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
Ouch! Hope everything is still okay with the leg! I commented on a few of your other posts. I am having this surgery done in June. You have convinced me to rent a CPM machine for as soon as I am out of the hospital. So you say you were coming into your house... Is it normal to be able to be out and about a few weeks after this surgery? I have this vision in my head that I will be bed ridden for a month!
ReplyDeleteoh no, you will not be bed ridden! At least I never was. Yes the first week is tough; not only because of the pain but also just how hard it is getting around on crutches. I don't know if you've ever had crutches before, but i hadn't before this surgery, and they are hard! haha I get so exhausted the first couple weeks using them. But by 2 - 2.5 weeks getting around gets much easier. The first week you're painful/on a lot of meds/getting use to crutches so its hard (at least it was for me) getting around but for sure not bed bound.
DeleteI'm so glad you are getting a CPM machine right away! I am really convinced that having the CPM machine right out of surgery and massaging my leg once to twice a day has really made this recovery so much easier! I'm already bending to 85 degrees with no tears. And last year I wasn't able to bend to 80 degrees till the end of april (i had last years surgery on the exact same date as this one) with a lot of tears. So i would really suggest the machine; and hopefully your insurance is like mine and they pay the first 22 days... i kept it longer than that and the company worked with me and gave me a price cut. so it really wasn't that much to keep it longer than insurance would pay for it.
I hope not! Especially since it will be summer, I don't want to be stuck inside...I would go stir crazy! How is it using stairs the first few weeks after the surgery? I am debating moving my mattress to the main level of our house...don't feel very comfortable of the thought of using crutches on the stairs. Looking forward to your next update :)
Deletewell they are tricky but PT will teach you how to use stairs before you leave the hospital. in fact they had me practicing stairs hours after my surgery. I just make sure I have someone behind me when i go up and someone in front when i come down. Just to make sure I don't fall. If you have someone to help with stairs you should be fine. But if you are going up and down by yourself a lot you may want to move your bed down stairs just for safety reasons.
DeleteI am going for a tibial tubercle osteotomy in 2 weeks and looking for the best advice/tips you can give me for in hospital and first few days home. I have read your whole blog and feel like I am not the only one going through all this pain. I am also in my 20s and have been dealing with debilitating knee pain for 10 years or so. Hope you are continuing to heal nicely.
ReplyDeletethanks for reading my blog! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I got very behind on it and now I don't know where to start! I would suggest a nerve block. I had one both times; so i guess i don't really know what it feels like without one. However, after my first surgery i woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain that took a full day to get under control. My doctor thought my nerve block had moved and I wasn't getting the medicine anymore. That amount of pain was enough for me to get the nerve block during my second surgery. And I was lucky to not have the same thing happen to me twice. Also keep up on your pain meds in the hospital (and at home). Its easier to tapper off the drugs then to play the catch up game. After surgery I didn't feel like I needed medicine either; and i spent a couple hours trying to catch up on the pain meds which cause me to have unnecessary pain. This all happened to me after the first surgery; second surgery i took just a little bit more drugs then i thought i needed (ie not the max dose) and that was just enough that i was never really in any pain. Ummm do as much physical therapy that you can in the hospital, It really does help. ALSO make sure they give you laxatives. yes yes i know that pretty gross to say but believe me you'll regret not taking any. Being backed up and having a painful leg is NOT fun. Again another lesson i learned from the first surgery, any specific questions you want me to answer?
DeleteHow long was your hospital stay? I will be admitted for one night and hopefully get discharged late the following afternoon. Any recommendations for the car ride home or initial arrival home? I thank you for recommending the laxatives and plan to use them very regularly so that i can be regular LOL. Any recommendations for showering and using the restroom? Sorry for asking a lot about the body but these are the things that are concerning me. Thanks again for all your honesty and help!
