Day 11
I woke up as usual, in some discomfort, took 1 pain pill then an hour later doubled up on a 2nd one.
The sharp pains I experienced the day before really scared me and make me leary about testing the water with exercises again.
After the 2nd pain pill I did absolutely fantastic between 8AM - 1:15 PM.  I didn't take pain meds during this time.  My mind was decent enough to work on a crossword puzzle.  With help and the appropriate assistive devices, walker & crutches, I went down the 2 small steps to the deck & sat on a chair outside.  On the way down the 1st step I felt a twinge in the muscle on the front of the leg, the same one I felt the day before that bothered me.  Once I sat I forgot about it for awhile and upon going back inside I felt it again.
The scary part is not knowing whether this is normal, to try and work through it, to back off for a day , or to  just walk without trying to move it bigger and better within the prescribed range.  Once I begin to feel better I think it should continue linearly.  I remember telling patients that it is about the overall pattern of behavior.  They may have 2 major advances and be doing great then all of a sudden would have a "bad day" or set back.  In my experience as a therapist I have very rarely witnessed progressive, sequential nothing but blue skies kind of healing.  It is more like 2 good days then 1-2 not so good then 3 days and so on. 
I think we all want to "know" what every little ache & pain is and the truth is we probably never will.  The patent answers of "you had surgery" never was sufficient for me.  I want to know why, how,  why now, what if and too many questions pinging in my head to articulate
Back to the rest of the day.
The day progressively got worse from here. The sharp pain would increase everytime I lifted my right leg to swing it forward as I walked  walker.  I would "test" the muscle by trying to lift my knee to touch the walker horizontal bar as I had in my breakthrough day that I could do it without pain.  It became apparent & frustrating to find that it didn't get better and just go away.  Even reclining in the 1 chair that has my refuge could not get comfortable.  This bothered me. My mind went places it shouldn't without adult supervision, such as "Did I sublux the hip?"  Pain pills and hopefully sleep or just unconscious was my only solution at this point.  I could not solve or change things at this point