Week One

Don’t rush it. Let your body be the guide. In a matter of a few weeks u will be feeling so much better.

Glad to hear you’re on the “other side” of surgery, where your hip gets better every week instead of worse.

I’m only 4 months post op myself, so I’ll pass on what I keep telling myself. Keep your eye on the prize–the best possible long term recovery.

So glad to hear it went well; the worst of it is behind you!!! You are on the other side and now what you see before you and feel each day is your reality! It is hard to put into words, but as you heal (and there will be ups and downs :-), your hip and movements will start feeling more “natural“… keep moving and strive to get feeling comfortable again! Interesting on the cane; with mine it was never even discussed??? I put the walker away 72 hours post op and now I only use it for doing dips in my own gym LOL!! Be careful but let your drive as a runner motivate your recovery! Tomorrow I am nine weeks post op, and this morning I “shuffled” 5.5 miles in 63 minutes… mostly shuffling intermixed with brisk walking… 90% plus on grass surface and fairly hill terrain … no joint pain, but noticeable muscle fatigue by the end…Comfortable, conversational pace… “Knowing thyself” in a holistic sense was hopefully something you were good at as an experienced runner, and now with the hip, will be even more important! “Shuffling“ at an 11 minute per mile pace, “feels right” for me right now… Understand that three months ago and easy run for me would be 8:30 per mile. My point and one of the greatest beauties of this blog is that we all are our own experiment… my hip replacement journey has been quite spiritual in nature… an awakening of sorts! Relish the journey, be patient, and reach out to this blog for guidance! What is the You Tube link so we can follow you ?

Re: flying after surgery – indeed it sucks. I had to do a similar length flight after an ACL reconstruction (with 2 changeovers), which is a much lighter surgery. Could not have imagined flying 2 days after my THR.

I’m 3 weeks further along in the process. Good luck with the PT! Mine has been a bit up & down, as my physio initially overestimated how quickly I could progress with exercises. My new motto is now “If in doubt, leave it out” and progress has been smoother.

Personally I’ve found trekking poles (with rubber feet for pavement) great – not only allows me to walk further, but the extra arm movement really does give a tiny cardio boost.

That’s great AK! I’m also 4 months post and other than general soreness from workouts, I’m starting to feel incredibly “normal.” I can even touch my toes again 🙂

Slow and steady is really accurate. Along with the other PT exercises, I’m jogging 4 x 3 minutes with 4 minutes of walking in between a couple of days/week and the quad and hamstring still get pretty sore.

Good luck and keep posting updates!

Brian

Hi Chris, just watched Episode 6 of your recovery vlog – you are doing well, and within a month you will be amazed at your improvement – don’t get too impatient but keep making the ‘marginal gains’ daily. I wore my Garmin through both recoveries so I have data to look back on, the rate of progress is near-exponential after the first couple of weeks. After my THR I was jogging before 6 weeks but I would never have guessed it from how Day 4 felt!

Great videos, by the way,inspiring landscapes. You will have a great summer!