geraldatwork

You can all now call me crazy. I just completed a 10 mile ride (10.23) out and back from my house on my road bike at a very slow 12.3 mph, 19 days post surgery. I would think this is some kind of record.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/14422882

Mr. Markets

You're CRAZY!

Dood, you are a better man than I. I completed another mile walk, and no way i could ditch the
crutches, or even think about stopping on the new hip leg if needed. Bit then I would guess you
prolly weigh at least 80 lbs less than me, so much to your advantage.

GOOD 4 YOU!

Be careful out there. I will join you on the roads in about 2-3 weeks.

geraldatwork

Actually my doctor at the two week check said I could do anything I wanted. I did note he is a cowboy. When I asked him if I could ride the bike he said yes but thought I wouldn't have enough range of motion. To be honest I walked 6/10ths of a mile a few days ago with two crutches and that was about my limit. I don't know if I could do a mile. So you are doing well there. I am only using a cane, but that is mostly to get around the house and in and out of the car. Luckily it is my left hip so driving is pretty easy. I am going to work Tuesday and since there is a lot more walking I will go back to at least a crutch maybe two. My 10 mile ride has about 8 or 9 lights so stopping was a challenge. I made sure I put the good foot down and loosened the screws in the pedals so I could get my feet in and out easily. The route is totally flat. I won't attempt any kind of ride with even slight hills probably until 5 or 6 weeks out. Technically I am a Clydesdale as I weigh about 210 lbs and am 6'. I am not as reckless as I seem.

Mr. Markets

still impressed. i have 55 lbs on you (and wish i didn't). it makes a difference.

as an aside, this incision is healing much better than the last one. getting staples out 1/2 week
later has an impact. i have only a thin line of scab and some is already sealed shut. last time i
wasn't healed for 5 weeks, but i bet i am all sealed by 3.5 this time...

how is the sleeping?

geraldatwork

funny about getting the staples out. As when the doctor was available I had a choice of one day early (two week point) or one day after and I choose the extra day. Not sure if it is sealed or not. I have been taking showers from about day 8 or 9. I am sleeping fairly well, although it might be due to me still taking 2 5mg Percocets at night. I generally have any pain I am going to feel in the evening into the night. Last night for example my entire leg was aching from the bike riding. And the day before it was sore from the exercises. Today I haven't done anything and the legs OK..I will try to cut back to maybe 1 1/2 tonight and one tomorrow night. Generally by around 6am I can't take sleeping on my back anymore but this morning at 6am I finally felt somewhat comfortable on my side and added another 3 hours.

Since there doesn't seem to be any ill effects from yesterdays ride I will try to ride tomorrow, adding a few miles to make 12 1/2 (I have a similar flat route laid out) and see if I can add at least a half mph to the speed as 12.3 is pretty slow. As I said yesterday I won't add anything close to a hill on a ride until I get to around the 5 or 6 week mark. I will just try to slightly increase the mileage and average speed until then mostly building up endurance more than muscle. I don't want to tear anything up in there.

Mr. Markets

your doing great! i don't do any drugs,but I also cannot put 100% on the new hip -- the muscles
are just not that strong yet. I have been sleepin back and side now for about a week plus, but
still get spurts of sleep v. long bouts of 8 hours or so. I was going to alternate two block walks
with 1 mile days, but I think I need to cut it back a little as I am still sore from the one yesterday.
last time i found overdoing it actually takes longer to heal up those po' abused muscles.

for a guy who had such a rough start in the hospital, your bounce-back has been superb!

geraldatwork

Well so far so good. I am starting work on Tuesday and we'll see how that works out. I am afraid to put more than about 50-70% weight on the leg eventhough I am allowed to. I still get some pain at night I can't figure out. I felt fine all day, didn't really do anything but at around 10pm or so the ache just starts filling the entire leg, mostly from the knee up to the hip. Probably a 3 or 4 on the pain scale. Very annoying.

