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.

Surprise, Surprise

During the warmups of the finals in the Monroe County Clay Court Championships, I discovered I had more than my regular knee pain. I played anyway since it was the finals, but come Monday, I called the doctor.

I saw the doc and he thought it was a torn meniscus so he ordered the MRI.

Got my MRI done. NOTE: always get your MRI done at a diagnostic center, NOT anything on a hospital campus. My doc sent me to the latter and the price difference was unbelievable for the same service. I walked out an went to the diagnostic center and saved a lot of money.

Came back to the doctor. He looks at it and goes, "you definitely have a torn meniscus, but that is the minor problem.". MINOR PROBLEM!?!

I was thinking scope the knee, fix the tear then be back on court in 4 weeks. These are the surprises I don't like.