I have not updated for awhile now. I tend to forget when I feel like nothing new has happened. But a lot of new things have happened. Lets go back to September. In September I was in my best friends wedding. She bought me and the other bridesmaids tom wedges to wear for the wedding. Unfortunately I was having a very hard time walking in them, and to add to the difficulty the wedding was outside on a farm. I tried very hard but I could not wear them. My legs were so shaky in them. I had just not built up enough muscle to wear these shoes, especially outside on the grass. Luck for me my friend was not a bridezilla and she did not care at all that i could not wear them. Thank goodness!
By the end of September the weather changed fast in Oregon. It went from 90 degrees to cold and rainy, My knees began to KILL me! so much pain and very swollen. I almost had to call into work (If you forgot I work at the hospital, walking around for twelve hours), however I pushed through. I was icing my knee almost every day. And was continuing to use my muscle stimulator along with the icing. I was very discouraged by this set back! I would take one step forward in recovery and three steps back. I met with my physical therapist and she guessed my current problem was due to the fast change in weather. A lot of the people she worked with was complaining about being in pain too. That made a lot of sense to me. I didn't even think about that.
It took awhile, probably close to a month or slightly over, for my knee to get use to it. As frustrating as that has been I can say it is finally doing better. I do not see PT anymore (stopped after sept) and I have given up my muscle stimulator. I used it for about 2.5 months.
The one thing that has really helped me over anything else was stretching. Stretch stretch stretch! I honestly never though about stretching, they didn't "seem" tight. And if it was painful I thought I could fix it with medicine. But my doctor and my PT said stretching will fix almost all that pain. And they were right! Anytime I have pain (I'm suppose to stretch 2 - 3 times a day, but of course I get busy with life and do forget) I just stretch and most if not all pain is gone.
My doctor works for the UofO football team. He said he has football players complain that their knees hurt, even though they have never had a knee injury. He simply tells them to stretch and if they keep up on it they have no more pain. Apparently the tight muscles pull on the knee cap, this does not allow the knee cap to glide smoothly like it should.
I almost can completely kneel on the floor without the pain too. My doctor said that I may never be able to kneel again, but the high sensitivity is slowly going away. May never, but at least I can usually tolerate it.
I think that is all for updates now. Please ask me questions, if you have them. I try very hard to always respond back! Besides not being able to wear heels yet (I still feel like a new born baby giraffe) I am slowly starting to feel like I have normal knees again. Pain here and there, shakiness here and there. But otherwise pretty dang good.
2/2/2015: I recently have taken up yoga. I have never been a yoga girl. I was a sweat it out and go until you drop on the ground kind of workout girl. But yoga has been AMAZING for my knees. As i said previously stretching helps so much! The yoga is amazing for this. ALSO yoga helps me focus on once leg at a time. A lot of times when i work out and become tired my right knee (the stronger of the two since it had the first surgery) takes over. I tried to focus on not letting the right leg take over but ultimately it always would; even if i did not feel like it was.
I started using the stair machine at the gym to help with this. The bike was nice when i first started working out again because I didn't have my body weight on my legs; but again my right knee would take over once the left was too fatigued.
The stair machine was great; but started feeling too easy. However, lunges still hurt so those are out; and every other exercise i could think of usually worked both legs at the same time. Thats when i finally gave in to trying yoga. OH MY GOSH am I sore! Right now Yoga has been my workout of choice. I highly suggest Yoga to help keep up with the stretching and to target the muscles that are still weak from surgery.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Post # 21 six week check up and more PT
I am currently writing this blog at 3:15 am. I am very tired but I have had several people ask for an update and I've just been too busy to actually sit down and do so. I finally had a moment tonight to blog. However, because it is so late and I am so tired I do not feel like proof reading this. I apologize if it is horrible written. Not only am I tired but i am a HORRIBLE writer. Mix the two together and you get this post. SORRY, you have been warned! :-)
WOW someone forgot about their blog! I applaud people who have blogs and post stuff every week! Ok ok where to even start, I'm that far behind!
