Surgery Recovery - Day 5

I tried to start cutting back on the medication a bit yesterday - bad idea it seems. I was doing ok until the usual lengthy pre-bed stand-up which made my knee hurt quite a bit again - general aching with small sharp pains, not as bad as Friday but still crappy. I slapped the Game Ready on (or rather Ari did as I squirmed and complained) and waited for the pain to diminish, eventually it did and I fell asleep.

Unfortunately it was not to be a lovely medicated sleep for long - it seems that the continual medication of the last few days also diminished the amount of twitching I normally do, and cutting back on the meds resulted in the oh so obvious twitching increase. I shortly woke up to searing pain in my knee after what was clearly a huge sleep twitch. This only happened once more during the night, but it was enough to result in more pain this morning than yesterday. Ari, the best boyfriend on earth , stayed home again to help me.

Today was the first day I started to feel really frustrated and irritated that I was still pathetically crippled. I had clearly deluded myself into thinking the recovery would be fast - hadn't my uncle been up and around in a week after arthroscopic? How much worse could open be? Well, I'm either a pathetic wimp or its a lot worse - I go to the doctor tomorrow for my post-op so I will find out which it is then.

In preparation for my post-op appointment I am going to attempt another shower, there is no way I'm shaving my legs, but I suppose I can try and minimize the smell. I took off the bandages when Ari was at the gym and confirmed that the knee is ENORMOUS (I think its about 14 - 16 inches around, couldn't quite get the measuring tape under it). The stitches haven't broken open or anything, but its not pretty. I read on some random post that this woman had to have her knee drained - I have no idea how much that hurts, but I can't imagine it being pleasant. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.


I also somehow managed to do something most unfortunate to the muscle under my right arm, turning just so will result in torn muscle worthy pain that definitely takes my mind off the knee for a few seconds. Not exactly the distraction I was looking for but at least I didn't break my arm....

Lee, Sophie and Elizabeth came to visit me today. I wasn't sure if I would be up for visitors given my earlier poop mood, but it was great to see them and also a fantastic distraction. Sophie turned 4 weeks old on Sunday - she has great googly eyes and makes hilarious noises. Having them here also meant Ari was also able to go to the gym without worrying I would clutz my way back into the hospital which was hopefully a good break for him. He came back and made me mac and cheese. Its yummy. I realize I probably shouldn't be eating crap since the only exercise I am doing is breathing, but comfort food is all that sounds good. Maybe I will have salad tomorrow....