Hi Claudia. I am sorry to hear about what you are now going through, but from my experience both with my first hip 10 years ago and my current hip 3 weeks out, it does not sound unusual or necessarily bad as long as we learn from the experience.
You mentioned in an earlier post that you are a bit Type A (like me), and that opens many traps for both of us during the recovery process. You mentioned in this last post that the PT suggested that you work towards using a cane and carrying more weight on the new hip. You then went directly to using the cane all day and "pushing through the pain", and your body is now telling you that this was not a good idea and you have pushed too hard too fast. This is not an approach that either your hip or Dr Gross is going to approve of. As a professional athlete, I know what it means to push through the pain, and early recovery from resurfacing surgery is not the time to do that. On this site, you will constantly hear people say to listen to your body, and pushing through the pain is not doing that, and your body is trying to let you know that. Yes, you want to gradually increase your weight bearing, but jumping to a full day on a cane was clearly too much too fast. If it helps, maybe look at your time frame another way. From a weight bearing point of view, your first 4 weeks did not count, so in terms of building up weight bearing, you are just on week three of your recovery, right where I am right now. I can take a few steps with a cane, but I am much better off using one crutch. On my 1 mile walks which I do a couple of times a day, I am gradually working on how much weight I put on my new hip with each step, and pain is my guide. If a few steps hurt, then I put more weight on the crutch, and if the hip feels good for a few steps then I give it more weight. The progress is not linear nor fast, but it is gradually moving in the right direction which is all that matters at this point. Last time, I was able to move off of one crutch between four and five weeks, so I am optimistic that I will be able to get off of my one crutch gradually over the next week or so which would mean around week four.
You also mentioned your new venture into the world of front and side leg lifts. This is brand new territory for your new hip, so I suggest exploring it very gradually or your hip may complain bitterly. You mentioned that you could do a leg lift for about 2 seconds; that is an awesome start and you can build very gradually from there as long as you do not try to push through the pain. Side leg lifts will be much more challenging because this involves the muscles that were cut during surgery. I remember this being very challenging my first time around (I can not even imagine them yet with my new hip). Full side leg lifts sound pretty aggressive to start, and I remember working with "clam shells" for quite awhile before attempting those. When I first started doing the clam shells, it was more about just sending the intention to move, rather than actually moving much if at all. After a week or so, these gradually became possible, and I was able to start imagining side leg lifts. Again, if it hurts at this point, you are trying to push too much too soon. The soft tissue recovery is a matter of months, not days, and will continue for at least 12 to 18 months. Pushing through the pain will just slow the process down, and as you said, can create a "huge step back".
For folks like us, this recovery process is a great opportunity for patience and learning to appreciate very tiny steps along this long path. If we insist on fighting our bodies messages and pushing through the pain, it can become a painful study in frustration. Having hopefully learned those lessons my first time around, this second hip is much easier to gently and patiently negotiate the process. I hope my story helps your own process.