Wrapping up week 1, POD7

This week has been a doozy. I knew it would be, but you can only be so prepared and then you just have to wait and see what reality brings...

Thursday morning last week, I walked to the hospital for my surgery. I wanted/needed to walk there. 

I’m glad it was beautiful weather. 

There were a lot of runners out, and I kept thinking how perfect the weather was for running.

 I listened to the song ‘Walk’ by the Foo Fighters. This song means a million things to me. It’s representative of me recovering from an eating disorder, it’s me thriving despite living with anxiety and depression, it’s me putting in the hard work to advance my education/career, and it’s me literally learning to walk again after this knee surgery.   

Pennsylvania Hospital is so beautiful. I’m really grateful to work there and to have been a patient there.

This is my knee before they took me to pre-op. Scarred already from previous surgeries, and relatively busted on the inside.

I’m grateful for the miles this knee gave me. I’m glad it held on as long as it could. I ran several thousand miles with the help of this knee! I met SO many people and saw SO many places and challenged myself in SO many ways...it’s a bittersweet relationship with my knee. Kind of like, “hey sorry you’re not well, I hope you feel better.” And also kind of like, “hey WTF, screw you knee, I just want to run.”

This is 12 hours later (above): after 4.5 surgery hours (almost 6 total OR hours), and 5+ hours in PACU (trying to get pain and oxygen levels under control), when I finally got to my room. I had no idea what was going on under all of that padding but my leg was heavy and it hurt. 

I had a miserable night. 

Everything hurt. 

I wished I hadn’t done the surgery. 

Blah blah blah...

POD1: I went from really struggling in the morning, to trying to feel ok with how shitty I felt, to learning the crutches and getting discharged home, to kinda feeling pretty good. 

I was TERRIFIED to go home. Don’t tell anyone I told you that. But I was really terrified. What if I do something wrong? What if it hurts too bad? What if this is all too much with a busy house and a husband who can’t see? I’m the one who keeps everything moving forward...can I do that and rehab and rest and reinvent my physical self?

My first step was to create a medication schedule. I was prescribed Arthritis strength Tylenol, Gabapentin, and Celebrex...all scheduled, and for pain, as well as oxycodone (a narcotic), as needed for pain. Also prescribed colace (stool softener), Bactrim (antibiotic), and Xarelto (preventative for blood clots). The schedule helped keep my mind straight for sure. I had one day (POD2) where I took the max amount of the narcotic for 12 hours, because OUCH, and then I was off of the narcotics by early morning of day 5, which made me happy.  

I spend 5-8 hours in the CPM machine per day. It’s somewhat boring but feels good to get the leg moving. I try to add ice the last 1/2 hour of each session to accomplish 2 things at once. I’m at 60 degrees flexion for the week, and will start increasing the angle each day this week to get to 90 by the end of week 2. 


Not having 2 hands has been my biggest challenge in getting things done for myself or others around the house. 

Resting things in my sports bra (as seen above) has been a great option for smaller things like toothbrush and toothpaste.  

Putting away laundry away has been possible thanks to this rolling table my mom brought over to be used next to the couch. I had it brought upstairs instead and after I fold the laundry, I put piles on the table and crutch along while nudging the table to whichever dresser/room is appropriate. I’m pretty proud of this discovery!

One last way I have overcome the “no hands” while in motion issue is with shirts that have front pockets. I have a few sweatshirts and a few formerly-used-as-running shirts that has a large front pocket meant to warm hands. Conveniently, they not only warm hands, they can hold a water bottle, and food wrapped in a napkin, and many other things (as seen in the picture above)!

So POD6 (yesterday) was my first Physical Therapy appointment. I feel like anytime I have gone to PT for anything, I’m assuming I’m doing great, and then they inform me that I could/should be so much better. 

So I went to my apt yesterday assuming I was behind where I should be, but knowing that I only had some instructions on a piece of paper to follow so far. I am seeing the same guy who treated me after my diagnostic scope in August, and who told what to do to “pre-hab” for this surgery. 

I was delighted to hear yesterday that I’m doing better than he’s ever seen, and that I am well ahead of the typical patient 6 days out from this surgery. He said it’s obvious I’m doing the work at home and being very intentional about my rehab. He reminded me that the first few weeks are the most important indicators of long term success with this surgery, and I’m doing better than expected which is so good to hear. 

I got my marching orders for this next week:

*straight leg raises: front/back/side, 10 of each, 2x day

*on your belly table hangs

*quad squeezes as often as I can

*patellar mobilization

*CPM to 90 degrees

*whatever you do, don’t fall!

Woke up this morning after a really active and long day yesterday, expecting my knee to be more swollen possibly, and that’s not the case at all! It is much less swollen than just 2 days ago when I first took the bandage off.

 

I’m happy about how well week 1 has gone, and excited to see what progress week 2 has in store for me!

Although this week has gone extremely well and I’m much more functional than I anticipated, this is still hard work and takes a lot of effort. Getting up to pee is A LOT of work. I am wiped out at the end of the day. Staying positive and upbeat on my end is crucial to getting to the end of this, but it doesn’t mean that this is “sunshine and rainbows” (as my oldest would say)...this is hard. And will be for a while. 

Thank you for the well wishes!