Well I saw my doctor for my six week check up (obviously at this point). He gave me the go to come off crutches and walk on the leg as much as I want. However, no running/jumping until I see him again. Which is some time in september. I wish I was better at keeping up with this blog cuz I can't remember exactly how long it took me to completely ditch the crutches; but I know it was sooner than my first surgery. I want to say my last surgery it took me about two weeks to ditch the crutches and use just a cane/no cane depending on my day. This time I'd say it took about a week to a week and a half for me to completely ditch the crutches. So not MUCH faster. I feel like I used my cane a little bit more this time verses my first surgery. But I also did not baby the leg as much as I previously had; I was really working out trying to get the quad firing again. I was also ditching the brace as much as I could. That really helped to build up muscle faster.
On June 12th I was forced to go back to work from my employer. I was hoping to have at least one more week to try and build up muscle, but when work says they wont hold your job position after the 12th, you go back on the 12th. Last year I did not go back to work till June 28th. So I was a good 2.5 weeks a head of last year. And to be honest I did just fine. Yeah it was sore and I ended up having to wear my brace ( I'm on my feet for twelve hours ). It did ok the first four hours of my shift but after that it just kept snapping back (knee being completely straight while stepping down on it) while I walked which caused it to be achy/sore/exhausted. My job was accommodating and let me come back to work for only two days a week for the first two weeks. If they did not let me do this I would of had to start my first week back at work doing four twelve hour days in a row. I could of MAYBE done three, but I would of for sure been calling in that fourth day. My knee was soooo tired by the end of the second day. I also iced it about five times throughout the night, both knees. One night I got lazy and only iced it once, or twice; and boy did I feel the difference that night.
My right knee has been very swollen every time I go to PT lately too. Also warm to the touch; but not as warm as the left knee. I was doing great, every day my knee was getting stronger; but last week I had a step back... or two. On my days off of work I do not wear my knee brace, unless if I know I will be on it all day long. This last week I noticed my knee snapping back and buckling more. It's way more achy and exhausted half way through the day than normal. I brought it up to PT and she thinks its because I am wearing the brace at work. The brace is preventing the knee from snapping back, but it also prevents the quad from having to work as hard, Because of this my quad muscle has basically "fallen asleep" again. And once it falls asleep its hard to wake it back up. So at PT that week she suggested I wear the brace on and off at work. Maybe two hours on, and two hours off. Also at PT we used the muscle stimulator. This machine uses electrical stimulation to make my muscle contact. Oh I also forgot to mentioned going up and down stairs hurts extremely bad. Its a very sharp pain in my knee. During PT while I was on this muscle stimulator machine she had me do exercises. One of the exercises was just stepping up on a block and stepping down. With the stimulator stimulating my muscles my pain was significantly lower. Still painful but tolerable.
My PT may order me this machine to use at home for a couple weeks. We are going to talk about it again at our next appointment. I also cut down my PT to once a week, now that I am back at work. I also do not use the pool anymore, just land. I stopped using the pool June 12th. At PT we are mainly working on mobilization/bending/ using the ultrasound machine (which helps with pain) and addressing any concerns I am having. My PT lady is great at stretching me and I always feel more mobile after my appointment.
My first surgery I had a lot of issues with bending, I am not having those issues as much anymore. My PT lady wants me to be slightly higher in bending degrees BUT every week I add a few more degrees so she's happy as long as i progress. I think the farthest I've bent so far is 132.
I joined a gym and found that using the bike has really helped keep that joint mobile/move the fluid out of it. I would highly suggest riding a stationary bike, if you have that available to you after surgery.
I think thats about it on updates. Not on anymore pain meds. and rarely have to take even ibuprofen . There has been a day or two were I took a small dose of percocet right before bed because it was so achy from work. But I think I have only done that twice, and I can usually tough out the pain until bed time.
WOW someone forgot about their blog! I applaud people who have blogs and post stuff every week! Ok ok where to even start, I'm that far behind!
