7 Week Re-check

Today I went back to see my doctor.

The good news is that the x-rays showed good healing of the shin at the tibial osteotomy and at the femur where he drilled for the added tendon.

Four weeks ago I could actually see on the x-rays a line in my shin bone and the hole in my femur.

Today I saw nothing!

I didn't say anything, but I think the calcium supplements helped.

In other news... he's not happy about my bending progress. He even called over to my physical therapist to tell him to work me harder. And in a couple weeks he will most likely give me a cortisone shot if he doesn't see marked improvement.

Now I'm REALLY looking forward to Thursday's therapy session!

He said he really wants to get things moving because it's been a "bumpy road."

Makes me think that I'm not progressing the way he would like.

Or maybe he's just referring to the little things like the itchy rash that covered my leg (a reaction to the orange stuff they put all over my leg) and the insomnia... I can't think of anything else he would be referring to. Oh, maybe the numbing that's left in my foot which is down to just a tingling in my toes now.

I've been taking Benadryl and Tylenol to sleep at night for about a week now. It's nice to get sleep, but he told me that Benadryl doesn't give you "good" sleep. If it persists I'm supposed to go see my family doctor.

He also adjusted my brace so that it will rotate to 120 degrees and suggested that it may be doing me more bad then good at this point. I'm only supposed to wear it now when I feel like I need some protection. The same with the crutches. Use one or both as needed.

Apparently I need to focus on walking correctly too because he stopped me as I was leaving to show me what I was doing wrong.

Walking is so complicated!

Day 41: Progress and Normalcy

Monday at therapy I made some progress. I'm always surprised  at what I'm able to do once he asks me to do it. He added an exercise: Step ups. Basically like stepping up onto a stair that's only 3 inches high and then back down again. For just a second or two with each step 100% of my weight is on the bad leg. And more then that it is bent! It felt really good to be able to do that. Then at the end, when he tortures me by helping to bend my leg farther then I'm able to bend it on my own, we were able to bend it to 65 degrees.

I finally got fed up with the insomnia and took 2 benadryl and 2 tylenol... it worked! 6 Hours of sleep! I did that two nights in a row and then last night took a break from it (I don't want to be dependent on drugs to sleep) and only got about 3 hours. I usually sleep for the first 2 hours and then wake up and roll over constantly for several hours and then fall asleep for another hour before waking up around 6am. The trick is to find a position that doesn't make my knee feel like it is swelling.

I've been doing a lot more around the house. The other day I made homemade pretzels!
(LOVE Pinterest)
It was a recipe that utilized the bread machine for the dough cycle. So no kneading!

I can vacuum small areas at a time, clean up Elliot's toys, do the dishes... I even did a load of laundry! Though it was kind of tricky getting the basket down the stairs with crutches.
I feel so much better being able to do "my job" around the house.
Doing nothing, sleeping never, sitting always... it's just a bad concoction. Being able to accomplish a task here and there gives me just the little bit of confidence I need to keep pushing. Keep stretching. Because the knee is completely stable for the first time in... well... ever. I'm pretty sure that I'm physically able to do much more then I'm mentally allowing myself to do. It's going to take some time to learn how to trust it again.

Day 36: 5 weeks post op

So today is 5 weeks since the surgery...

Kind of hard to believe that it's been that long, but at the same time it feels like forever!

Ever since the doc unlocked my brace 3 days ago I feel like I'm making better progress with bending. I try to bend it a lot more throughout the day.  Even sitting in normally in a chair with it stretched out in a slightly bent position. I'm just bending it enough to feel a stretch.

Yesterday I tried to do way to much! I made cookies, rice lasagna, spaghetti and homemade bread sticks. My good foot was killing me because I put about 80% of the weight on it all the time. And my bad hip was also nagging because I was constantly using it to pull the weight up off my bad leg.

Despite all that I did yesterday I still only slept for 1 hour. 1 HOUR! I have no idea why. I think it was my worst night so far.

I need to learn how to sleep again. BEFORE we go to Puerto Rico!

Day 34: Remembering how to walk

Yesterday I had a physical therapy appointment. As usual he pushed me pretty far. Bending is the main focus right now and we didn't make a lot of progress since my last appointment 6 days ago.

It felt really stiff over the weekend, so I expected not to show much progress. Towards the beginning of the bending section I was able to bend it to 52 degrees (with a lot of help... and grimacing!).

Towards the end he took another measurement... 57 degrees. That is the same measurement that I had 8 days ago. I'd like to see a lot more progress over an 8-day period.

My goal was to flex an extra 10 degrees each week.

I'm a little behind now.

Immediately after the therapy I saw my doctor.

He said I was progressing as expected and suggested that I try sitting more often throughout the day with the brace off... allowing the knee to bend until I felt a nice stretch.

He also unlocked the brace to 60 degrees. The brace has hinges on either side of the knee that were locked to prevent any bending. Now I can flip some switches and it will bend up to 60 degrees. I can do this whenever I want to practice walking correctly.

It's quite odd feeling.

For 4 1/2 weeks I've been crutching around with that leg straight, swinging from the hip. (Which I think may be one of the big culprits to my hip discomfort... there's definitely and alignment issue.) Now I'm trying to relax the hip and allow the knee to bend and actually use my quad muscles to assist in walking...

Weird...

In less then 1 year I've had to go through this process of learning how to walk twice!

It's funny how you can take little things like walking for granted.

