Today marks ten weeks since the surgeon replaced my right hip. A couple of weeks ago, I felt I had hit a brick wall. As I walked around Rome with my husband, I was still experiencing a lot of pain. I needed painkillers every night to sleep.
When I returned from Rome 11 days ago, I was relieved to return to my preferred diet of fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, pulses, fish twice a week, and the occasional egg. I eat little bread, and when I do it is wholemeal and/or sourdough because I have learned that most carbohydrate-rich foods (including potatoes) give me sugar spikes, and sugar spikes mean inflammation.
Amazingly, my pain levels decreased so that I could do a four-and-a-half-mile walk in the hills without feeling in agony. In fact, I felt strong. That was about a week ago. Yesterday, I did just over five miles and some gardening. In the last week, I have managed several nights without the painkillers I had relied on nightly pre-surgery since October 2022 to cope with the arthritic pain – and since the surgery, to cope with the post-surgery pain. I am finally on the mend.
However, when I try to sit cross-legged or get over stiles, I am acutely aware of the limitations in my new joint. I have a distinct impairment in terms of hip mobility, particularly in terms of outward rotation. I might never regain the flexibility I had pre-surgery, which, while less than on my left side (also arthritic, but not yet bone-on-bone), was good for someone in their seventies. It’s hard to accept limitations to my movement. I’m a mover.
This post-op period has challenged my identity, as I have relied on mobility aids like crutches and walking sticks (I have given more weight to my walking poles than usual). It’s felt like a rehearsal for later life, but not a role I’ve enthusiastically engaged with if I’m honest. I’m glad of the reprieve.
There’s just one other problem. Now that I am no longer taking codeine at night, my poor little insomniac brain has returned. Which is why I am writing this at two-thirty in the morning.
On balance, I feel the operation might have been worth it. After all, I no longer get woken up by sudden involuntary movements that result in my joint painfully ‘catching.’ Instead, I just get woken by my brain.
Now, can anyone tell me where I’ll find the off switch?
ramblings 
Hi Bonnie, so glad to hear you are doing so well, & the Italy trip was such a success. My way of getting back to sleep if I wake in the night is to do alternate nostril breathing ( do you know the technique?) for a few mins. Works 99% of the time for me, hope this helps.
Yeah, great idea. I think I need to return to meditating just before bed, and maybe doing some stretches. x