Rt. replacement done

[doddg]

Day 19
I tried mowing grass for 15 minutes today and had to stop and not finish: I'm not in as good a condition after surgery as I thought.
I was glad to try. I was excited to see how I'd hold up. I just pretended the mower was my walker. All 4 wheels on mine are self-propelled, so easy except for turning and backing up!
If I hadn't had a 3.5 hour outing going to church which wore me down, I think I could have finished the back yard which is smaller than the front yard (new house only takes me 20 minutes normally).
I did a little bit of trimming (using it for a cane , but I ran out of string (bought Echo battery 2 yrs. ago and never had to change and after moving have no idea where my string is after looking for 10 minutes
My regular arthritis in my back makes standing around working in one place difficult after 10 minutes so my arthritic hips will get fixed but my back will end up getting me!
At church, teaching an adult class where I felt hardly any pain at all b/c it so much fun, but by the time I got home I wanted a pain pill, but I refuse to take anymore (been since last Sunday that I took any, and didn't have any that previous Saturday).

I still plan to go to the range every day (except Sat. and Sunday.
I even have a range day in Columbus, IN with the member that I'm buying a CZ Omega from, and planning a range day with another member Thursday if the timing works out: my idea of fun!

 

[doddg]

Day 20
I just tried to get into my roadster for the first time: top down and top up: YES!
I'll be driving to Columbus, IN to pick up and do range practice with a member here, a CZ Omega and I'm smiling.

 

[doddg]

Day 23
Rode my bicycle for the 1st time today: I feel it, but not painful.
Walking around more w/o cane, especially at the beginning of the day.
Finished mowing the back yard early in the day when I was fresh: easy.
Wanted to do some trimming but never bought the string yet: tomorrow.

 

[doddg]

8 weeks = 56 days after surgery. I quit updating after the 23rd day, b/c even I was getting bored.

Going back to work today, and I'm fine with that, being only a little concerned about fatigue.
I'm sure I'll come home and collapse, but that's OK.
This week is only boring meetings and setting up your classroom (posters and the like).
It used to take me 40 hours to set up my room: I had so much stuff on the walls you wouldn't believe: I can't believe it myself.
Now, it only takes me a day and that's with my wife helping me: did I marry right or what?
Fortunately, I have a job now where I don't have to be up on my feet much: I monitor students working independently on computers.
I am a cheerleader now, encouraging them to get back to work and quit using the computer to watch vids, shopping, googling anything and everything, or just getting them off their cell phones: the enemy of modern education!

I have been walking w/o my cane for 2, or has it been 3 weeks now: nice that I can't even remember!

I just wanted to thank those that put up with my "chronicling" my right hip replacement journey.
It was therapeutic for my to process about it all, especially that first week when you think you'll never be normal again, and then the joy of the 2nd week where you see that you actually do get better, a little every day.

My "fun" or "vacation" for the summer has been my CZ journey and "seeing the light" of a great brand.
Of course, helping/guiding my wife buying her next car (Subaru Forester, instead of a Honda CR-V) after having a Corolla for 3 decades was exciting.
You can imagine the research involved in that (based on my gun brand journeys), but we almost bought last Xmas/New Years, so I had it narrowed down which direction to guide the wife. (She wanted a Honda since we bought our last Corolla 13 yrs. ago)

Well, got to get ready to go to work like a normal person: leisure time is over and I must join the mass of humanity that is paying taxes.

 

[doddg]

The left hip is starting to need attention, since I've been putting off replacement.
Limping started past few weeks & real pain started this week that cannot be ignored any longer.
Had pain for the 1st time when just sitting & doing nothing: the clock is ticking.

My Italian cruise trip in April could be in jeopardy b/c of left hip starting to cry out for attention.
I knew I was going to be compromised on the cruise, not being able to go walk all day (or even for an hour).
Yesterday I could barely get out of bed & get to my chair, but today thankfully better.

Called surgeon to get appt. to take a scan of hip to see if it is just bone on bone pain with nerves saying "help me," or whether the arthritis is starting to eat up the bone itself.
I knew someone whose joint disintegrated, so I know there is a point where you can't put it off.
Nurse gave me some hope that if I can just live with the distraction of the pain, the hip should last longer since I just started the pain sequence.

I was hoping to put it off until after April trip.
The left leg has serious life-long issues with the lymphatic system.
Literally, just one scratch on the left leg & I get a serious infection that hospitalizes me for 5 days.
I spent 2 decades of my life every year hospitalized till nearly 30 yrs. old, and settled into about every 5 yrs., thankfully.
My Primary Dr. has wanted to put it off (as I) until it "had" to be done & of course surgeons want to schedule surgery.

Last time I was hospitalized (twice in 6 months about 9 yrs. ago), the surgeon talked about taking off the big toe (where infection was getting entering), but I avoided that bullet at that time.
When I was 13 yrs. old (now 67) the surgeons told me that they would have to amputate the left let when I got "older" which of course motivated me to become a physical fitness nut.
I've been fortunate to last this long and hope to avoid that early-on prediction (been in denial).
Hopefully, the surgeons don't get together and say, forget the hip, lets just take the whole leg.

I will live with the pain. Yesterday morning I refused a Naproxen/Alleve pain pill my wife was trying to get me to take, but in the evening I had to break down & take one.

The right hip was classic in it's recovery: I was up & driving in 8 days (I think).