Well I saw my doctor for my six week check up (obviously at this point). He gave me the go to come off crutches and walk on the leg as much as I want. However, no running/jumping until I see him again. Which is some time in september. I wish I was better at keeping up with this blog cuz I can't remember exactly how long it took me to completely ditch the crutches; but I know it was sooner than my first surgery. I want to say my last surgery it took me about two weeks to ditch the crutches and use just a cane/no cane depending on my day. This time I'd say it took about a week to a week and a half for me to completely ditch the crutches. So not MUCH faster. I feel like I used my cane a little bit more this time verses my first surgery. But I also did not baby the leg as much as I previously had; I was really working out trying to get the quad firing again. I was also ditching the brace as much as I could. That really helped to build up muscle faster.
On June 12th I was forced to go back to work from my employer. I was hoping to have at least one more week to try and build up muscle, but when work says they wont hold your job position after the 12th, you go back on the 12th. Last year I did not go back to work till June 28th. So I was a good 2.5 weeks a head of last year. And to be honest I did just fine. Yeah it was sore and I ended up having to wear my brace ( I'm on my feet for twelve hours ). It did ok the first four hours of my shift but after that it just kept snapping back (knee being completely straight while stepping down on it) while I walked which caused it to be achy/sore/exhausted. My job was accommodating and let me come back to work for only two days a week for the first two weeks. If they did not let me do this I would of had to start my first week back at work doing four twelve hour days in a row. I could of MAYBE done three, but I would of for sure been calling in that fourth day. My knee was soooo tired by the end of the second day. I also iced it about five times throughout the night, both knees. One night I got lazy and only iced it once, or twice; and boy did I feel the difference that night.
My right knee has been very swollen every time I go to PT lately too. Also warm to the touch; but not as warm as the left knee. I was doing great, every day my knee was getting stronger; but last week I had a step back... or two. On my days off of work I do not wear my knee brace, unless if I know I will be on it all day long. This last week I noticed my knee snapping back and buckling more. It's way more achy and exhausted half way through the day than normal. I brought it up to PT and she thinks its because I am wearing the brace at work. The brace is preventing the knee from snapping back, but it also prevents the quad from having to work as hard, Because of this my quad muscle has basically "fallen asleep" again. And once it falls asleep its hard to wake it back up. So at PT that week she suggested I wear the brace on and off at work. Maybe two hours on, and two hours off. Also at PT we used the muscle stimulator. This machine uses electrical stimulation to make my muscle contact. Oh I also forgot to mentioned going up and down stairs hurts extremely bad. Its a very sharp pain in my knee. During PT while I was on this muscle stimulator machine she had me do exercises. One of the exercises was just stepping up on a block and stepping down. With the stimulator stimulating my muscles my pain was significantly lower. Still painful but tolerable.
My PT may order me this machine to use at home for a couple weeks. We are going to talk about it again at our next appointment. I also cut down my PT to once a week, now that I am back at work. I also do not use the pool anymore, just land. I stopped using the pool June 12th. At PT we are mainly working on mobilization/bending/ using the ultrasound machine (which helps with pain) and addressing any concerns I am having. My PT lady is great at stretching me and I always feel more mobile after my appointment.
My first surgery I had a lot of issues with bending, I am not having those issues as much anymore. My PT lady wants me to be slightly higher in bending degrees BUT every week I add a few more degrees so she's happy as long as i progress. I think the farthest I've bent so far is 132.
I joined a gym and found that using the bike has really helped keep that joint mobile/move the fluid out of it. I would highly suggest riding a stationary bike, if you have that available to you after surgery.
I think thats about it on updates. Not on anymore pain meds. and rarely have to take even ibuprofen . There has been a day or two were I took a small dose of percocet right before bed because it was so achy from work. But I think I have only done that twice, and I can usually tough out the pain until bed time.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Post #20 I reached my bending degree goal
I've gotten behind on this blog...again. So let's back track a little bit.