I had a friend over yesterday for a play-date and it was amazing and depressing at the same time to watch her jump from her chair to help her child or climb the stairs so effortlessly.

Take it from me... as long as you can walk, walk. As long as you can run, run.

Stupid things like laziness can cause your muscles to weaken

which causes injuries to happen

which require surgery.

Shut off your computer.

Get up.

Do something.

Because God gave you the ability!

Random Details

I've been learning a lot every time I have an appointment.

Can I just say that I love my doctor?!

He comes into the room all cheerful and excited to see how I'm doing and just doesn't stop talking. He genuinely wants me to know what's going on and what he is thinking.

Then I get to ask questions. Every single time I appreciate him more and more because when I start asking questions he becomes even more comfortable. He'll sit down in front of me or lean against the counter - intently listening to every word and taking his time to answer my questions. Never rushing me or making me feel like I'm wasting time or asking stupid questions.

Ok, enough about the doctor.

Random details I've learned...

The screws in the the shin bone are made of stainless steel, won't cause problems with flying (when we go to Puerto Rico!!!) and most likely will need to be removed in a year.

They apparently put a screw in the the hole that was drilled into the side of my femur, but this screw is made of some type of material that will actually turn into bone. Sweet!

That drill hole is 6mm. Or about 1/4". About half the size of a dime.

I'm not suppose to take Ibuprofen because it is actually bad for the bone healing. Ice is to be my anti-inflamatory. And actually I've been using heat once a day and I thinking its helping... I'm going to talk with my physical therapist about heat this week.

He doesn't want me to use Neosporin because he wants everything to dry up and heal... but I started using it on areas where the scabs have fallen off. :) I just can't help myself. I love neosporin!

He says that there aren't any supplements that I can take to help with healing, but I'm a believer in that stuff, so I'm starting a calcium supplement this week. Since C and D help with absorption I'll be taking those too. On top of my favorite multi-vitamins.

My skin on that leg has been extremely dry. Maybe from the anti-septic stuff they put on. I've been using some lotion, but I never really see results from lotion, just a temporary fix. So, I started using my aloe plant the other day and can I say that I LOVE it!!! My aloe plant keeps having babies, so I have about 10 plants right now and its nice to put them to use.

PICTURES!

!!!WARNING!!!

THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC PICTURES!

MOST RECENT PICTURES (LEAST GRAPHIC) WILL BE AT THE TOP

OLDER PICTURES (MORE GRAPHIC) WILL BE TOWARDS THE BOTTOM

I'M TRYING TO WASTE SOME SPACE...

SO THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO SEE THE PICTURES WHEN YOU OPEN THE PAGE...

I WANT YOU TO HAVE TO PHYSICALLY SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THEM...

ALL THE PICTURES WERE TAKEN WITH MY CELL PHONE, SO THEY'RE NOT THE GREATEST.

HOPEFULLY THAT'S ENOUGH WASTED SPACE...

This first picture is from about 18 days after the surgery.

So, let's talk about what you are looking at.

The small incision on the inside of my knee is healing nicely. As you can see almost all the scab is gone. This is where they drilled into the larger knobby portion at the very bottom of the femur.

The two red spots at about 12 o'clock are blisters. Just below them on my knee you can see a tiny cross-shaped incision. This was one of the two entries for the arthroscopy procedure.

The long incision in the middle is where they performed the tibial tubercle osteotomy. (Slicing off part of the shin bone.)

The next two pictures are from 12 days post-op.

All of the tape is still on in these pictures, so that makes it look even better.

In the picture showing the side you can see the crazy swelling.  That is from the lateral release - where they cut some ligament to release tension.  You can also see the other cross-shaped incision from the arthroscopy.

This next picture is from 5 days post-op and just for reference (because it's hard to tell what you're looking at with all the swelling) Micah took this picture from my feet.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

PUERTO RICO, HERE I COME!

And just to give you an idea of how bad the swelling is - here is a picture from the night before surgery.

A very well-defined, tilted, messed-up knee cap. This should be the most graphic of pictures.



Day 21

I have been sleeping in our recliner in the living room since coming home from the surgery. This is my permanent position. I tried sleeping in bed a couple times, but it just doesn't work. I can only sleep when I'm in the chair and even then its not good sleep. I'm getting sick of it. I really want to roll over!

Had my second session of therapy on Tuesday and my third will be tomorrow. I'm kind of surprised at how things are progressing. I'm noticing the stability of the knee cap already. After the injury in February I was still very unstable at this point in therapy. The knee cap felt vulnerable to re-injury. But right now it feels strong.

Therapy starts with electric stimulation on the quad muscles. About 15 minutes of it. 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off.  While it is on I'm contracting the quad muscles. The electric stim helps the muscles to do more. Sort of engages the muscles for me. So, on Tuesday I was able to do a straight leg raise with the electric stim on. I couldn't believe it. I didn't expect to be able to do that for another 2 weeks. I'm not able to do that without the stim though.  That will take more time.

My least favorite part of therapy is bending. I'm at 37 degrees with my therapist controlling the bending, but at home I'm probably only getting to 25 or 30. It's so incredibly tight feeling because of all the swelling that when I try to bend it it feels like there's immense pressure from the inside of the joint pushing out.

I'm able to do a little more at home now.  I can be up on my crutches for about 30 minutes at a time and then it really starts bothering me. So I'm able to warm up dinner and wash some dishes, fold laundry and change Elliot's diaper.

Baby steps.