Knee Surgery Journal - Eight Days Post Surgery

I have an initial physical therapy evaluation under my belt and one full PT session. Amongst other things I utilized during the full PT session was this machine that locked your leg in place and you then used a hand crank to move your leg straight and then the opposite way to get it bent. 

Straight was a piece of cake.  Getting it to 0 degrees was no problem and the 30 seconds I kept it there before moving to bent was actually a pleasurable feeling.

Bending the knee was a different story. I was happy to get a good 3-4 degrees past 90 degrees but it definitely took a little work. By the fifth time of both of these exercises I was ready for a break.

I am still using my walker to get around and haven't felt the need to push it walking-wise. There is virtually no pain from doing so but definitely the entire area is a little weak and wonky.  What I can tell already is that the pain I had in my knee from simply walking no longer seems to be present. In other words, half of this surgery's purpose, for me, was to alleviate the pain. The other half was to allow me to get back to running again. It is obviously early days in that portion of the plan but the relief from the pain that, at the end of the last few months had me limping with every step is enormous.

Haven't weighed myself this week as I know I am losing weight and want to wait maybe another week to see a bigger drop.

Meanwhile, I finally took the bandage off my knee after a week and yes I will have a doozy of a scar but I have a body full of scars so it doesn't bother me too much.  If it heals anything like the hand surgery scar I had I will be quite happy. Then again, if it functions properly it can be as ugly as it wants.  I think my days of runway model are behind me anyway. 

A little picture for posterity.  I like how Texas Ranger (my walker) made an appearance in the background there.  That little scamp.

Virtually no bruising that I can see and the swelling has done nothing but go down since the surgery.  Both  are those are a surprise.  The lines on my leg you see were put their by the surgery team and I have not felt it necessary to pub hard enough when I shower to clean them off. I do not wish to pull the flesh and damage the stitches or sutures.

Right now I have very high hopes and am feeling optimistic if already a bit impatient. How I went two months on crutches and then months barely walking is beyond me.

Knee Surgery Journal - Four Days Post Surgery

Surgery to get my partial knee replacement was on Thursday February 6th.  I was talking to everyone as they placed me on the operating table and then BLAM, I was out. Tow hours later I started to come to in the recovery area. It then took me a good hour before I was remotely cognizant and was taken to my own room. For the remainder of that day I felt fairly good. Virtually no pain in my knee. That seemed a bit odd until I was reminded I had an injection in my spine as well as a pain blocker on my legs. Not being able to feel anything below the waist means you also don't feel pain.

I had to spend the night in the hospital and slept decently considering I was awoken every 90 minutes to take some type of drug or have some sort of vitals recorded. Standard procedure and no complaints but come morning I was a bit groggy. My surgeon came in and told me that everything went well and I was unremarkable. I wanted to argue with him as I felt insulted and then I recalled you want "unremarkable". 

I left the hospital on Friday around lunch and now that I had feeling in my legs again the pain was rearing its ugly head. The first night at home was not brutal but far from fun as I could not possibly find a single position to fall asleep in that did not cause me pain. Pain medication helped for sure.

My second day home slid by in a haze. My third day post surgery was finally the first day that I was able to relieve myself. (Not trying to be gross; just documenting it for others who might experience the same thing.) It's funny how being unable to bend your leg makes it difficult to do some of the simplest things that our body wants to do. Super Bowl Sunday was my third day post surgery and I could put full weight on my knee while standing, even if I did not feel quite ready to walk on it yet. 

Monday I slept in until an unbelievably late hour simply because my medicines knocked me TF out. I was been able to walk around with the walker with no problem whatsoever and was getting excited about physical therapy that evening. At PT, I was able to get my leg to 90 degrees flexion with some discomfort. I was told that getting here in two weeks was the goal so I was at least ahead of that. I was also advised that while walking could be done without the walker, that walking was not part of my PT for now.

All told, while this is a rather dull and dry recap of the past few days (I blame the drugs because boy howdy they are strong) I am happy that nothing remarkable has happened. Full physical therapy begins Wednesday. Keeping all my hopes in check but excited for the possibilities.