My original plan was to post here every day about my hospitalstay experience. The hospital does not have wi-fi internet connections and itis too difficult typing on my iPhone, so I am writing about the whole stay here. 

I entered the hospital on Wednesday, May 29. 

On May 30, I woke up early but couldn’t eat. My son showed upbefore 8 a.m. and I got dresses into a gown. We went to the surgery room at8:30. I was greeted by my doctor and his nursing staff. Everybody was asking ifI was ok or nervous. I said that I couldn’t wait and was looking forward to it.I walked into the surgery room and lied on the surgery table. They joked aboutthe table being a little small. That was a nice way to say that I was a littlebig.  

The anesthesiologist connected me to an IV and said I would besleeping soon. I started counting – 100 – 99 – 98 and the last I remember was97. The surgery took about two and a half hours. The next thing I remember isthem asking if I could hear them. They told me to blink my eyes and wiggle myfingers if I could hear. I did both but then I went into a sleep again whilethey removed the breathing tube.

The next thing I remember was waking up in severe pain. I sawmy son and I just remember asking them to give me pain medicine. They connectedme to the IV and I went back to sleep. When I woke up, I felt fine. My doctorvisited me in the evening, and I was feeling fine. He said that he had to workat a different clinic on Friday and Saturday so he would visit me early in themorning.

On Friday morning at about 5:30 a.m. he came to my room. Heasked how I felt, and I said fine, so he asked me to get out of bed. I used a walker,with the IV in my arm, I walked about five meters easily and painlessly. Hetold me to try and walk up and down the hallway to exercise my leg and that hewould see me on Monday.

I had the IV in my arm all day on Friday, but I managed towalk a little without pain. They removed the IV from my arm at about 11 pm onFriday night. At around 3 a.m. I felt a strong pain. I pushed the nurse callbutton and they soon have me pain meds. The meds work for about 8 hours. I wasable to walk the hallway on Saturday and Sunday without pain.

My rehabilitation, or rehab, started on Monday morning. Mytrainer was a nice guy. He didn’t speak English, but with broken English/Japaneseand gestures, we were able to communicate. I did many types of stretching exercisesfor about 40 minutes and then walking exercises for about 20 minutes. Theexercises went well and on Friday, my doctor said that if my x-rays and bloodtests were ok, I could go home on the following Thursday. That would be justtwo weeks after the surgery.

On the following Monday, I had rehab as usual. It was slightlymore difficult. On Tuesday I had x-rays and blood tests. In the evening, mydoctor said that the tests all looked good and that I could go home on Thursdayif I wanted to. My final rehab was on Wednesday. It was very difficult. I couldn’tunderstand why. I imagined that the pain would be very strong at first and thenslowly go down. In my case, there was no pain in the beginning, but afteralmost two weeks, it was getting stronger. I mentioned the pain to my doctor onWednesday evening. He said that sometimes this happens and that I could stay inthe hospital longer if I wanted. I told him no thank you and that I reallywanted to go home.

I checked out of the hospital on Thursday, June 13, and 11a.m. Nick pulled the car up to the entrance of the hospital. I couldn’t evenwalk less than two meters to the car with Nick’s help. I also couldn’t evenstep up onto the first step of my porch without Nick’s help. I was veryshocked. The problem was not the hip replacement. The pain was in the musclesof my upper leg. I had this pain for almost a year before the surgery. It waslike there was no muscle in my leg at all. I wondered if I should have stayedin the hospital.

I decided to stay home. I rested my leg for two days without doingany exercises or stretches at all. Nick research exercises for strengtheningthe muscles in my leg. We found that exercising only my good leg and arms, mybad leg was feeling better. After several days, I exercised my bad leg and thepain came back again. Now I only exercise my good leg, but I also walk more andmore each day. On June 23 I felt strong enough to drive to Mizuho Mall and shopat Seiyu. On June 24 I felt confident enough to walk upstairs and sleep in mybedroom. (I had been sleeping in my tatami room on the couch. It was actuallyrather comfortable.)

I started teaching classes in my house from June 20 and willstart teaching my community center classes in the first week of July.

I want to thank the many people who visited me in the hospitaland for the many emails of support and best wishes for me. I can’t tell you howmuch I appreciate all your kind words and words of encouragement.