It ain't easy bein' screwed (20 days post op)

I am now one night shy of being 3 weeks post op. The xray on the left is my very first pre op xray with Dr. Z and the one on the right is my latest post op xray obtained at my two week follow up. Look at the difference! On the right, the head is rounder (although the socket is still shallow) and the screws are out. Plus you can't even see where the trochanter was osteotomized anymore! The left hip obviously has the biggest changes and quite a bit more coverage. Z says it is the model of how a perfect PAO should be.
The operative report says that I had a labral tear in the left hip and also an iliac crest bone graft done during surgery. My family and friends that have seen the newest xrays (that are unaware of how a PAO looks) have been absolutely amazed at the size of the screws and the cuts of the bones. Especially for how well I've been handling the pain.

I would say at the 3 week mark the hardest thing for me to handle now is getting up in the morning out of bed due to lying in one position all night. I've just gotten to where I can sort of roll myself into a semi side lying position on my non op side with tons of pillows propped all around me, but that is such a gargantuan effort at 2 am to take on that I just don't feel it's necessarry to carry out. Plus I can only handle lying like that for a very short period of time, so it just doesn't seem worth it. So I stay on my back, which makes for a stiff everything in the morning. I don't wake up at 2 or 4 am anymore for a vicodin, so from 10 pm (usually) til 8 or 9 AM I am without meds. Today I actually went more than 12 hours without meds and am doing alright.
I can do the 500 exercises fairly easily now. I can effortlessly get my left ankle to rest on my right knee and although I feel the stretch in my butt it doesn't hurt to leave it there. Lying down and doing the figure four though is entirely different. It stretches a whole lot more muscles and that does hurt...so much so that my whole leg starts to tremble. I can only hold that position for a couple minutes before I'm dragging the leg by my hands into a straight position.
Using my left leg to lift it off the floor takes a lot of concentration....my brain says "lift!" and my leg says "I'll get to it when I'm good and ready!" Good and ready takes a lot out of me and again I end up using my hands to guide the leg the rest of the way up to complete my knee to chest exercises. Still no straight leg lifts allowed and it's hard to remember that sometimes.
I am still of course dealing with buttock pain and hamstring pain....although I know this will resolve eventually, it feels like it's taking forever to go away. And to top it off, now my calf and ankle are extremely tight and painful too, like I've pulled every muscle in my leg.

I sneezed for the first time last night and although I could feel it coming on and I splinted my incision, it was still agonizing. It was an immediate ripping pain all the way around the hip and tears were leaking out of my eyes as I swore loudly. But then I started to laugh because it was just so ridiculous! That by far was the most painful thing I've gone through since I've been home. I think the only thing more painful was the second time I was taken out of the CPM in the hospital....ah, good times.

The thing that really startled me though, was yesterday morning I realized that "hey, I feel like I could definately do this again if I have to." And you know what? I could. It's not that bad. The first week is one that makes you question everything about yourself but then you see how far you come with each passing day and realize just how strong you are and it becomes apparent that although it ain't easy bein' screwed, it's also not the worst thing that could happen either.