Day 9- Back to square one

So I'm thinking that I pushed myself too much on Sunday and Monday, now I'm back to elevating, icing, and laying on the couch. I've also gone back to taking my pain meds pretty regularly. I keep feeling an aching pain in my patella and then random shooting pains other places in my leg. When I stand up on my crutches and put my op leg on the floor flat (like the doctor told me I needed to do when I put weight on it) I feel a big stretch through the back of my leg that is kind of painful. My ankle is still really swollen and I still have a squishy spot in my knee. I'm sad because it is so beautiful out and I want to be up doing things. However, after reading some on Knee geeks today, I need to take it easy. I have to go back to work on Monday because I've exhausted my sick days and PTO. So I need to glue myself to the couch now and get my body prepared for what I'll be going through next week. I'm ready to fast forward through the rest of the school year and my recovery and jump straight to June. I think things will go fast on their own, but I'm also ready for it to be done and over with. Thank you for everyone who reads and puts up with my complaining.

I do have some good news. I put the next book I need in the series I am reading on hold at the downtown Borders and my husband agreed to pick it up for me tomorrow. Yay for something to read Thursday! I have the last book (book 7) in the series already from the library so I am just missing book 6. It's a series by the same author as the Sookie Stackhouse novels, Charlaine Harris. Very quick, light reads. It's about all I can handle right now.

One week after surgery

I can't believe I just had surgery a week ago. I've been up and about cleaning the house and putting away laundry. Today I sat up on the couch most of the day instead of laying around. I was feeling great, but now it's catching up with me. I'm starting to get a lot more pain in my incision and my ankle and foot are really swollen. I just changed my bandages and I noticed just above and to the left of my knee feels all squishy. I think I might have fluid in it. So now I'm laying on the couch with ice on it. I will probably spend most of the rest of the week on the couch now since it seems I may have over did it. I go back to the doctor Thursday morning, so hopefully he says everything looks good to go back to work on Monday. I also really want to go to a free concert Friday night. So hopefully I didn't mess everything up already : ( Here are some new pictures of my incision and my swollen ankle.

Day 6- Exhausted!

I finally got out of the house today! For the first part of the day, my parents dropped my niece off so that they could go buy a new car. My sister watched her and while they were gone (about 5 hours) so I didn't get wore out from that. I even got a nap in! My husband and I both took a nap this afternoon since he didn't get home till 3am and he called me at 2:30am wanting directions to get home. Then this evening we went up to a friends house in Noblesville for a house warming gathering and to go to dinner. First ride in a car since surgery went well, except for all the bumps. We took the Evo and it has stiff shocks that caused me to feel every bump. Then when we got to the house, they had 3 really tall steps out front that my husband had to help lift me up over. The next big obstacle was when we went to dinner. We parked pretty far away from the front door so I had my longest walk yet on crutches to get in the restaurant. By the time my husband and I had gotten inside, everyone was already sitting at a table. It was okay sitting at the table, except for the really uncomfortable chairs. Overall, the biggest problem of the night was me sitting too much and my leg almost falling asleep with my immobilizer on. Tomorrow's adventures: grocery shopping and doing laundry.

Day 5- Just another day

I'm starting to get into a routine of sorts. My condition hasn't changed much, but I did go from 11pm to 6 am without taking any pain meds last night. I'm trying to wait to take some right now too, my last dose was 4 1/2 hours ago. It's helping me stay awake for longer amounts of time. I am getting up much quicker from the couch and I want to clean my house. I hate sitting around and knowing there is stuff that needs to be done in the house. Might have a busy weekend. My parents are coming up to the city tomorrow to buy a car, so we'll have my niece for a little while. We might go to a house warming party tomorrow night, and Jeff gets to do laundry Sunday (that will be fun to watch).

I am having some pain that I'm not sure what it could be. The back of my thigh keeps getting some pains and my shins hurt to the touch. My calves also hurt, but mainly when I try to put some weight on my leg. Oh well. I have a lot more pain to get through before I can completely walk again. I better get used to it now!

Day 4- On my own

Today I was home on my own and it went great. I woke up after my husband and sister left for work and made myself breakfast. I tried to stay up and watch tv and read, but I just kept falling asleep. I got up every once and a while to get some walking in and go to the bathroom. My left foot is getting swollen for some reason. I did get to change my dressing today and take a shower. It felt AMAZING! I got some pictures of my incisions before I changed the dressing. They look kind of weird because the dressing was tight and left creases on my skin.

