Walking unaided

It’s now fifteen days post-surgery and I thought I’d write another update. The surgeons orders were to stop using crutches last week and to drop the brace when I reached the two week mark. After the first day, I found walking without the crutches went pretty well. I did have times when my knee would buckle but it wasn’t that often.

On Sunday I had a bit of a rough patch and had a few buckling episodes. There were also a couple hours during the day when I would get regular shooting pains to a couple of spots around my ankle. They stopped about as quickly as they began. By the time I went to bed I was really aching and took painkillers. I was unable to sleep through most of the night. It wasn’t so much painful as uncomfortable and I tossed and turned through the night.

It was during this time that I got a case of middle-of-the-night-when-you-can’t-sleep neuroses of sorts. The two week point on Wednesday seemed almost upon me and I was in a panic about walking without the brace so soon. It was quite unreasonable to get so worried then and I realised this even when it was happening. But the worry-wort in me got loose and that was the result. I somehow got through Monday despite only a couple hours of sleep. By evening I was ready to crash so I put some things in order, went to the bedroom and did my exercises and tried to sleep. It didn’t happen as easily as I would have liked and it turned out to be a very broken sleep but at least there was rest. I woke early on Tuesday, did my exercises and went back to sleep for nearly three solid hours…it was a wonderful sleep.

On Monday, I happened to notice a bruise next to my ankle, just about where one of the shooting pains had been on Sunday. I found it curious but didn’t think too much about it until later in the day. I decided to press on it and see if there was any soreness. Big mistake!  I didn’t press hard but the pain was excruciating and it throbbed for several minutes afterwards. I’m not quite sure whether I ever did anything that might explain the pains and subsequent bruise or if this is related to the surgery. It isn’t causing any problem so long as I don’t touch it so will leave it and query the surgeon next week.

Yesterday I woke up and my plan was to wait until later in the day since my surgery was in the afternoon. But the temptation to get to the toilet without the trouble of the brace was enough to get me to try it out. That went okay but I didn’t do anything else right away. A while later, I did get up and walked to the other end of the house  and stayed upright. My knee muscles were rebellious and kept trying to guard my knee so that my leg would freeze. It was obvious how much support the brace has been so far. I had to sit down at one point but ventured a bit further before returning to bed to elevate and rest my knee. It’s amazing how exhausting so little movement can be. I figured I’d spend most of the day resting at that point but did end up getting up and around a few more times during the day. I think I relaxed a bit more as the day wore on and it was more comfortable. I did have a setback when little girl puppy lunged at me from the bed as I was standing next to it. This caused me to lose balance and my knee buckled more than it has before and I was left feeling quite sore and uncomfortable. I took it quite easy after this and did the RICE routine and took pain relief again. Despite it all, I slept reasonably well compared to recent nights.

Today was a somewhat mixed day. I felt a bit more confident and was able to “walk” a bit more naturally a few times. But other times my knee felt stiff and inflexible so that movement was a lot slower and I felt less steady on my feet. Still I managed to move without any fixed support and just stayed near walls and furniture as much as possible.

I’m now able to bend my knee almost to 90 degrees passively and a bit less than that using my leg/knee actively. The hospital physio told me this was my limit until I reach six weeks. But she also said I would be using the brace for four weeks and then my surgeon tells me to take it off at two. It will be interesting to see if he gives different instructions again. I’ve been working on doing a straight leg raise but haven’t got there yet. I feel I am getting close but then a day later I find my muscles are engaging a bit more…so it may still be awhile until I succeed. My goal is to reach that goal before my next appointment next Friday.

I must say the emotional part of recovery has been a bit of a roller coaster. I seem to swing from thinking recovery is going quickly to feeling like it is agonisingly slow process. I think the early loss of the crutches and brace have made it seem like I’m moving along quickly. But the actual healing is still going to take a certain amount of time. I think the surgeon’s aim in removing supports early on is to keep the muscles from atrophying as much as they would with more conservative protocols. I am grateful for this because I’ve lost a lot of muscles in a short time. If I’d been non-weight bearing and in a brace for several weeks, my muscle would have totally disappeared and I’d be starting with nothing.

I haven’t been out of the house since my last appointment but will definitely be venturing out on Saturday evening as we are going out for dinner with family. It should be good getting into the car without a brace on this time. But I will still take it with me because it’s quite possible even a short walk will be more than I’m used to at this point.