My surgery took place on November 21, 2013 at an outpatient center. My surgeon, Victor Kalman was fantastic. I went in with my wife, Meg, was prepped within 20 minutes, and within another 10-15 minutes was wheeled into the OR. I met the staff, climbed onto the table, and about an hour and a half later (my memory is fuzzy), woke up in recovery with two band aids on my hip. They had repaired the loose bit, and micro-abraided the articular surface of the acetabulum to help form a replacement layer of cartilage.
Meg drove me home shortly thereafter. The pain was not unbearable over the next week: I took a couple extra strength tylenol twice daily for about seven days. In fact the worst day of recovery was one week later during Thanksgiving dinner when well-meaning souls kept insisting that they could help me move my leg. I was back in at Penn State Brandywine teaching physics from crutches about 10 days after surgery (yes I drove), and directing kungfu and taijiquan classes the same week. I did PT three times a week for the next 8 weeks, and was back to very basic martial arts at the start of January. Bandwork and clamshells became my favorite exercises. I did a load of walking and cycling to normalize my gait. Were I to do it over again, I would have stayed on crutches a few more days until my gait was more normal.
In any event, from January, it took something like two or three months before I felt like I was 80%. In the next video (Yi Lu Mai Fu - July 30, 2014) you can see that I have most of my range of motion back. However, there's some hesitation in the movements.
By October 15, 2014, I'm feeling probably 97%, but there are still some hitches in my movement. Here's Lian Huan Tui from that time.
The last 3% came hard. Running felt better than before the surgery, but I couldn't do more than three miles without the left hip or right knee hurting. Something was still not right. Finally, over the last year, I started doing elliptical motion machines almost daily including on running days. Things seemed to gel, and everything seemed more aligned than previously. I could do distance again (which for me, these days is about 5-6 miles). Jumping seemed not just easier, but I felt like I didn't have to pay the piper the next day.
Here's Yi Lu Mai Fu again more recently (May 14, 2016). You can tell there is little hesitation, the motion is smoother and stronger.
My hip sometimes bothers me still. If I don't stretch the iliopsoas daily, I can feel it. But I would definitely go back and do the surgery again if given a choice.
