A first step...

If you said, "The journey of 1000 miles begins with that first step," you have been reading too many fortune cookies.  Hmmm... a fortune cookie would be good right about now.  I don't know why, Joan made a great roast for supper and I don't really need a fortune cookie.  Damn, I'm digressing again, and I can't even blame it on the pain meds.

This first step is different.  I asked the nurse practitioner at the surgeon's office about when I will know to stop using the cane.  Her answer was pretty much the same as the PT guys: "Keep using the cane until you can walk normally without it."

Yeah, yeah.  But, at some point, you have to "test the waters."  I was cautioned to not do that.  Further, one of the PT guys said, "At some point, you will set your cane to the side while you are doing other things, then notice you took a step without it."

I move around our kitchen a lot without using the cane.  No, I am not taking that first step; I use the kitchen counter and the island to support myself - it helps if I am feeding Rufus or drying and putting away dishes and moving stuff around.  Not sure how it looks to anyone else, but I feel like a big ol' toddler, holding on to the furniture before they take that first step.

This morning, I was getting the furry boy fed, putting out our pills for the day (that really sounds like an old-person thing), getting Joan's coffee ready for the Keurig, getting my hot chocolate ready, and a glass of ice water.  It's my morning routine.  Getting around with the cane has allowed me to do that routine again.  In the middle of it, I rotated away from the sink, took a step and... oh, shit - that hurts.

Yep, still need the cane.

I'll let you in on something though: when I am taking one of my daily outside walks, I try more and less pressure with the cane.  The gait with the cane is as close to normal as I can make it; when I reduce the amount of support I use with the cane, the hip lets me know it's too early.

But, I can see it is coming.