Mr. Markets

yeah, i get that ache periodicallly as well. not too often, but I know what you mean -- just annoying.
like your leg has to DO something. who knows...

like you i find i cannot give the most recent hip that 100% pressure thing EXCEPT at certain angles.
like putting your foot out sidewys seems to allow a lot more pressure than standing straight up on
it. but one has to keep in mind that basically every muscle in the hip area gets amajor sprain when
they dislocate you out and pput you pack in, so they are all still pretty beat up. and it has only been
three wekks since surgery (for both of us though on my second hip). that is not a lot of time in the
healing category. You will start tosee some amazing recovery in the next 2 weeks compared to where
you are now. key is not to push it too much.

BTW, my doc would chit, but I already started driving a bit, and this is on my driving leg as well.

geraldatwork

Yes the ache is a very antsy kind of ache like it should be doing something. I sometimes just feel like I have to get up and walk around but it doesn't help. As far as driving luckily mine is the non driving leg. It's funny if it was my driving leg I probably wouldn't attempt to drive. Facebook has a hip replacement group and someone posted at about 4 weeks they had to slam on the brakes and it set back their hip some. So be careful. Funny me telling anyone to be careful

Pars 

Glad to see you are doing better gerald. That is crazy doing ~11 miles after 19 days, but maybe not so much, particularly since you said it was flat. I was doing 10 mins. on the bike at phys. therapy about then with no problems (85 rpm). Mine this time is my driving leg, and my doctor grudgingly let me drive at 4 weeks and I was fine. My doctor never gave me anything stronger than Vicodin and that only the 5% variety instead of the 10% one. I should have asked for something more, but did fine and didn't take too many of them, and only 1 at a time at that.

Mr. Markets

I am on the driving leg this time as well. doc said 4 weeks to drive but i already cheated at < 3 weeks.
so long as i drive left handed & support my right leg a bit, it all works just fine. but i should add i am
driving a big honkin' pickup, so the in and out are pretty easy for a tall guy like me. if it were a
Prius I would never try it at this time -- too low to get in...

bigtea

How old are you guys anyway? I'm 59 and worry a lot about how my reconstructed pelvis/hip/acetabulum will feel in a couple of years.

geraldatwork

I'm 61

geraldatwork

I did my 2nd ride yesterday, exactly 3 weeks post surgery. Since I didn't have any ill effects from my 10 mile ride a few days earlier on Saturday I figured I'd extend the ride slightly and try to up the effort a notch. So I went out and did a flat 13 mile ride and came in at 13.8 mph average. (Not happy but 1.5 mph faster than Sat). I have a bunch of flat routes out from my house from 10 miles to 18 miles. I usually average between 17-18 mph which doesn't seem fast but the routes have 15-18 traffic lights which really slows the average down. My average heart rate for these rides is about 150 bpm.

What surprised me yesterday on the ride is how weak I have become. I was really pushing and just couldn't generate any power. Even though the route was flat there were a couple of overpasses where there was a slight short incline. No matter how I tried I couldn't go faster than 10-11 mph. Even tried putting extra force on the good leg didn't help. My average HR yesterday was also 150 bpm which indicates I was working as hard as when I go 18mph for the same route. I was so exhausted when I got home I needed a 2 hour nap to recover. While I am happy with the effort it was an eye opener. Fortunately there are no ill effects today and I have an 18 mile flat ride planned for next weekend. As I mentioned in an earlier post I don't want to push up any hills (right now I can't anyway) until about week 6 weeks at least. The stats.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/14629968

Mr. Markets

49 here...

Mr. Markets

dood, you are just way impressive. no way i would try that at present. i still cnnot get more than maybe
75% pressure on the latest hip. i would be freakin i would have to panic stop and mess myself up.

as to the strength loss thing, yeah, tell me about it. though i did another one mile 'walk' on crutches
today w/no nap afterwards. i find this might be good every third day, but not every other...

geraldatwork

To be honest I'm afraid to put more than about 75% on the operated leg also. That is why I am comfortable with bike riding which is mostly non weight bearing. Actually I find your walking a mile quite impressive. I walked about 6/10ths of a mile last week which was around the block and I was concerned I wasn't going to make it home. No way I could do a mile at this point.

bigtea

Just a note of encouragement at 9 months after my accident. I am able to do 45 minutes on an elliptical trainer (never will I be able to run again), 30 minutes of lap swimming, and two hour bike rides. Of course I can't do all of that in one session, but I'm going to create my own lame man's triathlon where I will elliptical, ride, swim (in that order) and see how much I can do before wearing out. I'll try to do one hour (20/20/20) in my first attempt.

