8 weeks post LPAO

What crutches?

Since I've been given the green light to weight bear as tolerated and use crutches for another month to help transition into walking without a limp, I've of course thrown caution to the wind and dropped one crutch immediately once home and even walk around without the crutch the majority of the time. I find that I have a slight limp so I really concentrate when I walk. If I don't concentrate and I get tired, my limp comes on full force and I am smart enough to grab the crutches. I also use the crutches for when I go outside, including even into the garage to let the dogs outside to their kennel for their bathroom breaks. (My little guy, Toby, came home Sunday!! 2 months is a loooong time without your pups.)
I have found that I'm not strong enough yet to lead up steps with the left leg. Tried that yesterday and I sunk right down and the groin/psoas screamed with pain. Fortunately I had a crutch because I was in the garage coming back inside the house from letting the dogs back in!! If not for the crutch, I would have kept on sinking right to my knees. That darn step and I do not get along! Luckily the muscle pain did not last more than half an hour. It's now just back to it's normal snarky self.

Things I am doing at this point in recovery:

I can sleep in all positions now, no pillows needed

I can stand in the shower the whole time and not need the bench, even to wash the right leg

I can stand on the left leg by itself, no crutches even and have no pain (albeit a very short time)

I can walk unaided around the house and have a very slight limp/stiff walk with concentration

I can get down on the floor easily but getting back up is still difficult (I need things to help my climb my way back up. Gotta rebuild those abs!)

I'm driving again (granted I could have started driving a month ago, I just really had no where to go or the motivation to go anyway)

I can get into bed crawling into it on my knees now instead of sitting down on the mattress first and swinging my legs over.

I "can" sit indian style although this is still really uncomfortable for the left leg yet.

I don't understand why I'm having so much easier of a time with this recovery than last years SDD recovery? Is it because with the SDD I still had "2 bad hips"? Even though the SDD was supposed to be the "fix" for the right hip, I wonder if since it didn't have the PAO that it was still too weak to recover strongly? It felt really good after awhile, but it never started out or came back perfect after the surgery. I looked back at my recovery entries for last year and at this time I was still struggling with soft tissue pain and catching in the joint and unable to stand on it by itself, occasionally having days where it felt like it was regressing back to the first few weeks post op! It just makes me shake my head.
Now that I've had the LPAO, my right hip is clunking again, catching occasionally and just aches with some shooting pains down the front of the thigh and the SI joint pain and clunking is back full force.
But the left hip feels amazing. I am going to go out on a limb and say it feels perfect. I have NO joint pain, the muscles don't have that familiar fatigued feeling (and yes I realized they're still slightly in the protected weight bearing period), and even with all the weight I have put down on it, I've not once gotten a sharp, jabbing deep joint pain or giving out episode. Now, granted, my butt still occasionally feels sore from the surgical cuts, but I can sit comfortably now even in hard chairs. My psoas is still sore and will act up from time to time and I'm sure once I start PT this week all those things will be aggravated. And I am noticing that the more I walk independently, the more the medial knee and the lateral ankle of the left leg are starting to click and hurt.  But, overall, this is encouraging to me to be this pain free in the hip and recovering this strongly at only 8 weeks!

I am not a rule breaker by any means so I will be a good girl and use both crutches for the next two weeks the majority of the time and then one crutch the last two weeks. I don't want to over do it and cause soft tissue injuries that will set me back, although seeing as how well I did after my fall I kind of feel invincible!!! :)  I'm excited to start PT on Thursday and ready to get strong again.