On To Week Three

I can't believe its the start of the third week since the surgery. It feels like it has been much longer since I went in, and also that I am pathetically behind in recovery, probably because I feel like I still can't do that much with the leg.

Today I went to physical therapy again. We went through stretching and some other leg exercises when Nicole decided I was compensating much to much with my hip when we were "bending" my knee. She had me lay on my stomach (which was such a nice change!) and she manually bent my leg. It felt like all kinds of things were being pushed and squeezed out from under my knee cap which is, needless to say, horrid. She got it to 45 degrees though! She repeated that 10 times then after icing I was free to go. I thought I would attempt to crutch it home since I am hoping the additional work will strengthen the leg fast and reduce the chance clothes will explode when I force my ice cream stomach in them. It took me approximately 40 minutes to go 6 blocks (which is at most 400 yards).

My friend Lee hosted game night tonight, it was great to see everyone and finally get out of the apartment and do something. We ordered pizza and played Trivia Pursuit so I could participate from my perch on the floor. Lee and Alex's daughter Sophie also made an appearance, she's getting bigger and is starting to smile now.

In an effort to boost my morale I decided to summarize the issues I have had over the last 2 weeks and what the status for each is now (yes, I realize this is exceptionally nerdy):

Symptom	Current Status
All over really bad pain	Gone - woohooo!
Pain Getting Up	99% Gone!
Stabbing pain, left side of knee	Significantly decreased, existing pain much less
Deep aching throughout knee	Gone!
Significant pain while standing with brace	Gone!
Wobbly, knee parts floating feeling	Mostly gone, still wobbly without brace but can put a bit of pressure on it
Stabbing pain from twitching	Mostly gone
Itching	Gone!
Stuffed sausage link leg	Gone!
Swelling	Down to 15" from 17"
Faux Shin splints	Still around, ~25% reduced
Quad cramps	Still around, ~25% reduced
Chalkboard torture	95% Gone - only crops up when doing bending exercise

Here are some things I've accomplished already:

• Standing up and sitting down by myself - DONE
• Showering with help - DONE
• Showering without help and no brace - DONE
• Using leg while crutching (with brace on, but still!) - DONE

Here are some other milestones I've decided to track:

• No more bandages
  
• Sleeping through the night
• Sleeping on my side
• Sleeping on my stomach
• Moving around with 1 crutch
• Moving around with no crutches
• Brace Free Walking
• Unaided Walking