Finally Out and About

So this past Monday morning I finally was able to get out of bed and haul my friend the CPM back to the Orthopaedic Center of the Rockies (with help from my wonderful husband). And I was glad to be rid of it; I don't normally sleep on my back, so six nights in a row of being forced to sleep on my back with my leg elevated was really starting to take it's toll on my lower back and neck.

When I got over to OCR, Erica (my lovely physical therapist) put me on the stationary bike immediately.  Let's just say it was fairly unpleasant, because I hadn't been bending my knee that much in the PT I was doing before.  It did loosen up pretty quickly, however, and though it still hurt, it felt mostly manageable.

After that we went through the rest of my exercises, which are identical to the set I did after my meniscus surgery in June.  Those are:

• Heel Raises (30 reps, 3-4 times daily)
• Squats (30 reps, 3-4 times daily)
• Straight Leg Raises (Injured Leg, 30 reps w/5 seconds hold, 3-4 times daily)
• Straight Leg Extension (Just like I was doing right after surgery, 10 minutes w/5lbs weights, 3-4 times daily)
• One Leg Balance (Injured Let, 30 seconds at a time, 4 reps, 3-4 times daily)
• Stationary Bike (No Resistance, 10-15 minutes, 2-3 times daily)

These are all feeling really good so far; even better than they did this summer, somehow.

 After doing all my exercises, she checked my extension (pretty close to normal with a little guarding) and flexion (102º), then one of the nurses came over and pulled off all my dressings.

So my sutures are actually underneath the surface of my skin, which is really cool.  In the picture over there you can see the two ends where the blue string is sticking out.  The red line between them is the incision where they inserted the new tendon (and drilled the hole through my tibia and femur).  The nurse actually trimmed the top string off, and taped the bottom one down with a steristrip.  When they remove the sutures (next Monday), they just grab that one end and pull them all out.  The nicest part about that is that you don't get the railroad track scarring you can get with external sutures.

You can see the two arthroscopic incisions on my knee cap in this photo as well. 

The best part about getting the dressings off is now I can shower without wrapping myself in clingfilm! And I think they'll just let the steristrips they put over the incisions come off as they like, so as soon as they're gone, I'm all done with that stuff.  I think they'll still make me wait five weeks before I swim (boooo), but at least by then my small incisions should be mostly healed, as well as the two puncture wounds I have higher on my leg (I know one was for the saline they put in, and I think the other one is where they pulled the top of the tendon through and secured it with the titanium pin).

Monday I felt pretty terrific, but then I also forgot my work laptop at home, so as soon as I finished my meeting, I went home and worked from my couch with my cryocuff on for the afternoon.  Tuesday was a completely different story; sleeping on my side was great for my spine, but not so much for my knee.  Every time I moved I would overlap my legs and irritate that giant bruise on the inside of my knee.  I woke up feeling exhausted and sore, then managed to get the mother of all headaches in the afternoon.

Finally, by about 7:00PM I'd had enough and took a Vicodin.  Best decision EVER. I slept great Tuesday night and felt wonderful on Wednesday.  I got a headache again last night (the weather is very cold and nasty here in Colorado, so I think that's what's doing it), so I took a Vicodin again with similar results.  Same thing is happening TODAY (headache, ugh), so again with the Vicodin.  Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day!

Okay, signing off for now.  :)