Back to normal life...HOW did you do it experienced hippies?

If you are exhausted from just your daily living, taking care of little ones, running a house, and on and on, then your friends will just have to take a back seat for longer than they had hoped. Certainly, doing some small things with them could be appropriate, as suggested by others so well in previous comments. But if you over do things, as you have said you have a tendency to do, you could delay your ultimate recovery.

And as far as your worries about falling, perhaps while in the dark or over uneven ground or slippery floors or having a drink, those too are legitimate! You should not put yourself in the position of having a fall early in your recovery. You are only 12 weeks along and there is lots of healing still going on inside of you. Perhaps you will need to hang on your husband's or a friend's arm for you to feel safe while walking in treacherous areas. I do! Or you might need to use a walking aid, such as one crutch or a trekking pole, to feel safe. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and, in fact, shows that you have respect for your healing body and your safety.

I truly believe that your strength and confidence and desire to go out and participate as fully as you did before in life's pleasures WILL return gradually as you heal over time. Why push it? You don't have much chance of becoming a hermit as you have two young children, and their needs alone will be pushing you out into the world probably faster than feels 100% comfortable. I hope you don't rush and push yourself too fast at this point in recovery, any more than you should in those first few painful weeks post-op.

It's yet another thing that no-one says anything about, your loss of self confidence in ordinary things.  Will I be able to get up from a restaurant seat, use a standard toilet.  Feeling vulnerable on uneven ground or with young children running around the supermarket?

I have just been out on a 3.5 mile walk with my wife (and feel utterly exhausted) in the countryside, very uneven paths rutted by tractors.  Using hiking poles, I was able to sucessfully negotiate the  entire route, so I have gained confidence, whilst having the safety-net of someone sympathetic being there to help me if I needed it (I didn't).

So much of the recovery is 'in the mind', I know that I have felt much more able to cope since my surgeon gave me the 'green light' to start bending beyond 90 degrees.  Today I even put on my own sock without the 'sock aid', and tied my shoelaces for the first time in 4 months.  Funny, that seemed such a trivial thing to do before this operation, now it's a major milestone.

Graham - 🚀💃