April 9th: I reached 90 degrees on my last PT appointment, just before three weeks post surgery. Right now since I can't put any weight on my leg, we are mainly focusing on bending (with a few strength training activities thrown in). Because I've reached my approved degree range of 90 (I am not allowed by my doctor to go past 90 degrees until my next appointment as apparently any higher causes too much friction/force on the new knee), my physical therapist and I decided I no longer need to go to PT twice a week at this time.
April 22: Today marks five weeks post surgery. At five weeks I can add the stationary bike to my workout. Today at PT I did just that. Plus, I added the leg press. The bike felt amazing! My joint has been feeling so stiff lately it felt great to be able to move it around. It was a different feeling than just using my CPM machine. The leg press was painful but it also felt good to use my muscles again. I only lifted 32 pounds, which is why I can do the leg press and still be non-weight bearing. I asked my therapist why they were different and she told me that 120 pounds is too much right now, but thirty pounds on my joint was OK. Next week I have a regular PT appointment on Tuesday, and I also decided to add one more day on Thursday to accommodate my first pool PT appointment. I meet with my doctor that same morning for my 6 week check. I am hoping he will let me off these crutches!
April 9th: I reached 90 degrees on my last PT appointment, just before three weeks post surgery. Right now since I can't put any weight on my leg, we are mainly focusing on bending (with a few strength training activities thrown in). Because I've reached my approved degree range of 90 (I am not allowed by my doctor to go past 90 degrees until my next appointment as apparently any higher causes too much friction/force on the new knee), my physical therapist and I decided I no longer need to go to PT twice a week at this time.
April 22: Today marks five weeks post surgery. At five weeks I can add the stationary bike to my workout. Today at PT I did just that. Plus, I added the leg press. The bike felt amazing! My joint has been feeling so stiff lately it felt great to be able to move it around. It was a different feeling than just using my CPM machine. The leg press was painful but it also felt good to use my muscles again. I only lifted 32 pounds, which is why I can do the leg press and still be non-weight bearing. I asked my therapist why they were different and she told me that 120 pounds is too much right now, but thirty pounds on my joint was OK. Next week I have a regular PT appointment on Tuesday, and I also decided to add one more day on Thursday to accommodate my first pool PT appointment. I meet with my doctor that same morning for my 6 week check. I am hoping he will let me off these crutches!
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Post #19 Oops, I fell.... twice
Good news before bad news. As I currently write this blog, I am on my CPM machine. I have it set at 72 degrees. Last year I did not hit 72 degrees till 3 1/2 weeks after surgery. I am one week out of surgery. So far this surgery is almost completely different than my last surgery. I really am shocked by this.
Ok, now for the bad news... I fell. Twice. The first time it was pouring rain all day. I was walking into my house and my wet crutches completely slipped out from under me. I landed on my left leg twice putting a good amount of weight on it (I am still non-weight bearing). I had my brace locked and I think that is what saved me from doing too much damage to that knee. The second time I did it I was not so lucky. I unlock my brace in the car because the sitting angle is just too uncomfortable/painful for me, and I tend to forget to re-lock it when I get out of the car. Which is exactly what I did this time. I have a very steep driveway, so my friend parked at the bottom and I was going up the stairs to my house. I forgot to lock my brace, and on the first step of stairs I just lost my balance and fell over. My right knee (operated on last year) is having a lot of pain lately and is very shaky since I still do not have a lot of muscle built up. I started to fall and landed right on my left leg. Because the brace was not locked, my knee started to bend, so I threw myself down to try and save that leg.
It's painful, but I'm surprised it's not more painful than it is. And I'm doing OK with bending, so I don't think I really did any damage to it. I see my doctor tomorrow for my first post-op visit and x-rays, so I'll find out then. I'm crossing my fingers that everything still looks OK. I haven't had to increase my pain pills, so I'm guessing everything is good.
