Congratulations, Ian - I'd stay with the doc's advice, he is probably your best source for information. Those weeks loom large, but seem small in the rear mirror.
Gibb - No issues with mine, I also had minimal restrictions from my surgeon on both hips, and was fine. I'm almost at one year now on one, almost at 9 months on the other, and there have been issues, but no show stoppers. The only thing he limited is full contact sports (martial arts, soccer, basketball) for the first year.
At my last meeting with him (6 months on my 2d hip), he asked me to jog, saw that I wasn't ready, ruled that out for a couple of months. So that limitation was based on how my body was responding, but I think it was because I was at 6+ months, and he considers that a time to start being active again.
I think if you listen to your body, stay away from things that are obviously too challenging you'll be fine. I worried about the same, but tried to strengthen the muscles appropriately. I am now looking for a slide board to do some strengthening of the muscles for side to side movement.