Surgery Recovery - Day 16

It's Saturday and Ari and I are going to visit with our friends Per and Lydia in Connecticut. It's Lydia's birthday so we're all going out to dinner to celebrate. Per had to make reservations for 5 people so my leg could have its own chair since I can't bend it at all.

Riding in the car was really hard - I tried to "sit" up front. I had to adjust the bottom front of the seat as far towards the floor as possible and then prop my leg up on my bags so I was basically lying in the front. It was not comfortable. I could have sat in the back, I just got it in my idiot head that I didn't want to. Curse the stubborn genes.

We met up with them at a bar to watch the end of the Rugby game - England and France. It is by no means easy to crutch around drinking people, but everyone was really helpful. I only nearly bit it once - and it was totally my own fault, I just misplaced the crutch and started tipping. Per tried to grab me but I was just out of his reach. One of the waiter stations happened to be close by so I tipped onto that and it stopped me from completely falling over. For some reason I couldn't seem to be bothered to do much to avoid the fall, I certainly didn't move my arms in an effort to stop myself. I must have looked like some stiff tree going timber in the woods - or like a drunk person, that might be more accurate actually (of course, I was stone sober, which kind of makes it more embarrassing).

We made it in time to see the last 10 minutes or so of the Rugby match. I really don't understand the rules so much, but it looked exceptionally hard and painful. I can't believe they don't wear pads or helmets! Ari played rugby, I am going to start investigating the rules so I don't sound like a loser idiot when we watch matches next time.

Getting out of the house and spending time with Lydia and Per was really great. I just wish the leg was bendable - I was in a lot of pain when I got home. Ari set up the Game Ready so I relaxed and iced it. I'm sure it will be pretty stiff tomorrow when I try and do the PT exercises.

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

Surgery Recovery - Day 14

This week it seems like I've gone a bit backwards - the leg and knee continue to hurt the same, if not a bit more, each day and last night was worse than the past couple. The sharp pains in the area of the reconstructed ligament were back though it wasn''t quite as bad as it was in the first week. I'm sure the PT exercises I have to do are causing it. Stupid exercises.

Thankfully the nasty disgusting red spots seem to be going away, although it appears they are turning into bruises. And another bandage "came off", yes I was picking at it a bit, but the corner had definitely started coming off. Only 1 more scope bandage and then 7 bandages on the big scar to go. The stitches are absorb-able so I don't have to go back to the doctors to get them removed. The area around and underneath the incisions is really hard - according to my friend who also had knee surgery the PT person makes that go away. My friend described it as a process that feels nasty and disgusting, the PT person called it a massage. I've stopped wearing the brace as much as possible - I am only wearing it to crutch around in. Hopefully this will increase my leg strength as well as keep the nasty red spots away.

There is seriously nothing good on TV from 3 - 4. Even the food network has crappy shows on at this time.

Ari is headed out for his friend's birthday followed by a boys night out. I am going to be soooo bored. I think I might have to have a movie marathon, maybe I'll start off with Goonies.

Surgery Recovery - Day 13

I'm still not sleeping well, I just can't get the leg comfortable. Last night was particularly bad so this morning I napped for a few hours.

One of my bandages also came off today - it's one of the scope entry points and it looks like it will heal without a very noticeable scar.

I also made the fantastic discovery of red bump things, similar to mosquito bites but ranging in size from 1 - 3 centimeters, on the back of my thigh and calf today. Super excited about that disgusting find. They feel like bruises when I press on them. I kept the brace and the ace bandage off for a while and they seemed to diminish, thank god.

Today was the first day I had PT exercises to do, stretching is easy, the quad muscle and bending exercises on the other hand are quite challenging. I still couldn't bend my knee very much, I can tell I'm over-compensating with my hip but am at a loss as to how to stop that. I also couldn't see or feel my quad muscle contracting at all. Its quite frustrating and makes the knee really sore.

I took another nap this afternoon, I've been really tired and feel like I'm constantly on the verge of getting a cold. I suppose that's just because of the pain, although I have been slacking off on taking my vitamins. I'm going to have to make sure I take those, I absolutely don't want to deal with being sick in addition to gimpy.

Surgery Recovery - Day 12

My leg was aching again last night. The same shin and thigh discomfort that keeps me up every night. On the plus side I managed to find a position that didn't hurt my back so much: Setting the pillow up so it's perpendicular to me and putting both legs on it really helped. Unfortunately I still only slept for a few hours because of the pain.

I had my first PT appointment today. Nicole, the PT person, did an evaluation and then messed around a bit with the knee. She bent it as far as it would go (35 degrees) which felt absolutely disgusting, then she stretched both my legs.

Finally she had me stretch my legs out on the bench while I was sitting up and told me to try and lift up my leg. I couldn't pick my leg up off the bench even a centimeter! I wasn't able to make the muscles contract one bit(or there weren't any muscles). Nicole said this was relatively normal and that it will improve as we continue to work on it. She also gave me exercises to do - a number of stretches, heel slides to improve the bending range of my knee and quad presses (basically concentrating on pressing down into the floor with the muscles I don't seem to have or at minimally don't have the ability to contract).

After all the exercises were done she put these electro-pad thingies on my knee for electrical stimulation - it felt like very small little jets of water where the pads of the device went and over this she put an ice pack. The electric stimulation lasted for 10 minutes and then I was done for the day.

My knee is really really sore and swollen from PT. I scheduled two more appointments this week because I was supposed to do three according to my doctor, but that means I'm going two days in a row. I don't know if I can do that. I guess I will wait and see how bad the knee is tomorrow before I cancel Thursday's appointment.

Surgery Recovery - Day 11

I slept poorly again last night - pain in the knee and general leg discomfort again. My back is also starting to hurt more and more each night. I tried a new pillow configuration, one hard one and one softer one on top of each other - it didn't seem to help either the leg or the back.

Not surprisingly once I had completed my morning ritual of brushing my teeth, washing my face, fetching my water and situating myself correctly on the couch I passed out for ~4 hours.

There was a Scooby Doo marathon on today, so that is mainly what I watched for the rest of the day. I did venture out to get some cash, lunch and coffee and managed to return without any significant run-ins or toe-stubbing. Its still really hard to go a block, even now that I can put partial weight on my leg. I clearly should have done more arm exercises before surgery so I could at least crutch around.

When I got back from my "walk" to the bank I decided to try and lift my leg. I am mostly able to straighten it, so I thought this would be a good progression. Well, I can't seem to remember how to do that. I tried to lift the leg even an inch and it doesn't budge. I then tried to just clench my quads - again, nothing. My lower leg seems to be operating normally (calf and foot seem to work), but when I try and clench my upper thigh...nothing. I really hope this is normal. Fortunately I have a PT appointment tomorrow, I'll ask them if that's to be expected, lets hope it is. I don't really want to be a permanent gimp.

Tonight will be more Yankees and the Bills - first Monday night game in over a decade! Pathetic I know, hopefully they won't embarrass themselves.

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.