Today is Day 7 - a nurse from the home health care agency came to change my dressing. He said he's seen lots of knees and this is the BEST KNEE he's ever seen! There was almost no drainage on the dressing, and the actual incision looks amazing. He counted 35 staples, and he said they all look ready to pop out. There was only one that might "ouch" as it looks stuck to skin. He also said that my low amount of bruising is amazing. He had not seen this silver infused foam dressing before, and he was really impressed with it. He said he is going to start requesting it. (I have photos of today's dressing change. If you want to see them, let me know and I will email them to you.)
We talked a little about pain. When he arrived, I was sitting on the bed icing Bessie after doing my morning exercises, and so he asked what my pain level was. I said it was maybe 1 and that was a stretch. I took a pain pill about 10:30 before my exercises, but my leg doesn't really hurt. At times it feels stiff and swollen, but I don't think it has really hurt much at all in the last couple of days. Day 1 was a bad pain day. Days 2 and 3 required regular doses of meds. By Day 4 I wasn't taking much at all. Now I'm taking it more as a precaution before I exercise, rather than waiting until the pain starts. Certainly I will take it before PT tomorrow again. I have been very amazed by how quickly the pain level dropped and by how easily managed it is.
Ok - so physical therapy. Yesterday, Brian came. He is the PT Coordinator for this agency, so he does the initial evaluations. He was here a little over an hour, and he put me through my paces. Everyone warned me that PT would hurt - and it did. I also felt very swollen all evening. His main goal is to stretch my muscles, so to that end he squeezed my knee. OW !!! He also taught me how to squeeze my knee, so I've done it myself a few times. I sit on the bed with my legs out straight. Then I wrap a sheet around the bottom of Bessie's foot. I grab both ends of the sheet and pull... hard... and squeeze my knee as hard as I can as far as it will go, and hold it for a 5-count. I do that at least 10 times in a session. He said that he usually has a goal of getting people to a 125 degree bend. He said that because my calves and thighs are larger, I might only be able to get to 110 or 115. I think I was at 70 yesterday, so he's hoping for 80 after a week.
He also instructed me in tighter quad sets. That is where I have Bessie out straight and push the back of my knee down as hard as I can into the bed. I am supposed to do that 30 times in a session. He said that is probably the most important thing to keep doing as much as I can tolerate. I can also do it in a chair with my leg on a footstool.
There was another thing he did that I begged him to stop, and this one almost made me cry. He put his arm under my thigh with his hand on my other thigh, and pushed my leg down on his arm. O M G !!!! PLEASE STOP!!! Let's hope we don't do THAT one again!
When Brian was getting ready to leave, he informed us that Andrew will be the one coming now. WHAT? I really liked Brian and I wanted to keep him! Ok fine - now I have to break in someone else! Andrew will be here on Wed and Fri. Something to look forward to!
One more little bit of progress has happened since Brian was here. When I used my walker, I was taught to move the walker, then step into it with Bessie, then step with good leg. So it is a very halting gate: walker, step, step; walker, step, step. Now, I can just walk more normally and push the walker ahead of me until I get to a corner. My leg has felt very strong all along, but now my quad sort of trembles because of all the exercising. Brian assured me that I can't hurt my new hardware. It is stronger than my old parts. I had always heard other people say how strong their leg felt after surgery, but it is hard to believe until you experience it for yourself. Indeed I do feel my strongest when I am standing up straight on both legs. Pretty amazing.
Have a great day!
:)Amy
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