ReplyDeleteAsk away! I'll answer anything! :-) I know the surgery can be a scary thought, and going in it blindly can make it even worst! Well I stayed two nights both times. The first surgery I stayed because of the nerve block moving, so it took me a day to get the pain back under control. The second time I was doing great. But because of my previous hospital stay the anesthesiologist wanted to mix me up one more nerve block bottle to take home. But they couldn't give it to me till the second day; which caused me to stay two nights. If you keep up on the pain meds you should be just fine to head home after one night. Ummm well my car ride home took an hour so i brought an eye mask. I was worried I'd get car sick with all the pain killers on board. So that helped me. steal a few crackers from the hospital, and barf bags ( just encase your stomach doesn't like the pain meds when moving).Oh and id suggest bringing pillows. I brought two and I'm glad I had two to prop my leg up on during the ride home. And once you get home you'll just figure out what works best for you. I sat on my parents couch during the day and they had a bed for me upstairs. So they put a little table next to the cough, and had a serving tray that I put all my medication/whatever else I needed on it. That just made it easy and fast when it came to going up and down the stairs. If you do not have anywhere to sit down (ie a build in stool) in the shower I would highly recommend getting a small stool to put in there. The last thing you want to do is fall over in a wet shower. For me it was much easier to sit down. Anything else I can answer? When is your surgery? Gooooooood luck if I don't hear from you before the big day. You'll do just fine! :-)
DeleteThanks. My surgery is next thursday the 26th. I think I am more nervous about the pain and recovery than I am of the surgery itself as funny as that sounds. I am nervous to think of being confined to bed and not being able to be myself and be back at work ( I am a medical assistant and work in a pediatric practice). Still waiting to here from insurance what is covered. Scared to see what the bills will be
ReplyDeleteHello! I had the exact same surgeries two weeks ago and I have to say the pain was no where near as bad as I was expecting it to be. I am down to one pain killer a day and sometimes even go without taking any. I guess I got lucky with the minimal pain because it seems like everyone else online was in a lot of discomfort. The hardest parts for me have been being stuck in bed for a week and getting use to my new life on crutches, not being able to sleep on my side/stomach and how easily tired I am getting from doing barely any activity. I am not gonna lie the first week I kept asking myself "Why did I go through this surgery?" but as I am getting up and more mobile lately it is slowly getting better. I just want to fast forward 4 weeks to where I am hopefully walking without crutches and have my energy back!
DeleteHi! I’m not sure if you’re still active on this blog, but it’s exciting to see that you’re doing so well with the double knee surgery, I am 23 and getting the same exact procedure done on both knees and you seem to be the only other person I’ve found that also has 2 unstable patella (some genetic lottery ha?). I have a few question I hope you help answer:
ReplyDelete1. I am choosing to do both knees simultaneously, how crazy do you think that will be have gone through the procedure twice? We’re you happy spacing it a year out, or would you have liked to knock it both out at the same time? (Happy to explain more in depth why I’m considering doing both simultaneously if you’d like)
2. If I end up doing only one at a time, did your ever dislocate your unoperated on knee while recovering? Something I’m very afraid if I only do one at a time.
3. It’s been almost 5 years since this post, how are your knees feeling today?
Thank you so much for writing this blog, it truly has given me some piece of mind.
Hello! I do not post anymore, but i still get email notifications.
DeleteIm so glad you found my blog! I could not find anything on our surgeries either, which is why i started blogging hoping it might help someone.
Two reasons i didn't do my knees at the same time. One, my doctor said no. Haha but his reason was if something went wrong in surgery for whatever reason i would still have one good leg. The other was because i was not allowed to put any weight on my leg for several weeks. I am surprised your doctor is allowing this... or will you be in a wheele chair? I would of loved to have gotten it all done with at once. But i think the recovery would be a lot worse. I lost so much muscle tone i was completely unable to walk for awhile once i got the green light to put weight back on. It was very hard to walk for a long time. If i had the choice i personally would do one leg at a time. I think my recovery time would of been double what it was trying to strengthen/ learn to walk with both legs at the same time. Most likely 6 months of recovery. Honestly, it took 4 months before i was even able to go back to work. Granted i work at a hospital and walk for 12 hrs, so that may be different for you.
I have never dislocated my knee since my surgeries! There's been sooo many times when i twisted weird where i thought to myself "man my knee would of dislocated there if it wasn't for the surgery". I feel so stable i do not regret anything. However, it did take me years to feel this stable. But i think that is my own fault. I should of stuck with a workout routine and continuously strengthen my quads. I highly recommend having a workout routine, and staying with it.
They feel great! I do all my normal activities; rock climbing, hiking, running, biking... so on. I do get pain when the weather changes. Nothing horrible. I can just tell when the weather is changing. Haha. They are still sensitive in some spots, so if i hit them right that does hurt pretty bad. But for me i can live through it to not have knees that dislocate.
I did have a doctor, or so he said he was, comment saying this surgery only last 8 years. My doctor never told me that. And as you know it's hard to hard to find a lot of information on our surgeries. Either way i am so happy to have had the surgery.
Please write back if you have anymore questions! I hope you recovery soon.