Post Surgery: Day 3

The PT sheet says:

• keep your extension perfect
• your flexion should be improving to 90 degrees
• keep your pain under control by continuing to use your pain medication

Over night this day I scared the hell out of myself. I woke up at 12:30AM out of a dream I was having where I'd stubbed my toe because my big toe on my left foot was actually hurting intensely. When I went on Coumadin in July I'd watched videos about things to watch for when on blood thinners, and one of the scary things was your toes turning purple. So I immediately pulled off my sock and checked my toe and everything looked fine. I also pulled off my stocking and checked the swelling and stuff in my knee, and made sure I didn't have any swelling in my calf.

Everything looked fine, so I convinced myself I was okay and went back to sleep. In the morning, my toe still hurt, so I pulled the stocking off my foot again, and less than half an hour later my foot felt fine. It turns out I just had pulled my stocking up too high, and then the Cryocuff pulled on it enough that it was putting pressure on my toes.

This was also the day I had my first bowel movement since my surgery. Which is a lovely topic, I know, but being on narcotics like this can wreck havoc on the digestive system. The day before, my friend Kristi brought me a bunch of fiber rich things to eat, and I'd started eating a lot of fruit and vegetables. All of that worked well for me, and I haven't had to employ any medication or anything.

All the swelling in my knee caused my flexion to be difficult, but I did manage to get to 90 degrees when sitting in a chair without pain. I do this thing in PT called a heel slide where I drag my heel toward my butt while sitting on my bed and getting as much bend as I can in my knee. That was a lot more difficult, but I could get to 90 degrees that way as well.