sleep!”.

Had a few moments of regret, but I’m sure that when I begin to see some kind of improvement – I’ll be on my way.

March 4, 2009 I’m at 13 weeks tomorrow.

I had a fairly slow recovery (based on what I read here) and a couple of unrelated problems (knee and foot problems) set my recuperation back a few weeks.

Right now, I feel like I’m starting to come out the other side! I’ve put on a lot of weight since the surgery so I’m trying to lose that as well as regaining my leg strength. I’m currently doing half an hour vigorous exercise on the machines in the gym every day.

My main goal is getting back to playing inline hockey (which I did 3 times a week)… I’m not allowed to play until June (6 months), but I hope to be able to put my skates on for a gentle skate in a few weeks.

March 27, 2009 I’m now at about 3 and a half months and I put my skates on for the first time a few days ago. I managed ok although I was careful not to get into any situation where I might hit anyone or get hit… also, I was careful not to fall over!

My physiotherapist told me it was fine to start skating again but I’m not allowed to play until 6 months (June).

I had a lot of aches and pains the next day (but these were proabably just down to using muscles I haven’t used recently) – which is exactly why I wanted to start skating again! My range of movement (ROM) is a revelation compared to what it was!!!!

I had a particularly bad ROM before the op… standing upright I could only open my legs apart by about 7 or 8 inches. Now I can manage more than two foot! In fact, what is stopping me now is my unoperated hip!