Walking in the Backyard

     Everything is going fine with the new hip except..... The joint, the incision and sutures, and the pain level in those items likely to be affected are all doing fine.  The one problem is a painful knot in the muscle of the outer thigh, below the incision.  Also the right leg is a bit larger than the left.  The therapist, Meghann, will be here tomorrow, and I hope she can recommend a course of action so that I can begin to properly use the walker.  I know enough to know that I am doing it all wrong.  Physical therapy is seen as a necessary evil, administered by therapists who are part personal trainer and part drill instructor.  Let me say that Meghann blows that stereotype completely out of the water.  She's gentle in voice as well as manipulation.  She listens, and she assesses, in depth, what is really going on and identifies root causes.   
     Today, as a result of some gentle spousal reminding, I was "walking" around.  I sat down on the screen porch while Durelle went out and straightened a loose picket on the back fence.  There's another role reversal for you.  She silently motioned for me to join her.  What she saw was our alligator crawling out of our side of the pond.  One of the pictures was taken through the fence to prove that he was on our side of the pond.

     He's about eight feet and he doesn't look like he(she?) has missed many meals lately.  As I was slowly walking back to the house, Baxter was rolling around scratching his back so I had to snap a couple of shots of him.

     So, I'm progressing normally with no pain meds, but we have to fix the cause of the painful knot in the thigh.  The pain subsides while in the recliner...hence no meds...but it sure inhibits proper exercise.