Every morning doctors Tomford and Steward visit. Dr. Steward checks the wound and changes the dressing every other day. There is a drain in the wound that gently sucks out excess fluids. That is emptied once a day or so.

I walk a short way using a walker. It's exhausting and I get a little light-headed.

The urinary catheter is removed and I have to pee into a little plastic urinal with a handle. Another new experience for me.

Two lessons I didn't learn soon enough:

1. I don't have to wait for the physical therapist to arrive to get out of bed and walk. Any nurse can help me do that. And I must get up often to get my body used to being upright again.
2. I do have to ask for my pain medications. They don't come automatically. I have been switched from morphine to Percocet. I'm allowed to take two Percocet every three hours and I should have but didn't. (It's that old belief that if I take too many pain killers I won't know how bad my body is hurting. In this case, however, I need the pain killers so I can move to keep the joints mobile and to promote the healing.) When the physical therapist finally arrived today, I had not taken any Percocet in five or more hours and I couldn't move. She left in a huff saying she couldn't work with me like that. The lesson: Take all of the pain killers you are allowed to take, especially before the physical therapist shows up.

Another lesson would be to have the surgery on a Tuesday so for most of the visit you are tended by the weekday staff rather than the weekend staff. The disadvantage of that is you would be discharged by the weekend staff.

The food still is uninteresting. I can't eat. One side effect of Percocet is constipation. A suppository produced one small stool.

The IV is removed so I'll have to start eating pretty soon.

My daughter and cousin visit me. I sleep through most of my cousin's visit.

[An update from 2012: I am reviewing this site in preparation for my second hip replacement. One observation I have is to not take the maximum level of painkillers, since they do a number on your digestive system. Perhaps if I had stayed at 1/2 strength rather than full strength, I would have gotten my system back on-line sooner.]