Well, today marks day number 19 post-op for me, having had my surgery to implant an uncemented Biomet system on my right side on Monday, October 24. Progress has been good; some starts and stops. I was on a roll earlier this week (days 14 and 15), and had started to ramp up my walking frequency and distance. I am still relying (slightly) on my cane to walk, but had gotten up close to 3 miles for those 2 days. I bounced this off Dr. Gross's office nurse, Nancy, and she came back with the admonishment to not exceed 1.5 miles per day. Like many others on this forum, I have to constantly work to hold back and not do too much! Nancy wants me to keep it at 1.5 miles and focus on gait, stride, elimination of the limp, etc. I tend to go by the credo "if more is good, a LOT more is better". Definitely not so in this case- I will follow doctor's orders!
Right after I received this good advice, coincidentally, the Celebrex prescription ran out (2- 200mg/day for 2 weeks post-surgery to keep away from heterotrophic bone growth), and I am glad I cut back on the activity! I had only been using acetominophen sparingly until that point and now I am taking 2- 500mg tablets once per day. It turns out the Celebrex was actually helping with inflammation as well!
Today has been a "breakthrough" day. My wife and I took a nice 1.2 mile walk in the brisk northern NY 42 degree weather, and then after returning home and resting a bit, I was limbered up enough to walk around the house with no cane at all! I still have a little bit of a limp and will continue the slow recovery. However, I have smiled more since this surgery than I have in the past year! Thanks for the support, great information and positive reinforcement on this site.
Steve