Post op progress at ten days

The first several days after surgery have had their ups and downs. I think I’ve been fortunate in having reasonably low pain levels. I’ve been taking high dose naproxen for ten days for inflammation and using Panadeine extra most days for any other pain. I’ve switched to ordinary paracetamol/acetaminophen as of today and that seems to do the trick when needed. After a few days at home we noticed I had massive purple bruises on the back of my knee. I called the hospital and was told this was normal and just blood pooling at the back of the leg from surgery.

The brace I was given to wear when mobile has been a major irritant. I find it difficult to tolerate for long periods of time so mostly keep it off while I’m home. It’s been something of a pain at night as it’s quite noisy to do up and remove the velcro straps if I need to go to the toilet. So mostly I’ve attempted to deal with a full bladder until morning more nights.

The crutches weren’t too bad but did make it difficult to do much more than move around. I was fully weight bearing from the start so they were mostly there to keep me steady on my feet the first days.

I saw the surgeon for my first post-op visit yesterday and he was happy with my progress. I no longer have to use the crutches and I can stop using the brace more all but extended mobilisation when I am two weeks post-op. While that makes me happy I am a bit nervous about being steady enough. Walking without crutches has gone mostly well but I have to keep movement pretty slow and steady. Last night my knee buckled as I was going into to bed and I found that quite unsettling and uncomfortable even though I didn’t do any real damage. This happened again today but I recovered more quickly. I assume I will feel steadier as I build up the muscles.

The surgeon said I need to start working on doing straight leg raises and tightening quad muscles. Tonight I was noticing the difference between good and bad leg and I can clearly see my quad muscles on the good knee but nothing on the bad one. It’s amazing how the muscle atrophies in such a short time. I don’t think it’s hopeless but I will have to work hard to get things happening.

The surgeon also commented on my bruising and noticed my lower leg has some mild bruising that is fading at the front. He also noted the bruise where he second iv was placed. Curiously, the original iv location hardly has a mark on it, despite the vein rupturing. I’m wondering if maybe it didn’t rupture after all and there was some other explanation.

I need to go back and see the surgeon next time he is in the local office as my appointment was scheduled too early to remove the steri-strips. I’m not sure why it was only at nine days when he wanted to see me at two weeks but I stuck with original appointment, Anyway, I couldn’t get through to his main office to make an appointment. Apparently this alternate office doesn’t handle any of this sort of administrative work.

I did find it quite nice to be out of the house yesterday. I wasn’t up to much activity but seeing the outside world was good for a change.

Lastly my right knee is really feeling the pressure now that it’s taken over so much of the work of my left one. Even though I’m fully weight bearing, I can only bend the leg a little and I still tend to use the right to help steady myself. I noticed it was feeling far more tired and worn out today. I think the subluxations on the right are also more obvious to me now and hope it will cope with the long term recovery. Even if surgery is inevitable for the right knee, I would like to have time to properly lose weight before I take that step. One can hope, at least.