I stopped using my cane on the first day of the fourth week. I was certainly not walking perfect, but I felt I was stable enough to take that next step to independence. I was getting a little too used to leaning on the cane. My walking style had become stepping with my good leg, then stepping with my bad leg and cane in unison, while pressing most of my weight down on the cane. Even though I was motoring along very well, it was starting to bother me that I was making the cane part of my new style of walking. That's really not what you want.
What you do want is... to get back everything you had prior to the operation and that was, is, and will be your goal. The sooner you kick that cane away, and start walking like a normal person, the better it will be for you. Even if you are walking at half speed, despite the leg still being uncomfortable and awkward, stand tall, elongate your step, and resist the temptation to limp. Go to a supermarket and grab a shopping cart. Then go walking around the store using the cart to help maintain good posture. Concentrate on just walking normally.
By this time in your recovery, things have gotten much easier. You'll still not have a straight leg yet, but getting up from bed in the morning won't be nearly as uncomfortable. Week 1 and 2 were ridiculous while trying to get up from a seated position, or even worse, in the middle of the night to pee. Not fun. The leg was just too tight. As time passes, the worst is only when you initially stand-up, then in the time it takes to stand there and pee, the leg has relaxed to a much less uncomfortable straight position. This like everything else only improves with each passing day.
The other issue that improves is sleep. The first two weeks are rough. It's very hard to find a sleeping position that doesn't feel painful or uncomfortable. I sleep on my side or my stomach... and that's the worst. You need to somehow find a position that is both familiar and not causing awkward pressure to your incision. Otherwise, it will wake you right up.
Another issue when it comes to sleep is the numbness you still feel (or not) in your lower leg and along the incision line. So many times while trying to sleep, I thought my leg felt like it was laying on irregular gravel, but it was just the sensation of the different spots of skin that had feeling or not. Eventually you'll find what works for you, but by this fourth week, sound sleep becomes easier to achieve.
When it comes to numbness, I'm not sure what the future holds. Just after the operation, everything seemed extremely numb, but again as time passes, it does seem like the little nerve endings are reconnecting and sensation to parts of my leg have returned. At this point, at the completion of 4 weeks, the only part of my leg that's numb is about 1" on both sides of the incision line from my groin to my ankle and the only areas with more numbness are located to the side and back of my knee... and just above my ankle bone. I'm hoping this will improve.
When it comes to swelling, I have had a couple days when I probably did too much physical stuff, like repeatedly climbing stairs, that caused my ankle to swell. You might be feeling pretty good at this point, and doing your best to get back to a regular daily routine, even though you're still limping, but if you do too much, there will still be a price to pay. For me it has been a swollen ankle and an occasional swollen foot. I compare the swollen one to the good one and that's all I need to know. Elevating the foot, even now so long after the surgery, still works to calm things down.
And here's a look at my swollen ankle and foot.
Notice when I flex my foot, you can't see the tendons.
