Could be worse

Day 2 post op

After the discomfort I felt yesterday evening, I got more regulated on the percocets (2 pills every four hours on the dot) and have been feeling pretty good today for the most part.

I woke up at around 9:15 having slept like a baby all night except for when I woke to my alarm for more pills. From there I hobbled downstairs and lay on the couch for the morning, talking to my mom and Steve who were still around here for me. They're lovely.

The knee itself wasn't feeling too badly. I think my muscles in my hamstring, quads, and calfs are pretty much useless at this point so my whole leg feels extremely heavy and hard to shlep around. Stairs, walking with crutches, and especially moving on or off my bed or the couch can be quite a challenge without working muscles. Still, that scooping technique, along with taking it slow or having help is working enough.

In addition to that, some parts of my body are feeling weird from the strange angles and muscles I have to use to do ordinary things like get on and off the toilet, sit up, or whatever. My right hip/side abdomen is feeling sore, along with my neck and shoulders.

At around 12 we called Dr. Mark's office to make my 6 week post-surgery appointment and to ask whether I could take off the bulky bandage around my knee. I felt it was compromising the affect of the ice as well as keeping my leg feeling numb, being such a tight bandage. She said I could go ahead and remove it so I did, revealin a swollen, bloodied knee with a bunch of steristrips hiding the actual incision. During the course of the day I could see the swelling increase as well as the bruising around the back of my leg spread. Mmmm mmmm.

I had two visitors today, Jordana and Clara, which was lovely, mom made a veggie chili while I sat at the table keeping her company, Mom, Steve and I played Scrabble outside on the deck, AND we all went out for Swiss Chalet tonight just to get out of the house. It was nice to be out but not really very comfortable or easy. I think it was a bit premature.

In the afternoon, Steve and my mom got on my case about doing some physio exercises. I tried a few (not all.. I got dizzy and had to lay down) from the handout I got at my pre-op. One I did had me seated on the kitchen table and trying to bend my operative knee, using my healthy knee kind of as a weight. This is very difficult because I've been keeping the knee straight in its brace all this time and because gravity is not really my friend. Instead I used my healthy leg as a lowering device, and slowly allowed gravity to bring the leg down to a bend. It wasn't exactly painful per se, but it felt very strange and uncomfortable, like I was forcing my knee to do something it didn't want to do. Despite that feeling, the bend continued to increase until I actually was able to switch my healthy leg to cross of the front of my operative ankle and use it as a bit of a weight to increase the bend.

The other thing I worked on a bit today were 1/4 to 1/3 squats against the wall. I found these to get easier as I went, but had to cut the physio session short due to dizziness and excessive thirst. I probably could have gone harder and should try my best to work to maximum capacity in the future if I want to make this surgery really worthwhile. I'm scared that my physiotherapist will have less patience with me and my reluctance to push too hard. We'll see on Monday.

So, overall my pain management was very good today. No tears, no major issues. Just a bit of serious sleepiness and sensitivity from the drugs. I feel like my hearing is more sensitive at times, and that I'm a bit dizzy, but that's really the extent of the side-effects.

C'est tout pour maintenant. I'm going to sleep early tonight!