Congratulations Boomer.  Best wishes for a speedy and pain free recovery.

Boomer

Great to hear the grinding pain is gone, has to be a huge relief, best regards for a smooth recovery.

Dan

Hi Boomer.

Glad to hear that you are on the other side.  I just realized that you are 5 days out, how are you doing?  I hope that you are able to crutch around and enjoying the Game Ready machine.  That things is awesome.
You are on the other side.  Congrads.

Lori

Lori,

The Game Ready Machine was wonderful. Every time the cold water kicked on I would let out an uncontrolled sigh of relief and pleasure. You know what I mean.

I'm a little behind in my recovery. Been crunching around and doing stairs every hour or so but nothing to brag about. I have my first outpatient physical therapy today, which will give me some guidance so I work on doing things correctly.

Off the narcotics and using just Tylenol.

Dr. Rector's a special guy. Hard to know during the initial consultations, but at the hospital, his presence was everywhere.

Thanks for checking in on me.

Boomer

Boomer, 
I could not agree with you more.  I am really impressed with Stacey too, she is really a nice lady that takes care of the patients over and beyond.  I was very lucky to use the R team, they are amazing.  Dr R was there for me at the hospital, when the staff was freaking out that I passed out, he stayed calm.  My incision is barely noticable and I have nearly full range of motion.  I have gotten my life back and so have you.
It is a sad day when you have to return the game ready machine back to Haggar, I still wanted it, and I got to keep it until my 3 week appointment.  Not only the cool water, but the compression was an amazing healer and got me off the pain meds.  Bummer is that my insurance did not cover it.  :(  I am still fighting, but we will see. 
Glad to hear that you are down to Tylenol, you will be down to one crutch in no time. 

Lori,

I saw Stacey in pre-op but never saw her again. I thought this strange.

Day 2 the dressing came off my drain wound and soaked everything with blood. Nightmarish situation to wake up to. Happened about 9 am. Two nurses were on me immediately and though I don't remember everything clearly, I do remember them saying several times, "he's a Rector patient. We need to do it this way. We need to get him cleaned up before Dr. rector gets here."
The staff was clearly motivated. Dr. rector showed up just as they were finishing. He looked things over and took control of the situation with just a couple of words. "The dressing came off of your drain wound. It shouldn't have happened, but it looks good now. Your incision looks fine. You're going to be OK. You're still going home today."

The fear of seeing my blood everywhere was gone as soon as Dr. rector spoke to me. You were right about everything you posted when I was pre Hippy. You Hippys make is so much better for the Newbies. I'm looking forward to getting back into the mountains this summer. Seems like a long shot considering I can only get around the house with a walker. But, I'll get there.

Thanks for staying with me.

Boomer

Congrats, Boomer, so glad to read you are on your way to a new life! Keep up the great posts and recovery. Lu

I think I am having one of the least interesting, and slowest paced recoveries posted on this website, and for that I am very happy. I'm doing my home based stretching exercises twice a day as recommended. Ankle pumps, heel slides, side slides, bridges and hamstring stretches. The most basic forms of movement. They get easier each time, but I still see benefit from them. Outpatient physical therapy twice a week, where they push me a little further each session. The sessions are difficult enough now, that they leave me a little tight and sore that day, but all of this is gone the following morning. Yesterday, 15 days after surgery, the PT was helping me learn to walk again unassisted. Slow walks of 20 yards or so, unassisted, with the PT helping me adjust my foot placement and stride. No trouble walking, but some difficultly taking even strides and placing the foot on my injured leg in front, instead of the the outside. I'm icing like crazy. On the days that I don"t have physical therapy, I manage to do a couple of short walks outside with walking sticks as support. I'm used to walking long distances in the mountains with walking sticks, so using them is helping me recover my natural gait, while giving me the support I need for safety. I don't think I have walked more than a quarter of a mile at any given time. I spend the rest of the day puttering around the house, icing and sleeping. Getting tons of rest. In fact I described my day to  friend in the following way. I eat, do PT, ice, rest, eat, walk, stretch, ice rest etc, all day every day. I'm not using any machines for physical therapy yet, and won't do so until after my three week check up next week.

