I made it! Twelve weeks post-op

It's finally here - twelve weeks post-op, which means "mostly healed". I went back and read my 12-week post with my left hip, and things are a little different this time around. Last time, I had this weird issue after surgery in which it felt like my hip was falling out of socket when I let the leg dangle (like if I was walking down stairs). I was sure it was iatrogenic subluxation, but it wasn't. It was just that my hip capsule was damaged during surgery (as part of a normal, successful procedure), but it healed too lose. It had lost tonicity because there was no muscle and bone pressure on it. Eventually, that went away - with use of the hip. So this time around, I was not as scared to use my hip, and I did a much better job of early mobilization, exercise bike, and walking once I was cleared. That, combined with the repair rather than debridement, prevented the strange sensation. In fact, while I had more early pain with this hip than with the left, the entire healing process seemed to go faster and I had less pain overall. I remember that I did have a lot of aching, stiffness, and discomfort when I first started running last time, and I kept badgering my doctor about it. But now I know what pain is worrisome, and what pain is due to scar tissue, adhesions, or just disuse.

I'll start with three days a week of running for now, and the plan was up to a mile at a time. Today Christian amended that to 2 miles at a time, because he's worried about ramping up too quickly, but I looked at the timeline we put together a few weeks ago and I think one mile is fine. I don't want to do too much, too soon. Christian had me do a mile on the treadmill today, and it was just fine, but I told him I'm not doing any treadmill over that distance - too risky for the hip joint.

Obviously, rule #1 is pay attention to pain, so that's going to be my guide going forward. But for now I can run! Hip, hip, hooray! (Ha, ha, ha. Sorry, couldn't resist).