3 weeks Post Op

Another week into recovery, which felt like a really long week. I started having some increased swelling and a tingly burning pain along with some redness. After talking to the Dr.'s offices (both Dr. Mayo & Dr. Prevost) I went into the walk-in clinic. I saw my Dr's PA and he said that everything looked good but decided to do some bloodwork anyway. He also started me on some antibiotics just in case... just in case. Allthat earned me an early follow-up visit and a chance to see my x-rays.

My bloodwork looked good. The incision looks good and I got to see my x-rays! There are 7 screws in there! Wow! Crazy!!!!

We talked about pain. I was concerned with the amount of pain I still had - the burning throbbing pain, the muscle cramps and how awful I feel in the morning. Unfortunately, he said that none of it was out of the ordinary but that most people don't have ALL these symptoms afterward but they are all fairly common. But he said I was "perfectly textbook" in regards to post-op and results. According to his measurements I went from center edge angles of 15/16 - 30 on the front and from 19/20 - 35 on the side. He seemed pretty happy with it. He explained all the screws too - which I never knew the specifics.

The longer screws hold specifically bone and the smaller ones are where they cut around a muscle (don't remember the names) and move the small bone piece and the muscle to the correct location! crazy! He gave me a muscle relaxer which makes very little difference. I have my 8 week post-op appt on 7/31/12. He also told me to not worry or feel bad about pain medication. He re-assured me and my husband that this was a pretty big surgery and I would likely be taking pain medication 6 weeks post-op and they wouldn't worry about weaning me off until then and they would still do it slowly. So I felt a little better about that. He told me to try getting through a couple more days and if it still wasn't getting better to call back. so we'll see.

I am still using my CPM machine and ice. My husband has had two knees surgeries and each one left us with a cryocuff machine with a knee attachment. Since my insurance doesn't cover cryo therapy and it runs about $300 for 2 weeks... I couldn't do it. So we rigged up the knee wrap so it covers as much of my thigh as possible. "The red-neck solution!" I am supposed to return the CPM on July 10th but am worried that I will still need it. I am supposed to make it to 90 degrees of flexion and be able to stay out of the machine for 24 hours without getting stiff. I think Dr. Mayo said it could take up to 6 weeks. I am stuck at 80-85 degrees. It feels so close but I can not up the degrees yet and struggle with extended time at 85 degrees. But otherwise I am in the ice and CPM a majority of the day and all of the night.

I haven't made a whole lot of progress. I did the dishes yesterday but then realized that proving I could do only meant the my husband would happily pass that on to me. I backed off on some of my laps but am still walking around the house a bit every hour or so and trying to stay up for longer when I am up.

#backfire!

I am able to shower by myself (not shaving) and given enough time and the help of my grabber - I can get my pants on by myself! I managed two outing this week - well one really. The first was the Dr.'s office. That was a 3 hour appt (unexpectedly). The other outing was to to my girlfriend's house - she is having a scope done tomorrow and had her GameReady wrap (which is way better than my makeshift rigged up knee cryo cuff wrap from my husband's knee surgery) and CPM machine delivered already so I got to try her stuff out!!! ha ha so that doesn't really count as an outing since I was doing the exact same thing I would be at home but it was nice to be out of my house! This week I will tackler a store shopping trip! My goal!

Pain is still about 4-8 depending on how soon it was to a dose of painkillers or the morning. Mornings are still super hard even though I have started sleeping in the hospital bed. It's lonely but hurts a little less than waking up in my bed but I still have to have the Mr. help me out to get up and go to the bathroom.

3 Weeks Post Op - still has some glue on it.