DAY 3 - Stairs were always going to be tricky, living in a terrace with a set of 12 steep steps the challenge was on! The 3rd day was the first day home and I needed to get to the top if I wanted to sleep that night on my raised bed! 6 days later things were starting to move slightly quicker!
Having someone at home to help you is vital. Without Yvonne helping me to do all the basic things you take for granted I don’t think I would have been able to cope. So make sure you organise help and support!

ACCESSORIES - One of the best buys I made was getting a set of chair raisers, which I used for chairs (obviously!) and the bed! You are not allowed to sit with your leg at 90 degrees. The hip needs to be higher than the knee. I got the raises off Amazon for about £14. On the chair you can see a round cushion which swivels so it helps you swing your legs round when sitting down - great also for getting in and out of the car.

DAY 9 - Having slowly got used to the crutches in the house it was now time to try walking outside. My technique needs a lot of working on and believe it or not this short walk was tiring for the legs! Lets hope it gets better!

DAY 10 - Another day, another walk! Slowly building up the distance. I’m trying to walk to places I can then get a cuppa at, just to incentivise me!

Exercises lying down - Before leaving the hospital the physio went through exercises I needed to do lying down and standing up. These were basically a set of 7 exercises for both lying down and standing. I needed ideally to perform these 3 times a day (morning, afternoon and evening). To start with they were hard to perform but like most things the more you practised the easier it started to become!

Exercises standing up - Here are the standing up exercises. Always check with your doctor/physio what are the right exercises to do for you. These were what they gave me!

Day 15 Walk - You start to get a grip of walking with your crutches, ideally I started to try and get a rhythm with the walk and tried to make sure that I put weight evenly on my legs so that the replacement hip starts to be able support itself.

Day 17 Walk - I started to try and start using a single crutch. To begin with I did this at home to get a feel as to how it would go! After getting more confident I then started using it outside. I took both crutches though as after a while I got tired and felt that I needed to get back to using the two sticks.

So single stick for short periods of time, though I actually felt I was walking better with one stick - it felt more natural.

Day 20 Walk -Single Stick.

Again I’m just going to keep trying to use the single stick as and when I can.

It’s a question of keeping on walking and strengthening the leg and the muscle at the top of the hip which the surgeon cut through.

Day 21 - NURSE APPOINTMENT - I went to see the nurse for the 2nd time and she removed my dressing taking off the steri strips which were protecting the cut. The scar looked good with no inflammation and she said let it breath if you can and I could now take a bath or a shower without being concerned as the scar had now healed on the outside and was waterproof! There was still obviously a lot of healing needed internally due to the surgery. The stiches which were used though were dissolvable and I was told this would occur over the next 6-8 weeks.

Day 31 - Without sticks. Went into town without sticks to go to a friend’s party. Was dropped off close to the party but was able to walk ok without the sticks!

Day 42 - At the hospital before meeting the consultant to discuss how everything has gone.
Waiting in the car park before I saw the consultant, good idea to work through what’s going well and what needs improvement as this is your chance to speak to the main man!

Day 42 - After seeing the consultant at the hospital.
Really good meeting he told me everything I was worried about and what I needed to do. We discussed how to progress and he showed me my new hip which was interesting! Nothing but praise for the hospital, the consultant and the nurses!

Day 43 - Walk
Went for a walk by myself without the crutches. The consultant had said the best thing I could do was to keep walking and exercising to rebuild up my muscles which had obviously be cut in the operation.

Day 44 - 1st time driving the car.
Basically you are not supposed to drive until at least 6 weeks after your operation. My consultant gave me the go ahead. The issue is that you might not be able to make an emergency stop with your leg as you might not be able to react in time. Just started going for short drives … everything seems ok!

Day 47 - Walking without sticks.
Walking without sticks all the time now and feeling pretty confident about it, so I’m going to try not to use the crutches again.

Day 58 - 1st time hitting a squash ball at the club!

