- keep your extension perfect (sensing a trend here?)
- it is okay to shower today, but keep the dressings dry and be careful not to fall getting in the shower
- keep your pain under control by continuing to use your pain medication
Day two I spent working from bed. I got up just after eight
and my friend Kristi came over to "baby-sit" me (basically feed me since I'm not supposed to go to the kitchen). It was a little hard to get into a work groove having to stop every hour to do PT. Again, I didn't really have a lot of pain, but I did notice this day that the medial side of my knee was very, very swollen and extremely bruised. I did some googling and all that seems to be normal for ACL surgery, so I wasn't too worried, but have been keeping an eye on it.
This evening I did end up taking a shower. I had my husband wrap me with plastic wrap and medical tape. I tried to sit on my stool to do it, but it was way harder to keep my leg out of the water that way, so I ended up just standing on my good leg and trying to prop the injured leg out of the spray. It was really nice to get to wash my hair, though, and get cleaned up. Bed rest can make you feel kinda grubby, since you have to sit in the same place for the most part for days on end. I'd say it's worth the trouble to keep the dressings dry to get up and bathe.
If anyone else decides to use the plastic wrap/tape method, waterproof tape would be a good idea. The tape soaked through really quickly and started to peel off, so it wouldn't have held up well at all if I'd had my leg more in the path of the water.
Another tip: for sleeping in the CPM, getting several loose blankets thrown over you is going to work a lot better than trying to use the blankets/sheets tucked into your bed. I also have someone else tuck me in so I can cover up my feet, since it's hard to do it myself from the position I'm in flat on my back with my leg up in the CPM.
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