Mr. Markets

that all sounds really good for 9 months time! and you were in worse shape than the rest of us.
btw, running is not a good thing on hip replacements anyway...

geraldatwork

I just set up a very aggressive biking schedule for myself. However I think it is possible if all goes well, including the weather.

I volunteered to lead a group ride of about 45-47 miles with about 2000 feet of climbing for November 21st. I would need to be able to average about 14 mph. The ride is a group below what I normally ride. Typically I would be able to do this ride in about 15.5-16 mph so that should help. That date would put me 10 weeks and 3 days. If I can't do it I should know in the next 2 or 3 weeks and will beg out.

I rode 10 miles a week ago Sat and on Mon rode 13 miles and didn't volunteer to lead until after the 13 mile ride.Although aggressive I think this is doable. I set up a schedule where I will ride once a week on the weekend. I plan to increase the mileage about 3-5 miles each week. So this weekend, prob Sun because of the forecast I will ride 18 miles on a very flat course very similar to last time. Since it is longer if I equal the same average mph or slightly higher I will be happy. The following week I plan a 22 mile ride which is the 18 of this week and 4 miles added with a couple of rollers. I will slowly add more hills and mileage each week until I get to the 45-7 miles. Of course any setbacks involving the hip or legs directly, a weekend full of bad weather or getting sick with the flu or something will derail the plan. Also if I am scheduled to ride say 30 miles on a given week and just can't do it because it was too hard for me would also cancel the lead.

Mr. Markets

only you will know in the end. i wuld be careful on the hills part if i were you...

geraldatwork

Of course I will let everyone know, just kidding.

I agree about the hills. I really can't generate any watts other than spinning on level roads as of last week at least and don't anticipate much of a change for a while. As I am hesitant to walk without a cane and put full pressure on the leg that is why I am afraid to add any hills until about the 6th week post surgery. By then the bone should be mostly grown into the device. Even then as I am usually a masher I will use the lowest gear possible and try to spin to put less pressure on the hip. The trip I planned for the group includes some hills but nothing really steep. Long and 2-4% as opposed to short and 12-14%.

I believe we can do more than we think we can as long as we are careful and think it through.

geraldatwork

Just completed my 3rd ride post surgery at three weeks 6 days. Felt better today, my hemoglobin must be getting closer to normal. Rode 20 flat miles at 15.4 mph average. Last week was 13 miles at 13.8. Stats for ride.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/15334829

Mr. Markets

damn dood, you just impress the schmidt out of me -- seriously.

I am happy to do my mile walks every other day now, and am putting more and more pressure
on the new hip each time. I want to be on a cane in a week or less -- my goal.

today was one fo those PURRR-fect fall like days, low/mid 60's, sunny, light breeze.
wish I was out riding today. Though i did get on a spin bike at the club yesterday
with no real drag.

geraldatwork

Just an update on my progress, four weeks and a couple of days. Went to a physical therapist for the first time yesterday. As I haven't done anything other than some walking and the cycling she took it easy. Even on some very low weight on the leg press I can see how there is very little strength there. I was planning on doing some hills not this weekend but the following. May have to adjust that. Did a bunch of other hip exercises on a hip machine. Again low weights and low strength. After all this she had me lie on a table and did a lot of stretching of my leg and hip. I was pretty sore this morning and wish I iced the area as she suggested.

I have been walking (hobbling is a better description) without aid of any kind for about 3 or 4 days now mostly around the house and office. A couple of times I had to walk a few blocks from my car to a store which wasn't easy. Both my doctor and the therapist said I can put full weight on the repaired leg. On a couple of exercises on the hip machine where I was working my good leg all of my body weight was on the repaired leg only. I was a little uncomfortable with that but she insisted the leg can take it. Unfortunately the only time that works for both me and her is Monday and Wednesday evening at 7pm which is not great spacing for twice a week. She is really great (I have been to about 5 or 6 physical therapy places over the years and she is by far the best therapist)

I plan of upping my mileage on the bike this weekend riding a flat 22-25 miles and may go up and down the stairs in the house to strengthen the legs.