Ask Lemmy

Recovery was a combination of frustrating and boring. I was on crutches for about 3 weeks, then down to 1 crutch for another week, then finally no crutches and I was allowed to drive. You will definitely need to navigate the stairs on crutches, but your physical therapist will teach you how.

The drive home after surgery was pretty awful (thanks, City of Philadelphia, for having such prodigious fucking potholes!) and the first few days were rough. I actually wasn't in too much post-surgical pain, but every little thing was a hassle. There are certain restrictions as to how to can move, how you can sit, etc which were not always easy to work with. For example, I wasn't allowed to bend past 90° at the waist, so my husband had to help me get dressed, or pull up my pants after I used the bathroom, etc. He was a champ but it's really frustrating to have to rely on someone for things like that. Showering was also difficult, even though I had a shower stool. I was prescribed oxycodone for the first 5 days after surgery, which gave me the most severe, painful constipation. In retrospect I probably could've gotten by with just extra-strength tylenol. Sleeping was awful - I was only allowed to sleep on my back or my nonsurgical side, and nighttime is when the pain was the worst.

For the first 2 weeks a physical therapist came to my house 2-3 times a week, and also a nurse visited 3 times. I had some simple physical therapy exercises to do twice a day for the first 3 weeks, plus I had to use a continuous passive motion machine for four hours each day. Aside from physical therapy exercises, you're supposed to make sure you get up and move around every hour to prevent blood clots, but otherwise you're more or less bed bound for the first few weeks. I read so many books and watched soooooo much Star Trek!

Once I was off the crutches and allowed to drive, I made quick progress. I went to physical therapy twice a week and made sure to do my exercises every day. I think it helped that I was already in good shape before the surgery due to weightlifting, and I was really motivated to get back to lifting as soon as I could. At around 5 or 6 weeks after surgery I was doing kettlebell squats in physical therapy, and by 8 weeks I was doing deadlifts in PT. At that point I started back in the gym with my personal trainer, and I also continued seeing my physical therapist twice a week. No jogging/running or jumping until the 3 month mark.

At 3 months post surgery, I had a follow-up with my surgeon, and he cleared me to return to all activities with the caveat that I ramp up slowly. So now I'm 4 months post-surgery and I can do everything I was doing before surgery - weightlifting, hiking, biking - but I'm still working my way back to the weights and intensity I was at prior to surgery.

I definitely notice an improvement in my hip. I'm middle-aged, and the surgeon made sure I understood that the surgery wasn't going to give me a perfect hip like a young person would have, which helped set reasonable expectations. And despite the frustration of surgery, I'm glad I did it. I still have some pain if I overdo it, or if I sleep on it weirdly, but it's a lot more flexible and resilient than it was before surgery.

This turned into a wall of text, but I hope it's useful to you. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!