Surgery Recovery - Day 10

Last night was the same - its really hard to get a good nights sleep, I can't seem to get comfortable. Usually I sleep for 1.5-3 hours at a time, then I wake up to a painful leg. Sitting up and stretching over the leg by holding on to the last strap on the brace seems to make the leg feel better.

I can put slightly more pressure on the leg today - just going to try and increase this until I can get around without the crutches. Unfortunately I've also noticed that I can't really hold my leg up on my own, I think my leg muscles have atrophied quite a bit. Tomorrow I'm going to try and work on picking my leg up - we'll see how that goes.

I watched football most of the day today. Then my friend Josh came over to visit and watch the Yankees game with us which was fun and, since they won, both Ari and Josh were happy.

I'm not really looking forward to yet another week of sitting on my butt. I am going to have to come up with something creative to do with my time that doesn't involve intense focus or long periods of being awake, especially since I still nap so much.

Surgery Recovery - Day 9

I slept better last night. I think the trick is to keep the ice sleeve on in the beginning of the night and when I wake up from the pain, I remove the ice sleeve and and put the brace back on. I don't notice that I'm moving the leg around more with just the ice sleeve on, but I guess I must be, because having the stability of the brace helps decrease the pain. I must say I cannot wait until I can sleep in a position other than on my back.

I was able to shower all by myself today, including washing my legs! I can't really stand for that long because I still can't put any pressure on the knee without the brace on, but it all worked out and now I'm clean! I also realized the knee is exceptionally lopsided - its pretty gross looking when I'm vertical, most of the swelling is on the left side so it looks like a huge off center tumor thing topped off with a 3 inch incision.

Today went by in much the same way as the last few days - TV (this time college football) and knitting. Susan stopped by for a quick visit after she ran her half-marathon (yes she is crazy).

This evening I ventured out of the apartment for the second time since the surgery. Its really hot out so I immediately started sweating, which is annoying because now I am going to have to shower sooner. People's reactions as they passed me on the street were pretty funny. One guy with his son stopped to chat and felt so bad he offered me his can of pepsi. All the little yipper dogs seemed to think my crutches were play things and tried to attack them while their owners squeaked and pulled at their leashes in an effort to avoid a take down. I can't go very far on the crutches though - I made it maybe 50 yards at the most.

Tonight will be more of the same: football, cartoons, food and meds. Ah, the life of a gimp.

Recovery Week 2!

Today marks the second week of my post-surgery recovery. I didn't sleep much last night because my leg was aching again. The shin splint/thigh ache were back in full force last night along with a twitching fit that resulted in more sharp pain near the reconstructed ligament. The leg pain significantly diminishes when I sit up, too bad this isn't very conducive to sleeping. I am almost certain I would fall out of bed within 5 seconds of falling asleep sitting up. I'm also pretty sure adding a broken face to my busted knee and torn armpit muscle would really suck.

To top off the lovely night the damn cat tried to get to the flowers again and, in the process, knocked over a whole bunch of stuff making a huge racket and waking both Ari and I up at 5 in the morning. Thankfully no glass or other items requiring immediate pick-up were involved so Ari just yelled at her (she went and hid in her secret hideout under the glass covered coffee table), did a quick pick-up, and crawled back into bed.

I repeated much of the same cartoon watching and knitting today. I also discovered I can put more weight on my knee now when I am crutching around. There is no pain when I do this and the feeling of extreme instability I experienced 2-3 days ago when I tried it is almost gone. Of course I have my brace on and the steel support beams along the side help. Still, its another improvement that I'm very happy to see.

The pain was pretty minimal until around 6 this evening. I think maybe I overdid the moving around today because my knee started to feel horrid. The best description I can come up with is this: Recall the feeling you get when someone scrapes an object down a chalkboard making that nasty noise? Well, it felt like that feeling only jammed into a single location in my body. Nauseating to say the least.

Fortunately a bunch of my girlfriends were over to distract me. Susan, Alison, Catie, Elizabeth and Lydia all came to keep me entertained and well fed. I really is so nice to have people to chat with, plus they cooked me a yummy dinner which was also great!

I think I might try and venture outside tomorrow. I've only been outside the apartment once since the surgery and that was to go to the doctor. Now that I can put a bit more pressure on my knee I think I might be able to make it farther without too much pain.

Here is a picture of the knee now:

Surgery Recovery - Day 7

Today is the end of my first week of recovery! Its hard to believe its only been a week, it seems like much more time has passed.

I got a package from my mom yesterday - she sent me 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' series on tape along with a walkman and the best cookies EVER. They are delicious, I ate 5 already.

Today was also my first day all by myself. It turns out Starbucks doesn't deliver. I contemplated going out for coffee but I would have to crutch up the hill - I decided I was feeling too lazy for that. Instead I took a nap, then I took another.

While I was awake (for all of maybe 6 hours) I learned how to use 2 crutches with one hand while the other holds my plate of food - this is most useful, though it's much slower going. I have established that Scooby Doo is on each day from 9 - 1 on cartoon network, nothing good is on from 2 - 4 so that is prime napping time, and at 5 Camp Lazlo is on.

The knee continues to improve, although I feel like the recovery has slowed down. It still feels like a stuffed sausage, but there is less painful discomfort and more pressure discomfort. Unfortunately, the other parts of my leg have started to hurt more - my shin feels like its developed shin splints and my lower thigh continues to feel sore, with occasional throbbing in both places. At times my entire leg feels so swollen anbd heavy that I won't be able to move it - this feeling goes away as soon as I move my foot around, so I've been trying to do this more. Tomorrow I will try the compression and ice routine again, maybe that will also help.

