*I'm trying to catch up on this blog. I'm currently writing this nine days after my surgery date, so I've been at my parents' house for 6 and a 1/2 days now since leaving the hospital.
I have my good hours and my bad. For the most part i know my pain level is slowly decreasing. But every now and then I experience a lot of pain. For instance I have a walker and crutches at home. My bathroom is about 25 FT from the couch I am chained to (that's a joke, but since being home this couch has been where I spent the majority of my time). The first couple days all I did was sleep on this couch and hobble to that bathroom. Exciting, huh? Anyway, on the way to the bathroom and back I've caught my foot a couple times on the carpet. Talk about pain. As soon as i catch my toes i get this sharp shooting pain on the inner part of my leg, where the donor ligament was placed. Again once i instantly get to a pain level where it takes a bit of time before it slowly fades away. You probably won't believe me, but i honestly don't cry very much. I think i have a pretty high pain tolerance. But let me tell ya, catching my toe on the carpet will send me into a stream of tears. Maybe my pain tolerance isn't that high. Maybe I am a big baby. I just figured with how many times my knees have dislocated, I knew what pain was. Guess not. Ha, oh well call me a baby, you may be right! :-)
Lets take a little break from the blog to look at pictures! :-) I have to change my bandages every day for seven days until i see my doctor for my first post op visit.
First day at home changing my bandages. How my knee looks with the ted hose and the brace off.
How my knee looks with all the bandages off. I believe this is post op day # 3 or 4. Here's another angle:
And now back to what i was rambling on about before:
My parents live in a two story house. The first couple of nights i stayed downstairs and slept on the couch, but by the third night i wanted to try a bed. The stairs are definitely a challenge. The first couple nights went fine, but a couple days ago the muscles in my leg kept tightening up as i went up each step and by the time i got to the top i was in extreme pain again. I had tears just flowing down all over again. That was a rough night.
Showers are also a challenge but i think we found a pretty good technique. My mom puts a step stool in the tub and lays a couple of towels down. One for the stool to be on (so it doesn't slip) and one for me to sit on. We take a hand towel and wrap it around my leg, just above my brace to soak up any drips. We duct tape that towel as tight as i can stand it. We then placed a garbage bag around my whole leg and duck tape that right above the towel. This seems to work pretty well. I've only gotten water in the bag once. I sit on the side of the tub and my mom swings my leg into the tub as i scoot over to the stool. A hand held shower head really helps with all of this, too.
The other day my tail bone was hurting. Found out in the morning i have a pressure sore on it. Thank goodness it's small and i caught it soon, but just one more sore spot on my body.
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