4/24 Update: I forgot to update after my first post op doctor visit. I told him I had fallen twice and he was not concerned at all. He said that is what the brace is for. That was a huge relief! I did not have to have stitches removed this year because he used a different kind than last year. Apparently this kind you do not have to tie knots in it because it has very very tiny hooks in the string that grab onto my skin. They dissolve over time and my scars might even be less noticeable than what I have on my right knee. I also informed him that I have been massaging my leg. He thought that was a great idea. And said that fluid build up is a big problem the first couple weeks after surgery. I have been using that tiger tail like crazy and I really feel like its helping. I notice if i forget to massage one night. I highly recommend it if you are getting the surgery!
My post op xrays:
Ok, now for the bad news... I fell. Twice. The first time it was pouring rain all day. I was walking into my house and my wet crutches completely slipped out from under me. I landed on my left leg twice putting a good amount of weight on it (I am still non-weight bearing). I had my brace locked and I think that is what saved me from doing too much damage to that knee. The second time I did it I was not so lucky. I unlock my brace in the car because the sitting angle is just too uncomfortable/painful for me, and I tend to forget to re-lock it when I get out of the car. Which is exactly what I did this time. I have a very steep driveway, so my friend parked at the bottom and I was going up the stairs to my house. I forgot to lock my brace, and on the first step of stairs I just lost my balance and fell over. My right knee (operated on last year) is having a lot of pain lately and is very shaky since I still do not have a lot of muscle built up. I started to fall and landed right on my left leg. Because the brace was not locked, my knee started to bend, so I threw myself down to try and save that leg.
It's painful, but I'm surprised it's not more painful than it is. And I'm doing OK with bending, so I don't think I really did any damage to it. I see my doctor tomorrow for my first post-op visit and x-rays, so I'll find out then. I'm crossing my fingers that everything still looks OK. I haven't had to increase my pain pills, so I'm guessing everything is good.
4/24 Update: I forgot to update after my first post op doctor visit. I told him I had fallen twice and he was not concerned at all. He said that is what the brace is for. That was a huge relief! I did not have to have stitches removed this year because he used a different kind than last year. Apparently this kind you do not have to tie knots in it because it has very very tiny hooks in the string that grab onto my skin. They dissolve over time and my scars might even be less noticeable than what I have on my right knee. I also informed him that I have been massaging my leg. He thought that was a great idea. And said that fluid build up is a big problem the first couple weeks after surgery. I have been using that tiger tail like crazy and I really feel like its helping. I notice if i forget to massage one night. I highly recommend it if you are getting the surgery!
My post op xrays:
Looking down on my bent knees. Both knee caps line up in the groove nicely.
A view of my knee from behind
Side view of my left knee
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Post #18: Well, I got my left knee done
Yep, I figured if I didn't force myself to get it done this year, I probably would never get it done. So last December I scheduled to have the surgery on my left knee done at the same time of year I had my right knee done in 2013. I am writing this blog a week after my surgery, and so far it is almost night and day difference from last year's surgery.
I had the same exact surgery I had last year, a tibial tubercle osteotomy and MPFL replacement. I also had the nerve block placed in my thigh again. Last year I woke up to extreme pain the first night after surgery; everyone kept saying the nerve block was wearing off. It went from painful to extreme pain fast, and it took me hours to get the pain back under control. This year I did not have that problem. My pain was very tolerable and I never had any true spikes to my pain. I talked to the anesthesiologist and he thought the catheter in my nerve block might have moved. He said there is a very small area that the catheter needs to stay at, and any little movement can move it and potentially make the nerve block stop working. I'm guessing that is what happened last year.
I had the choice of staying one or two nights in the hospital. I was only going to stay one night because I was doing so good this time around. But the anesthesiologist suggested I stay one more night and then he could mix one more nerve block bottle for me in the morning, and I could go home with it for longer relief. So I stayed one more night only for that reason. However, the nerve block ended up leaking all over me after only an hour of being home so that means once again I wasn't getting any of the medicine, and staying one more night in the hospital was a waste. Oh well I can't do anything about it now.
