At my Friday PT session, I discovered that I can actually use the brand new spiffy elliptical that my wonderful husband swapped in for the treadmill (since I really should not be running on a treadmill but I can go as hard as I want on the no/low-impact elliptical). I can also do the spin bike! Yeay -- I can start working out again -- my physical therapist doesn't want me doing either with resistance, but it's a start.
Also at PT I discovered that I can now lay on my good side and lift up the leg with the new hip -- this is a huge step forward for the muscles on the outside of the hip, which were pretty much non existent last week. It turns out that phyiscal therapists rate strength on a Five point scale. prior to this week, the muscles in that direction were somewhere between a 1 and a 2; now they are a solid 3!
But perhaps the biggest shock was that spontaneously on Friday I could suddenly walk reasonably well without the cane. I was in my office and suddenly just felt stable and able to walk without a limp. Absolutely amazing!
Saturday, I went out for a 1+ mile walk and brought the two crutches as I'd been doing, but never actually used the second -- I did the whole walk with only one crutch, so Sunday, I both lengthened the walk (about 1.5 miles) and used the cane. And then Monday, I lengthened my morning walk to about 1.75 miles and over the course of the day hit 10,000 steps for the first time since surgery.
Today wraps up week 3 and PT was great -- we're focusing on building up the strength in the few muscles that are still weak, continuing to stretch the hip flexors, and beginning to start stretching the quads. All great news.
So, my week 3 summary is:
- I can walk for 40 minutes at a shot.
- I can now walk a couple of miles without stopping.
- I can walk without a cane (way better than I was pre-surgery). I can't do this yet for my long walks, but around the house/office I'm good.
- Strength is coming back.
- I can do an elliptical for 30 minutes.
- No more dorky socks!
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