Guess I'll be ready

My physiotherapist is readying me for hip replacement surgery -- way ahead of schedule!

You see, her husband is having his right hip replaced today, so he has already jumped through all the hoops that I will be going through in the coming months.  And my physiotherapist accompanied her husband to the "prehab" session that all patients are required to attend prior to their surgery.  These sessions are designed to get the patient ready for the procedure and to help prepare them for recovery.

A large part of the recovery is muscle strength and there are certain exercises that work the precise muscles involved with the hip joint.

My darling physiotherapist, being the proactive health care worker that she is, showed me the exercises a couple of weeks ago (I happened to see her the morning after her husband's prehab session).

I've been doing the exercises faithfully ever since.

Three times a day.

And I can already feel the difference.

At first, my left hip was really objecting to the new demands being put on it but it has decided now to co-operate.

With each day, the exercises are getting a little easier to take, not hurting quite as much.

So I'm really ahead of the curve on this project.

Normally, a patient would attend the prehab session some time between the appointment with the surgeon and the actual surgery date (usually some six weeks prior to the surgery).

Here I am, haven't yet seen the surgeon, and I'm already two weeks into the exercise regime.

By the time I see the surgeon, I will have already been doing the strengthening routine for nine weeks.

By the time I go for the prehab session, I could conceiveably be some six months into the program.

And that should be another six weeks before the surgery.

Surely by the time my date with the scalpel rolls around, my muscles will be well-strengthened, no?

If I keep this up, I might be recovered before they even replace my hip!