Last time I ended up ordering a CPM (continuous passive motion) machine one month after surgery because I was having issues with bending my knee. This time I ordered a CPM machine to be delivered to me the first day I was home from the hospital. I've been on this machine as much as I can. I had my first PT appointment yesterday and my therapist was amazed with how much better I am doing this time. She bent my knee to 60 degrees and was so excited with how easily it bent. Last year my knee only bent this early to 40 degrees with a lot of sweat and tears. No tears this time! I'm convinced having this machine right away has really helped.
I bought a tiger tail rolling massage tool. I use this guy to massage my leg and move the fluid around. I had huge lumps in my leg and it was fairly painful at first to massage them. But after a couple days of doing this the lumps are completely gone and my leg feels so light. Not heavy and weighted down. I also feel like bending is way easier because I don't have a bunch of fluid hindering it. It's just a different feeling than last year. My right leg always felt very tight and hurt so much to bend. The left leg does not feel tight at all and now the bending is a different, more tolerable pain. It's only been a week since surgery; I'll keep updating if I think these two things continue to help or not. But at this moment in time I am completely convinced that the CPM machine and the tiger tail are helping this surgery to be a lot smoother than the last surgery.
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I had the same exact surgery I had last year, a tibial tubercle osteotomy and MPFL replacement. I also had the nerve block placed in my thigh again. Last year I woke up to extreme pain the first night after surgery; everyone kept saying the nerve block was wearing off. It went from painful to extreme pain fast, and it took me hours to get the pain back under control. This year I did not have that problem. My pain was very tolerable and I never had any true spikes to my pain. I talked to the anesthesiologist and he thought the catheter in my nerve block might have moved. He said there is a very small area that the catheter needs to stay at, and any little movement can move it and potentially make the nerve block stop working. I'm guessing that is what happened last year.
Nerve block
I had the choice of staying one or two nights in the hospital. I was only going to stay one night because I was doing so good this time around. But the anesthesiologist suggested I stay one more night and then he could mix one more nerve block bottle for me in the morning, and I could go home with it for longer relief. So I stayed one more night only for that reason. However, the nerve block ended up leaking all over me after only an hour of being home so that means once again I wasn't getting any of the medicine, and staying one more night in the hospital was a waste. Oh well I can't do anything about it now.
Left knee three days after surgery, Right knee one year after surgery
The bruising begins about five days after surgery
This is the CPM machine. If you don't remember from my previous post, it is a machine that bends my knee to whatever degree I set
I bought a tiger tail rolling massage tool. I use this guy to massage my leg and move the fluid around. I had huge lumps in my leg and it was fairly painful at first to massage them. But after a couple days of doing this the lumps are completely gone and my leg feels so light. Not heavy and weighted down. I also feel like bending is way easier because I don't have a bunch of fluid hindering it. It's just a different feeling than last year. My right leg always felt very tight and hurt so much to bend. The left leg does not feel tight at all and now the bending is a different, more tolerable pain. It's only been a week since surgery; I'll keep updating if I think these two things continue to help or not. But at this moment in time I am completely convinced that the CPM machine and the tiger tail are helping this surgery to be a lot smoother than the last surgery.
Tiger tail rolling massage tool
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Post #17: Eight month post-surgery follow-up
Since I last wrote, the post-surgery knee has been giving me some problems. Problems with being swollen and painful. So swollen that my knee is numb to the touch. It has always been numb on the right side of the knee due to cutting of the nerves during surgery; but now the left side is numb too. The doctor said that was a normal reaction if my knee becomes too swollen for whatever reason.
Also the pain has been fairly bad. So bad to the point where I ended up calling into work one night, staying completely off my feet, and having to take a couple of oxi pills. My doctor said that this set back too is normal and there is nothing to be worried about. He actually said this could continue to happen for the next three to four years. It just means I've over-worked the knee, and it's tired.
