Roller Coaster

It's been 2 weeks now since the surgery to remove scar tissue.

Things were great for a couple days after the surgery and then all of a sudden the muscles tightened.

I went from bending it 130 degrees down to 80.

My physical therapist said the muscles were spasming. He seemed frustrated about it and that didn't help me any because I was already getting frustrated. It was all very discouraging.

Then about a week after surgery I saw my doc for a post-op appointment and he prescribed a muscle relaxer which I took 3 times a day.

It didn't seem to help.

Back to sleepless nights only this time I could actually roll over. But that was also the problem. Every time I roll over I engage the quad muscle which causes a pain flare that doesn't want to calm down.

Finally on Monday I noticed that I was able to bend it a little easier. My therapist noticed that too. It wasn't that I could bend it any farther, but just easier and with less resistance. I also saw my doctor again on Monday and he was pretty frustrated that the muscle relaxers didn't fix the problem, so he suggested that I taper off of them to see if they are really helping at all. So I started taking just one before bed.

The past two days I've noticed continued progress and I'm now up to 110 degrees on the CPM.

Oh, and here is a picture of the CPM.

I'm attributing the progress to a new stretch that I started doing on Sunday where I sit on the edge of the bed and let my leg dangle.  I try to get it to relax down to 90 degrees. Then I lay back on the bed which stretches the quads farther (without bending the knee farther) because of the way they attach to the hip. I usually lay there for a good 15 minutes. I like to do this at least 3 times a day.

Also, my leg has been really itchy. From the mid-thigh to mid-calf.

It is so annoying!

I had a dream last night that I was scratching my leg and then I woke up and sure enough!

I was scratching my leg!

I wrapped it with an ace bandage and that helped the itch for the rest of the night.

I remember an itchy rash after the first surgery, but that only lasted 3 or 4 days.

This isn't even a rash.

It's nothing!

Just an itch.

And it's been there for at least 10 days now.

Grrrrr. . .

The ups and downs have made the last 2 weeks seem like 2 months!

But at least I'm making some progress now.