Surgery and the Hips - Part 7

Since outpatient physical therapy started, my walking has been improving. I've transitioned from walker to cane, after around a year and a half of using the walker. Even then, it's still difficult, but it'll improve. I've been taking my quad cane to PT.

When I had in-home therapy, and just two weeks before the late March surgeon visit, I started developing something that felt like when the elbow's "funny bone" is hit, going from the hip area down to my foot. It got to be a bit painful in the foot area if I walked using the cane. Fortunately, the "funny bone" effect went away shortly after I started outpatient therapy. It still comes and goes but it's limited to between the hip and knee and is very minor. The surgeon recommended I see a back doctor, but even with the "funny bone" effect mostly gone, I kept the appointment. At the appointment, the doctor takes one look at me, together with my description of the "funny bone" effect, told me to keep doing what I'm doing.

The same day of that appointment, I kept the walker upstairs and used the cane. I managed to use it all day. Walking was slow, though a bit unsteady. That will improve. Still have a ways to go to straighten out the muscle contractures in the knees, though.

One interesting observation is that sometimes there's a bit of a muscle ache and it'll feel a little like a "phantom pain" like when the spacer was there.