Awesome, another three to four years! It seems like every time I meet with my doctor I learn something new; something that doesn't make me very happy. I've been putting off this surgery for years because I knew it was a big surgery and a long recovery time. But I had no idea that I could still be recovering from this for the next FOUR years. Sometimes I'm happy I did not fully realize how much work this surgery would take- because if I'd known, I probably would have put it off even longer. But other times I am mad that I went into this surgery (what seems like now) so blindly. Either way it's over now and there's nothing I can really do about it- besides not having the surgery on the left knee- which I've booked for March 19th 2014. I figure if I don't just book it I may never get it done.
I think the reason why I am in so much pain right now is because I worked five 12-hour days in a row, had two days off, then went back to work. Right now, being winter, the hospital is very busy. So I'm literally running around for most of those 12 hours solid, on my feet. Sorry work, no more working over-time for this worker bee... Doctor's orders. Just kidding, he didn't actually say that. I do wish, though!
Since I'm three months away from being a year post-op, and having scheduled the surgery on my left knee, I think I'll keep this blog going. Just in case the left knee goes differently than the right. Stay tuned :-)
Also the pain has been fairly bad. So bad to the point where I ended up calling into work one night, staying completely off my feet, and having to take a couple of oxi pills. My doctor said that this set back too is normal and there is nothing to be worried about. He actually said this could continue to happen for the next three to four years. It just means I've over-worked the knee, and it's tired.
Awesome, another three to four years! It seems like every time I meet with my doctor I learn something new; something that doesn't make me very happy. I've been putting off this surgery for years because I knew it was a big surgery and a long recovery time. But I had no idea that I could still be recovering from this for the next FOUR years. Sometimes I'm happy I did not fully realize how much work this surgery would take- because if I'd known, I probably would have put it off even longer. But other times I am mad that I went into this surgery (what seems like now) so blindly. Either way it's over now and there's nothing I can really do about it- besides not having the surgery on the left knee- which I've booked for March 19th 2014. I figure if I don't just book it I may never get it done.
I think the reason why I am in so much pain right now is because I worked five 12-hour days in a row, had two days off, then went back to work. Right now, being winter, the hospital is very busy. So I'm literally running around for most of those 12 hours solid, on my feet. Sorry work, no more working over-time for this worker bee... Doctor's orders. Just kidding, he didn't actually say that. I do wish, though!
Since I'm three months away from being a year post-op, and having scheduled the surgery on my left knee, I think I'll keep this blog going. Just in case the left knee goes differently than the right. Stay tuned :-)
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Post #16: Seven months post-surgery
I have not been updating my blog due to being busy and feeling like there is nothing new to update. Or perhaps due to my new knee, I've become "normal"? :-) Well, all this may be non-eventful , but it's where I'm at seven months post surgery:
Pain: I still have some. Some days are worse than others, but I always seem to have a little bit of pain 24/7. I rarely take medicine for it, and if I do, it's just ibuprofen. Nothing strong. But I'm also on my feet for twelve hours at work. Perhaps if I had an office job I wouldn't have constant pain. I wonder if it's part of a typical recovery? Not sure.
Bending: Still an issue, but much, much better. Some days I'm stiffer than others, and I have to purposefully stretch. I also can't have the joint bent for too long without it hurting. I tend to curl up in my chair at work vs sitting like a normal adult (ha, ha) so I find myself having to move around a lot because my knee will start to hurt/feel very stiff if I'm curled up for too long. Sometimes if I jump up quickly from my chair I do limp the first couple steps because it needs to loosen up. Almost feels like I need a little lubricant at times.
Walking: Depends on the day but my limp is almost completely gone. I don't normally notice when I limp, unless it's really bad that particular day. But friends and coworkers have not mentioned my limp as much. One even pointed out that he barely sees me limp anymore. So I guess that means walking is getting much better. I am getting a lot quicker on my feet.
