The Physical Edge

So hip surgery is pretty major in that they cut a lot of stuff... stretch and move a lot of stuff.. in order to get the new hip parts in the right place (didn't that sound technical?). I have been told, and it makes sense, to get your body ready for the trauma it is about to undergo - because no matter how benign it might sound - any time under the knife is a trauma for your body. Get your body ready? What does that - or should that- mean?

Your body needs to fight off any infections and it needs to respond to therapy, and it needs to heal from the inside out and all that means feeding yourself right - perhaps for the first time in a long time. It also means - in my case - lose some weight so the whole healing process will be easier on me and my new hip.

If either of those sounds easy, or would be easy for you, then go away! They are both giving me a difficult time. More about that later.

What other 'get your body ready' things are there?  I will need to use crutches and a walker, so upper body strength and stamina will be important. I will also be needing to rehab my leg because of not using it for 5 or 6 weeks, so the stronger those muscles are now, the easier they will be to get back into shape later (or so the story goes). So I have to get into the gym and work on some things, but the pain in my leg and hip makes that one of my not so favorite things to do right now - right now when I need it the most. Swimming, although generally good for me, is even starting to hurt so my last arena of pain free activity is slowing drifting away (was that a water pun?).

Next time - which operation do I want? And you thought a hip replacement was a hip replacement. Hah!