Mother's Day

Last night slept 2/3 on back w leg propped up on CPM w a pillow and other third on side w pillow between knees.

It's Mother's Day so I get to get up and cook breakfast. Thank goodness I had a helpful 7 year old sioux chef! I cooked omelets, scrambled eggs, bacon and more. It was fine but I plopped right back next to my wife in bed as she was finishing up her meal and fired up the CPM Machine!

Another shower, good on ankle pumps, ok on quad sets, only set of leg raises. Lower back and hands still sore. But overall ok.

Went out to dinner. Sat at head of table and propped leg up with my crutch trick and was ok during dinner.

No Advil, going to sleep w just a pillow propping up my knee. Wish me luck!

Day three post-op

Finally got to sleep on my side last night! Put a pillow in between the knees and it felt fine. Slept like a baby.

Day was fine. A little less sore than yesterday but still have normal back and underarm pains. Did exercises. Still not icing.

Had to be out in public for a couple of hours. Went ok but was happy to get horizontal again and on my CPM machine when I got home

Need to do tip on backpack and staying home first few days.

Took an Advil and off to bed...

Is the first four weeks over yet?

Day two of my recovery. Day 42...I wish! No real pain in my knee, but sore in lower back mostly from being in same general position all day and night and from doing all the PT exercises.

Had uncomfortable lower bowel pain last night and this morning. First I thought it might be abs with all the exercise but it was something deeper.  Tip:  If you haven't gone #2 after 24 hours of getting out the hospital, take an Ex-Lax and get things moving.  I learned later that the anesthesia they give you binds you up.  I got through without Ex-Lax, but I would recommend the easier course of action in my Tip.

<---Uncovered wound and took my first shower! Covered sutures up w waterproof bandages before going in. Tip: get a chair for the shower. It makes it easier to survive your 1st shower without use of one leg.

Did all prescribed time on CPM, ankle pumps, quad sets, and leg raises. No ice.  Took aspirin as directed and taking an Advil tonight to help with the soreness. Hurting a little under arms from all the crutch work but generally ok all things considered.

But would love to be weight bearing on this leg...has it been 4 weeks yet!?!

Much Ado About Nothing!?!

Day one of recovery.  Frankly I expected pain and soreness.  Scarily, not much of either was to be had.  I spent 1.5 hours of every 2 hours doing physical training prescription...1 hr on CPM, 30 ankle pumps, 30 Quad sets, 10 leg lifts and 20 minutes of ice.  Watched a couple of free tv episodes on my Kindle Fire in bed.  I napped in the middle of the day too.

Tip:  I made an Excel log sheet of all the stuff I am supposed to do.  Have one for every day.  With all the stuff going on, it is easier to keep track of everything.  I will post it on a static page in the near future.  

I ended up not doing the ice anymore.  The bandage was so think I didn't feel the coldness coming through in 20-30 minutes of application.  Plus, the weight of the ice hurt my knee more than the supposed beneficial effect of the ice.  I am compressing the wound (bandage) and elevating it as much as possible to keep down the swelling so sayonara to the ice bag for now.

You are not supposed to even to touch down on your operated leg for the first two weeks.  This is difficult.  I found a quick way to be vertical and take pressure off your leg.  Tip:  Use the crutch to create a lean-to from the ground  the top of the other leg's thigh.  Then rest your operated leg's calf on the crutch.  This eased the pressure on everything and felt much better.  I will post a picture of that soon.

No need for pain or sleep pills.  Keeping busy and doing ok overall.  Doubt it will stay like this but enjoying it while I can.

First night post-op

Wow, I dreaded the worst and actually got a good night's sleep!

I expected drugs from operation to wear off and the pain to set in. Never happened. Doc prescribed Percoset an Ambien. Haven't taken either one.

Tip:  Slept w leg propped on CPM machine set at 20 with a pillow set on top with my calf resting on the pillow.

Woke up at 1:30 to pee and did some ankle pumps to get circulation going. Woke up at 4:30 but went back to sleep after readjusting. Then woke up to alarm at 6:45.

Surgery day

Quick and dirty...or rather cold and sterile, the deed was done. Got up, scrubbed in my pre-operative scrub, got dressed and got to the hospital at 6:30. Gave my medical history to about 5 different people and prepped for operation.

Check out the swag! Lol 

In by 6:30 am, out by 12:30. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Felt fine all things considered. Wife drove home the two hour drive while I slept or ate...mostly slept.

My youngest decorated my room. A nice touch! 

Soon as I got in, I hopped on the CPM (Constant Passive Motion) machine and my road to recovery began...

MRI Worth a Thousand Words

Here are a few frame grabs of my MRI.  In my next post I will share two docs' opinions of what they saw and what we should do...

Knee from back

Knee from back mid bone

Knee from side midbone

Knee from top