Exercise: ok, ok, I've slacked on physical therapy. I'm so mad at myself for that. But like anyone, you get busy and that seems like the last thing on your mind. I've tried cardio a couple times and it's soooooo hard! I'm winded after my five minute warm up and cannot get through my 30 minute cardio tape (that I did before surgery). I'm not sure if this is because I haven't been keeping up with my physical therapy exercises or if I just need to give my leg more time to heal (my PT did say she didn't think I'd be able to run till Christmas). Either way my lunges are getting a lot easier, however cardio is still very very hard. BUT- I can jog a short distance (when I say short I mean like from my street to my house...which FYI I have a very very very steep driveway) where before if I tried to jog my leg would just give out. Now it doesn't, I just can't go very far.
Physical Therapy: I have not gone to PT for about two months now. During my last visit she said it was up to me if I wanted to keep coming or not. Now that I don't need to worry about bending as much, and my exercises are no longer in the pool, she really did not have anything new to help me. So I cancelled my last appointment and have just been doing therapy myself at home (IE being lazy and not doing them as much as I should). I absolutely love my PT, BUT...she is kind of expensive and insurance has paid their max, so I decided to stop going unless I have concerns with something.
I guess that's about it on updates at this time. The main thing is the stability I now feel with the improved knee, especially compared with the other one I've yet to have surgery on. I am going to make a doctor appointment soon (like December-ish) to talk about going forward with the same surgery on my left knee, and just to double check that everything is progressing OK with my right knee. I'll post another blog once I see him.
Pain: I still have some. Some days are worse than others, but I always seem to have a little bit of pain 24/7. I rarely take medicine for it, and if I do, it's just ibuprofen. Nothing strong. But I'm also on my feet for twelve hours at work. Perhaps if I had an office job I wouldn't have constant pain. I wonder if it's part of a typical recovery? Not sure.
Bending: Still an issue, but much, much better. Some days I'm stiffer than others, and I have to purposefully stretch. I also can't have the joint bent for too long without it hurting. I tend to curl up in my chair at work vs sitting like a normal adult (ha, ha) so I find myself having to move around a lot because my knee will start to hurt/feel very stiff if I'm curled up for too long. Sometimes if I jump up quickly from my chair I do limp the first couple steps because it needs to loosen up. Almost feels like I need a little lubricant at times.
Walking: Depends on the day but my limp is almost completely gone. I don't normally notice when I limp, unless it's really bad that particular day. But friends and coworkers have not mentioned my limp as much. One even pointed out that he barely sees me limp anymore. So I guess that means walking is getting much better. I am getting a lot quicker on my feet.
Exercise: ok, ok, I've slacked on physical therapy. I'm so mad at myself for that. But like anyone, you get busy and that seems like the last thing on your mind. I've tried cardio a couple times and it's soooooo hard! I'm winded after my five minute warm up and cannot get through my 30 minute cardio tape (that I did before surgery). I'm not sure if this is because I haven't been keeping up with my physical therapy exercises or if I just need to give my leg more time to heal (my PT did say she didn't think I'd be able to run till Christmas). Either way my lunges are getting a lot easier, however cardio is still very very hard. BUT- I can jog a short distance (when I say short I mean like from my street to my house...which FYI I have a very very very steep driveway) where before if I tried to jog my leg would just give out. Now it doesn't, I just can't go very far.
Physical Therapy: I have not gone to PT for about two months now. During my last visit she said it was up to me if I wanted to keep coming or not. Now that I don't need to worry about bending as much, and my exercises are no longer in the pool, she really did not have anything new to help me. So I cancelled my last appointment and have just been doing therapy myself at home (IE being lazy and not doing them as much as I should). I absolutely love my PT, BUT...she is kind of expensive and insurance has paid their max, so I decided to stop going unless I have concerns with something.
I guess that's about it on updates at this time. The main thing is the stability I now feel with the improved knee, especially compared with the other one I've yet to have surgery on. I am going to make a doctor appointment soon (like December-ish) to talk about going forward with the same surgery on my left knee, and just to double check that everything is progressing OK with my right knee. I'll post another blog once I see him.
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