Day 3- the day of sleep

I have never slept this much in my life! I slept from 6-8:30 last night, then fell back asleep from 10pm until my mom showed up at 7:30 this morning (only waking up to take pills). After breakfast, I slept a few more hours. Then I slept again after lunch. And I'm getting drowsy just typing this. The good news is I'm gaining more independence. My mom was only here today as a precaution. I made lunch for myself and have been doing my exercises okay. I moved from the love seat to the long couch since I don't need to elevate my leg anymore. That has helped my comfort level a lot. I still get some sharp burning pains in my knee, but I'm also getting the urge to itch. Hopefully that means things are healing! Tomorrow I get to change the dressing and I'm going to get cleaned up, so I will make sure I take pictures of the incision for everyone.

Day 2 of recovery

Today has been a sleepy day. I did not sleep for more than 2 hours at a time last night, and ended up waking up at 4am and staying up till my husband woke up at 5:30. I had a scare getting up to go to the bathroom. I got up too quickly and almost passed out. I had to hurry back to the couch with my husband holding me up. It happened again later in the morning, so I've started sitting up and waiting a few minutes before I get up on the crutches. My mom came to take care of me today so my husband could go back to work. She kept trying to clean my house because my dog sheds so much. We watched 'Twilight' and 'New Moon' because she had never seen them. I think she's hooked now. I made my follow up appointment for next Thursday the 1st at 9:30am. Then I talked to Dr. Scheid's nurse and a nurse from OHI. They were very nice and answered my questions. I get to change my dressing on Thursday, and Dr. Scheid's nurse told me not to push the straight leg raises yet. Overall, it was a good day until about 4. I started having a really sharp burning pain in my knee then, but it's almost gone away now. I just took my pain pill about 30 minutes early to head off the pain. Well, I think I'm going to sleep some more.

Home from the hospital, Day 1

Well, I'm home and doing well. I got to the hospital at 7am, 30 minutes early, and they took me straight back. They had me sign my life away and then took my vitals. At that time I warned the nurse that I freak out with needles. I think I scared her into thinking that they were going to have to hold me down to do the IV. I just told her I have a phobia and can come close to passing out. So they come back to get ready for the IV. First they tried my left hand, and it was a no go. She was digging around and it HURT. Then she had the other nurse that was in the room give it a go, and she tried my left arm elbow crease. That time they had it in and taped up, but then it came out. At that point, I was getting a little mad. I told them several times that they normally use my right arm when they draw blood, but they kept trying with my left arm. So they went and got a THIRD nurse who was no nonsense. Within 3 minutes she had the IV in my right arm and was taping it up. So that was the most pain I had at the hospital. After that I talked to the anesthesiologist about my nerve block and then Dr. Scheid about the surgery and stuff. Then bam, they were wheeling me back to do the nerve block and get started. That's when I said bye to my mom and dad, and my husband. I almost cried, but hung in there. When I got back with Dr. Trout (very funny guy) they gave me a sedative that made me feel really good and then did two nerve blocks to completely numb my leg. Then I hung around in that room for 45 minutes to let the block set. I kept poking my leg and I could feel NOTHING. It was cool. Then it was time to go to the operating room. It was FREEZING in there and they were playing Guns 'n' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle", so strange (is this a Dr. Scheid thing?). Then the last thing I remember was them putting a mask over me and sending stuff into my IV. When I woke up in recovery, it was just like waking up from a nap. I remember asking the nurse "is surgery over?" I was awake in recovery for about 45 minutes to an hour. They gave me two doses of morphine and checked my drain (which I was hardly draining at all). After the first dose of morphine I dozed off a bit until I heard the nurses talking about an order for me for Lovenox. I woke straight up and told them I did not want it and the doctor did not say anything about it before hand. So they kept trying to reach him and by the time I got to post op and made it to the restroom, the dr said I didn't have to do the Lovenox-I could just do aspirin. That was the best news all day. I hung out in post op a little while longer just so they could keep an eye on my drain and was discharged at 2pm. LONG DAY.

So as for recovery, I'm just laying around today since I can't feel my leg. But then starting tomorrow I have to bend my leg every hour and do straight leg raises every two hours while I'm awake. I can do 50% weight bearing tomorrow, but I have to wear a brace while I'm up walking. I can't get the dressing wet, so I don't know how showering is going to work. I'll be going for a follow up appointment probably next week to take the stitches out and get more instructions. I'm just so happy it is over, but now the hard part is going to begin.

One week

I can't believe it is only one week until my surgery now. I am totally freaked out about it. I'm still worried whether I need it done or not, and I don't want to change my routines. I'm worried about the strain that this might put on my marriage. I'm worried about the recovery, whether it will be easy for me or last forever. I'm worried that this won't fix my knee problems, or it will make my hip problems worse. Too much to think about and I have to make it through another week of work. I hope my husband can help distract me this week...