I am recovering very well from my hip replacement surgery on October 11. At that time, my surgeon told me I would need “two months” for the short-term recovery. So (exercising some degree of faith) we scheduled our departure for Hope Africa University December 11 (exactly two months later!).
I did bring my cane and used it en route traveling through the airports. But I have not used it at all since we arrived in Burundi.
There are many stairs to climb here (and no elevators!). We live in a third-floor guest apartment. (Note: in French, it is called the “second floor,” that is, the second floor above the “ground floor.”) To reach our apartment requires climbing 40 steps (and 40 more to get back to ground level!).
And there are many more stairs to climb here! Darlene is teaching in lab and lecture rooms located on the third floor of the main classroom building. That is a climb of 56 stairs up, and for the descent 56 down.
On Friday, counting the steps both up and down, I did 800+ stairs…in style, “foot over foot”…and suffered no ill effects. So I am very pleased with my progress. I expect, per the usual schedule for recovery, that by the time we return home January 17, I should be fairly “back to normal.”
Then, my next challenge—for the spring months, is to rebuild the muscle in my left leg. Presently, my left thigh is 2+ inches smaller in circumference than my right thigh! The calf is also smaller. I think the atrophy took place over time, as I “gimped and limped” around for a couple of years prior to surgery. My goal now is to recover the strength I lost in my left leg during that time and be back to “fully normal” by the end of May. (Some of my closet friends question “normal” as a realistic goal for me!)
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