Meet Ned

Today I decided my knee replacement needed a name so I named it Ned. Ned the new knee! Kind of catchy, isn't it? Anyway Ned has been acting up today. We took a short ride in the car and before we even got back home Ned was screaming in pain. I guess it's partly my fault because I forgot to take my pain medication before we left the house. I've been trying to cut back on it because it's addictive. I don't like having to use something like that unless it's absolutely necessary. 

When we got home I took some extra strength Tylenol to take the edge off. Hopefully Ned will settle down after I ice him a lot today. 

Tomorrow will make my 7th physical therapy session. I don't know how much longer I'll continue to go. The sessions are costly and basically we do the same thing at every one, So I could do them at home quite easily. We shall see. 

Hopefully over the next few weeks, Ned will start to feel at home and we'll start functioning properly. Instead of being swollen and irritated, hopefully all of that will abate. I'm doing everything I can on my end to help it out.

If you look at the scar, you'll see some little black speckles. Those are internal stitches that are working their way out. The doctor told me the glue would dissolve over time. I'm putting aloe on my scar as well so hopefully it will be hardly noticeable in many weeks to come.

Oh, woe is me!

Knee replacement surgery is no joke. It's a major surgery and involves a long, hard road to recovery. Believe me, I know! It's been 3 weeks since surgery and I'm still having a lot of pain. The swelling has gone down some, but increases with long periods of standing or physical therapy. But the thing that bothers me the most if the feeling that my skin is going to split open when I bend my knee past a 100 degree angle. How much is that, you say? Well, when seated, a normal person's knee is bent at between 100 and 110 degrees. When you've had knee replacement surgery, forcing the knee to move past 100 degrees can put a lot of stress on the incision and make it feel like it will burst open. Thankfully, the surgeon took a lot of internal stitches and used super glue to hold the skin together, but the feeling of skin stretching past its limit is extremely painful. 

Today was physical therapy day. My therapist, Dr. Makayla, is kind and compassionate, but she knows what has to be done and doesn't let a patient dictate the session. She'll ask me how I'm doing during various exercises and if I say something is causing pain or I feel like I can't do any more, she'll let me rest. I'm glad she's not a slave driver. 

I have to do all sorts of exercises. I spend the first fifteen minutes of therapy on the stepper machine, then I go to seated leg lifts, heel to toe stretches, stepping over hurdles, going up and down steps, and today, I had to do the BlazePod reaction training platform. It's very challenging and reminded me of Twister but with a twist - the circles or pods in this case, light up and light at random times making the person doing therapy pay close attention in order to correctly step on the lighted pod. The timing of the lights increases in frequency the more the session goes on and makes the patient move faster and faster. By the end of my session, I felt like I was on some random online dance game- one my older grandkids might enjoy playing, but I didn't enjoy it. When I was done, I was sore. My therapist knew it and sent me to the icing table for some much needed cooling down. 

All of these exercises are to help loosen up and strengthen my knee while giving me back the mobility I had before surgery. I'm told it will take about 12 weeks before I start to feel better. I hope it's sooner than that. This old lady is struggling.  

 

Day 12

Day 12 since surgery and I won't lie, it's been tough. The swelling makes it difficult to walk, but I do my physical therapy exercises religiously. I don't want to take a chance on having a frozen knee. 

Daily, I have a long list of medications to take. Several are for pain relief, one is for nerve pain, one for nausea, one to prevent blood clots. And on top of those are my regular medications. I feel like I'm popping pills all day, but I'm sure thankful for the pain meds. I just pray I won't get addicted to or dependent on any of them. 

I've only completed 3 physical therapy sessions. I have 9 more to go according to my insurance coverage. The sessions are expensive so I hope they release me after my 9. 

I haven't been brave enough to try using a cane yet, but I know it's coming. I've been on a walker since I came home from the hospital. It's helped me feel more steady on my feet. 

A lot of people said knee surgery isn't that big a deal, but it's major surgery. Some have said I'll be walking well aboy4 weeks post surgery. Others day it takes a good year to get back to walking "normally" again. I'm hoping to be able to get around well by October. I've got a trip planned then and I need my legs to be working well. 

I'm trying to take it day by day, but I'm often impatient. I guess God is trying to slow me down. ☺️