Soon after I got home from hospital, I thought to measure how
much weight the right leg was willing to support.  I measured
it either by putting my left foot on the scale, and then trying
to raise it, or by putting my cane on the scale, and seeing how
much weight I had to put on the cane before the left foot would
come off the floor.  The answer in both cases was 30 pounds; that
is, my right leg would support all but thirty pounds of my weight.
And the interesting thing is that, with all my improvements in
mobility and gait, that number hasn't changed.  It seems very hard
to explain that in terms of physical changes in muscles and ligaments.
It seems to me that the answer must lie in the realm of neurophysiology.
<br><br>
Neurophysiology is the science that lies between neurology, the study 
of the nervous system, and psychology, the study of how the higher centers 
of the nervous system operate in conscious or unconscious thought.  
In between is the realm of neurophysiology, which studies how sensory
inputs from all the body's sensors are processed when they first arrive
at the brain, and how the conscious intent to move is translated into
the electrical stimuli that cause the muscle cells to contract.
<br><br>
In medicine, the psychologist or psychiatrist is primarily concerned with 
abnormal thought patterns at or near the conscious level.  The neurologist 
is primarily concerned with the diseases of the nerves - MS, 
Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's syndrome, etc.  But nobody seems
to be concerned with neurophysiology.
<br><br>
Perhaps the most famous of medical/neurophysiological  phenomena are 
phantom limbs.  It is common, in the case of amputation, that the amputee 
still feels as if the limb is present, and he feels that he can move it, 
and may feel sensations in it which are as "real" as any perception arising
in a real sense organ.  It is most distressing, of course, if the
sensation from the phantom limb is intense pain, as there may be
no medical treatment for pain in a limb that no longer exists.
<br><br>
I suspect that this spectacular phenomenon is just the tip of the
iceberg.  I believe something very similar is affecting my recovery
from my broken right hip.
<br><br>
I can, of course, stand on my left leg just fine.  I cannot stand
on my right leg.  When I try, it is neither pain nor weakness that
prevents it.  When I try to lift my left foot off the floor, it does
not hurt, nor does the right leg feel weak and unsteady.  The left
foot just does not come off the floor.  I can no more lift my floor
than I can will the book off my table by telekinesis.  It just 
doesn't work.
<br><br>
I theorize that deep in my nervous system, whether in the brain or
the spinal cord I have no idea, there is an entity which has decided
that my right hip has been injured, and that therefore it must be 
protected, in first order by arranging that it cannot bear my full 
weight.  This little group of neurons has decided that it is a bad idea 
for me to lift the left foot off the floor, and simply forbids it.  
So I am stuck limping, without any good physiological reason.  I dream
of a medical neurophysiologist who has discovered a way to communicate
with that group of neurons, to tell it "You don't have to worry too much 
about that hip, it is now securely screwed together with titanium.  Can 
I stop limping now?"