The swelling in my knee has not increased which is a good sign. I can tell that my leg and knee get much weaker at night. It started to hurt when I would lift it to put on the ice sleeve post pee break, which wasn't the case earlier in the day.

Alison came over for dinner tonight, she brought yummy pasta and sauce and fresh mozzarella - delicious.

Surgery Recovery - Day 6

Ali came over to keep me company today which was really great of her, she helped me get to and from the doctors and provided entertainment for me while working and attending conference calls.

The doctor's appointment went well. Traveling there was a bit of a challenge - I had to crutch up the street to grab a cab, crutching up an incline is harder than I thought. Then the first cab that was stopped at the corner had this skank driver who wouldn't take me - fortunately there was a cab right behind it whose driver wasn't a loser skank.

At the doctor's office I was immediately brought into a room. Since they didn't have any useful leg props in the waiting room this was really nice. I wasn't going to attempt to get on the high examining table so I sat down in the visitor chair and propped my leg on the rolly chair. I think the Dr. didn't appreciate this that much, although I did make sure my shoes were off the chair. I could tell by the disappearance of his eyebrows into his forehead that I wasn't supposed to be sitting there.

Once I successfully launched myself onto the inconveniently raised examining table his eyebrows returned to their normal position and we started. He cut the bandages off and explained what each incision on the knee represented. He also showed me the pictures that were taken during the operation - those were very cool. He checked how much I could straighten my leg and how much I could bend it (over the side of the table, supported by the other leg). He said both ranges of motion were good and that the swelling was likely caused by the fluid injected during the arthroscopic process and nothing to be worried about. I asked about the wobbly, floating feeling and again he said that I shouldn't be worried about the knee cap moving, that this feeling would diminish as the swelling decreased. Unfortunately, the swelling is going to take some time to go away, it will likely be into next week or longer before its gone. I am also going to start physical therapy 3 times a week, beginning next week. I don't have to wear the bandages any more, which results in some very interesting and horrified looks from people who glance at the knee (you can see all the incisions).

The knee seems to be doing well - I can tell that it is improving, slowly. The sharp pains continue to decrease (as long as I don't twitch), the swelling doesn't seem to be increasing and I can get up and down faster. This is particularly helpful because I have to chase the hellion cats away from the flowers. The only new oddness is pain in my lower quad and shin, I think this is probably because the fluid in my knee is being spread to these areas. Still, I'm not complaining, I'm doing much better than I was 4 days ago!

Tomorrow is my first day by myself. Currently I am most concerned with how I am going to get coffee. I wonder if Starbucks delivers....

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....

Surgery Recovery - Day 4

My friends and family have been amazing through this experience - my email, text messages and voicemail are full of well wishes, my apartment is full of flowers, I have a ton of really yummy 70's candy (Ari really likes the Pop Rocks, though he wouldn't drink Coke with them), my brother somehow procured 3 of the best Nintendo games ever and a game player that will play them to keep me entertained, plus my sister found a copy of a classic Babes in Toyland movie I haven't seen since I was a kid! I already tested out the Nintendo, pathetically I get so into it that small jerks and twitches are a regular occurrence - I will need to wait until my knee isn't so susceptible to these, uh, minor movements for a real Mario Brothers marathon. Babes in Toyland here I come.

One of the super fun things that started last night was that in addition to the stabbing pains (somewhat diminished, but there none the less) and the general aching the stupid friggin thing started itching. Of course, you absolutely can't itch it, which makes it even more annoying. I suppose I should be pleased by this, it does indicate that my twitching spaz moves haven't significantly impacted the healing process - which is indeed a good thing.

When I woke up today the stabbing pain seemed to have diminished even more, now my leg just looks and feels like a stuffed sausage. I'm a bit worried about the swelling so instead of leaving the Game Ready brace off when its not running I am leaving it on all day and using both the ice and the compression.

I also realized I haven't once tried to do the one exercise my doctor asked me to do. Whoopsy. I will start doing that today if I can - basically all I need to do is attempt to straighten the sausage, er, leg. He seemed to think that would be enough to be starting with. I was highly skeptical at the time - thinking that he was underestimating my recovery prowess, alas......does it count as straight if I can't see the space when I lean back and look at the ceiling?

Ari worked from home again today so he could help me - poor guy, fortunately I don't think I'll start to smell again until tomorrow. He is helping me practice getting up and sitting down using various random props other than his shoulder so I can get to the bathroom when he goes in to work.

The other problem I've been encountering is the weight of the brace on the top of my knee. It drops onto the bandages when I stand up resulting in at least half the pain that makes me want to learn how to use a bed ban. Since the last thing I want to do is klutz my way back into the emergency room I am following my doctor's instructions and keeping the brace on whenever I move around. Unfortunately, the pain resulting from this (its not a stabbing pain in a particular area, but it certainly is not dull and seems to permeate through my entire knee by the time I get back to the couch) turns me into a moaning vegetable on ice for at least 15 minutes. I am going to start experimenting with the tightness of the brace - maybe I can cinch the thing into my thigh tight enough so it doesn't slide down. I've also been considering hacking together some sort of suspender system that would attach to the straps on the brace. I'm pretty sure the doctor wouldn't appreciate this modification though, so hopefully the cinching approach will work.