Recovery and PT

I have been home from the Hospital for 3 weeks - so I'm a bit delinquent on this - sorry.

My trip home was not difficult. I had the forsight to ask for pain meds about 1/2 hour before I left the hospital so that I was as comfortable as I could be. This is a good time to share that when I had the other knee done I had a terrible time everytime I got into the car for 6 weeks following the surgery - I would get quite ill, all of the symptoms of a migraine except the headache. This time through I have not had any difficulty traveling in a car!

My Physical Therapy (PT) started the Monday after surgery and I have appointments 3 times a week.

During the 1st week of PT, it consisted of stretching, being stretched and manipulated by the therapist, ice and electric stimulation.

In the hospital at my 1st PT session after surgery I had 95 degrees of motion; at the 2nd session after surgery it was 93 degrees - it went downhill from there. At my 3rd PT session after I was at home, they estimated that I only had 80 degrees of motion. Also I had a considerable amount of pain around the knee cap. All in all, not a good 1st week.

On November 30th, I had a followup appointment with the Surgeon. The staples were removed and I had X-rays taken. When I talked to him about the pain around the knee cap, he said told me that my knee cap had been out of alignment to the outside of the knee prior to surgery and he thought that it was just part of the healing process with everything where it should be - if it didn't improve I was to call him. If everything was OK I go back in 10 weeks.

The 2nd week of PT there was some improvement. I started to use the stepper and the exercise bike. On Wednesday my motion was up to 93 degrees and 100 degrees on Friday.

Most of my time was still being spent sleeping, exercising and going to therapy through the 2nd week.

Last week (week 3 post surgery), I started to telecommute a couple of hours a day and things continue to improve at PT (112 degrees of motion as of Friday). I'm now also working on stairs, balance and strength at PT. And I'm down to 1 crutch (unless it's snowy or icy then I'm supposed to use 2 - as of now, I have opted to just stay home when it's bad out!!). This week I have also stepped down from the Oxycontin/Percocet pain control to Vicoden.

During the 1st 2 weeks post surgery, I went to my Mother's single level house to use her walk-in shower - this week, I have been adventuring up the stairs and into our bath tub to shouwer. As nice as the situation is at Mother's house, I prefer to shower in my own house!!

Next week, I will be able to stop using the TEDs (anti-embolism stockings) and the blood thinning medication.

So I feel like everything is very much on schedule - I'm off to knit a Christmas gift!!