I am now able to sleep a bit on my un-operated side. Getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. Napping to make up for it in the daytime. Eatting much more and much more often than I did prior to surgery. Not gaining any weight, so I know my body is using massive amounts of calories just for healing. The only medication I take now is two tylenol before physical therapy, and sometimes two tylenol before bed, if the day has left me sore and stiff. Calcium and iron supplements as recommended by Dr. Rector.

I have not made any large improvements, nor taken any significant steps in my recovery. Everything is happening very slowly, but improvements are noticeable. The PT's measure both my strength and range of motion each session to enable us to document the improvement. Strength and range of motion are improving with each session. What a surprise right?

I wanted to share my most uninteresting recovery story with recent Hippys and soon to be Hippys. I am following the home based PT program carefully, and working hard at outpatient PT. Lots of good food, rest and ice. It's working, and I am slowly getting my mobility back. I expect to be walking with a cane for another week. Dr. Rector will see me on December 22nd, and based upon what he sees, we'll decide if I should keep using the cane or go on without it. He can also help me decide if its time to start using some machines like the elliptical trainer or stationary bike.

I have nothing interesting to report!

Boomer 

     Boring and uninteresting sounds pretty good to me!!  I believe the boring and uninteresting tortoise won something!  Happy holidays Boomer.

Curt

Moving in the right direction, that is what counts.  Continued good luck to you in your recovery.  At 15 days you are doing a lot more than some with the PT.  It will all work out!

Boring Boomer - Yeah, I agree with Aerial, you're not that far out from surgery.  There are many ways to make it more interesting on the negative side, like laying on your back for 4 hours on a hard floor doing your PT over and over again thinking that more PT is better, or maybe going for a really long walk every day for the next few days, also not good, or how about driving when you're not quite ready for it and slamming on the brakes with your operated leg, ouch.

Get to know your recliner, your ice, and your video games and just chill.  I do think, though, that you'll be seeing bigger leaps in the positive direction soon. 

Stay obtuse!   

I'm with Tin - sounds like you're doing it the right way. Good progress at 15 days. Congrats.

Boomer

Sounds like everything is going well for you.  It is not boring - it is a good thing to slowly recover a little at a time.  I think you will find a few plateaus eventually.  Meanwhile, slow and sure is a great way to go.

Thanks for sharing your story.  Good Luck.

Pat

Boomer, I'm glad that your recovery has settled into the ''least interesting'' category.  Keep it up, you're doing great!

Boomer,
That sounds like a perfect recovery to me. Take care and stay boring!!! :)

Luanna

Boomer;

Sounds very familiar, and boring is exceptional in this instance, as far as recovery goes.  Sounds like you are tracking well overall.  Best wishes for continued progress in the right direction, and hope your 12/22 dr appt goes well.

Dan

Boomer; you're a wise man.

Kiwi and Dan,

Wise would be nice. More likely, I am just too old and slow to get myself in trouble.

Still plodding along with my recovery. Walking a mile twice a day with walking sticks. Have recovered a nice walking gait, with no limp as long as I use the sticks. Something about the arm motion of using walking sticks that makes walking easier and more natural for me. Some stiffness on the outside of the hip after walking, but no pain. Doing home base PT and out patient PT. Nothing unusual. At home I work on flexibility, and at the rehab center they are working on making me stronger. I walk without crutches in the house. Still have an ice bag attached to me most of the time.

I'm not minding the recovery experience. It's nice to have the time to do rehab in an unhurried fashion, and then get the rest/nap the body needs.

Thanks for the feedback. Kiwi, glad to see your recovery has gotten back on a smooth track after your brief moment of concern.

Boomer

Glad to see you're doing well, Boomer - how's the shoulder?

Funny you should ask about the shoulder. Since I'm home for awhile, I incorporated physical therapy for the shoulder into my hip routine. Trying to avoid surgery on the shoulder, and I have a fifty/fifty chance of doing that if I keep up with the exercises to make the shoulder stronger. Once I scheduled surgery on my hip, I gave up on the shoulder exercises. There just wasn't enough time to do both. Now I'm a bit wiser and work the shoulder every day. I have learned a lot about physical therapy as part of getting ready and recovering from my hip surgery. I realize now, that I need a daily routine to address the things that are getting old. It's really an everyday thing now.

Boomer