My goal is to get back to doing basic coaching again on the squash court so I thought let’s see how it’s going! I was a bit stiff and was definitely favouring my ‘good’ leg. Still hopefully this will start to change over time.

Day 61 - Attempting the steps.

These are quite steep steps near to where I live and I was finding it difficult to do one step with my left and then the next with my right leg. so I decided it was time to just go for it!

Day 67 - 8 mile walk!

This was an 8 mile walk I went on with Yvonne who was in charge of our route! I thought it was only going to be about 4 miles. Let’s see how I got on!

Day 70 - New Physio exercises!

By this stage I wasn’t doing the NHS exercises as I could do them very easily. My goal was to get back on court to coach squash, so I went to see the club Physio who then started my rehabilitation programme to get back properly on court. To start with I found the exercises hard (some of them I still do!). This video was done at day 112 so I’d been doing them for around 40 days. Important to remember that these exercises where tailor made specifically for me, so if you want to do additional exercises then go and see your own physio so they can set up exercises specifically to your requirements.

Day 80 - 7 mile walk!

This was a really enjoyable walk. I felt pretty good and was able to cope reasonably well with the distance and didn’t feel stiff or sore at all the following day.

Day 81 - The Rockery!

Decided to help out on a rockery from start to finish. A lot of bending required and kneeling which I was a bit worried about but again no issues after completing the task!

Day 83 - Back to the Steps!

This time I’m going to try and go up the steps making sure that I push up equally on my bad leg. I couldn’t do this before it felt slightly unsafe and my leg didn’t feel strong enough to consistently push up off the next step. So back to the steps to try again…

Day 93 - Jools Holland Big Band Concert

This was my 2nd concert. Had gone to see Paul Weller on Day 32 but only managed to stay from 7 - 9.30pm (standing up) as my leg was getting tired and sore. For Jools, we got there for 6.30 and left at 10.30pm! So 4 hours at the concert standing up - felt fine and also buzzing as Jools certainly knows how to boogie with the band!

Day 94 - Walk prior to Champions League Final!

This was a nicely paced walk and then the evening was spent standing up in the Pub watching the Champions League final. A little bit of jostling at the bar (!) but felt stable and there were no problems.

Day 102 - Long walk in Bath, up and down the hills!

Went down with Yvonne to see my sister and her husband in Bath and Chris took us on a punishing walk up and around Bath. If you’ve never been to Bath it is VERY hilly! Beautiful scenery, great walk and company and another test for the hip! Managed to survive with Yvonne encouraging me up the steep slopes whilst I whinged!

Day 112 - Basic Squash & Racketball Coaching

From Day 104 I’ve started doing basic coaching on court, majority is static feeding where I set up the routine and the player hits back to me whilst practising their shot. Seems to be going quite well so far but I’m taking it easy and not trying to overstretch or run around the court at present. Really enjoying the experience of getting back on court!

Day 116 - Knebworth House

Great trip to Knebworth, beautiful house and gardens to walk round and a reasonable cup of tea! Not too long a walk but probably 3 hours walking, stopping, walking and chatting!

Day 121 - Court exercises!
My Physio has now set up specific exercises on the squash court to help with my movement … which I really need to work on!
You can see that I’m still finding it difficult to commit on putting my weight on to the right leg when playing my forehand, just need to keep on working on it!

Day 125 - SCAR UPDATE
So this is how my scar is now looking after 125 days!
A good thing to do is to ideally apply massage oil to the scar and massage the scar tissue. Check which is the best oil to use for you.
This one seems to work well for me.

Day 129 - Sign of the Times Festival!
Yvonne and myself went for a two day festival, camping for two nights. Great weather apart from the last two sets on the saturday night, one being the boomtown rats. Excellent bands and the hip responded well to a lot of dancing (attempted)!

Day 132 - The Beat
Just to really tire ourselves out we went to a Beat gig 3 days later! Great fun dancing the night away (1.5hrs) at the front watching Dave Wakeling performing great hits like ‘Mirror in the Bathroom’. Highly recommended. Hip again survived.