Defying Gravity

My Mother's Day weekend

First family hike in almost 2 years! I was hiding from the sun.

I almost cried. First time on a horse in a few years. I LOVE horses, and it's one of the things I was most concerned about when I got my diagnosis. I wanted to take this boy home with me :).

 I got to sit on Oreo, the Steer. He was awesome and oh so soft. 

The family. It's awesome to be able to to do family activities again.

Still alive

It has been crazy here. Crazy. In the month of April and the first 2 weeks of May I had at least one sick kid per week. The climax was reached the second week of May when I was at the hospital every-single-day for various appointments. To be fair one of them was my own, but still. It felt like I lived there. I did have to go again this week, for my quarterly chest x-ray, so I have been to the hospital at least once per week for 7 weeks. Yuck.

My appointment was to see my surgeon who gave me clearance to do this



Because of this

Isn't that an awesome x-ray? The tech took it while I was standing up. This shows lots of bone growth, lots of muscle growth and an implant that is holding up really well. Because of that I have been cleared to do pretty much anything besides martial arts, aerobics and sports like volleyball. Oh and running, of course.

Physical therapy is going really well and becoming more challenging. Some of the new exercises are one-legged squats, ladder drills while "jogging"/shuffling, monster walks, one-legged bridges (HATE these with a passion) and long arc quads with ankle weights. I notice that i'm not limping as bad as before and I can tell by the way my clothes fit that the muscle in my legs and butt is growing. It's awesome and i'm very excited.

It feels like a fog has been lifted and I can see clearly again.

Livestrong Austin 2011

One of my goals for 2011 was to walk and ride a bike for the upcoming Livestrong Austin event. I've had to modify my goals a bit, I don't think i'll be ready to ride at the event. However I have registered to walk in the 5k.

To say that i'm excited is a major understatement.

I almost cried.

Okay, I did cry.

If anyone is interested in donating, even one dollar, I would really appreciate it. Here is the link to my website.

It's been one hell of a week

This week has been crazy. Crazy I tell you. I either haven't time to sit down and type, been too tired to think of what to type, and the one day I did have a chance the (insert curse word of your choice) computer unplugged itself and died.

Here is one reason things were so crazy

Baby girl is okay. She was a trooper and had to be IV sedated to have an abscess lanced. She impressed the doctors and the nurses with how well she did. That's my girl!

Now that I got the important stuff over with, on to me.

I am doing really well. Only two more days and I can get rid of the brace. It's a "one size fits none" model and no amount of cutting or velcro will keep it on my leg. It likes to do a slooooowwww slide down my leg when I start sweating, eventually it ends up around my ankle and I have to unsnap it to get it back up. Big pain in the rear end.

In physical therapy I have been able to use the Elliptical machine. It gets less awkward the more I use it but I am still out of breath in 10 minutes, and I'm drenched in sweat. Which makes it fun when I move onto mat work and stick to the mat. Like today, with my poor sunburned skin. Yeah, not pleasant. Along with the Elliptical machine kicking my butt I am doing lots of new exercises AND agility work with the ladder. I was SO happy I didn't fall flat on my face the first time I navigated the ladder. Making a fool of myself is something I do very easily, I just don't want to do it there.

This afternoon I did some assisted pull-ups with my new pull-up bands. Unfortunately I am still a weee too heavy for the band to really help so I ended up doing a jumping/band assist combo. Ten overhand and six underhand. At least it's a start and the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Non leg related I am starting a "house reorganization" project. When we moved here I was on crutches so things didn't get done/put away the way I normally would have. Now that I can move around, am cooking more and seeing more of the house I have decided it's time for a major cleaning/organization project. I started on the kitchen today and will hopefully finish tomorrow. I have already warned the long suffering husband and kids to be prepared.

The Race

I can walk! I can walk! I can walk!

Yipppppeeeeeee!!!!! To say that I am excited and happy is the understatement of the year. Lots of good news all the way around today. The x-rays showed that the bone graft in my leg has completely fused and that I'm already forming new, strong, bone around the bottom of the implant. My surgeon asked me if I was ready to ditch the crutches, umm, yeah! So ready! I do have to wear the brace for another 2 weeks, but that is bearable and after 20 months on crutches 2 weeks is nothing.

After the appointment I walked out of the exam room, with.no.crutches. It was weird, but felt good and didn't hurt. This is so different from last time, when it took me a month to transition because of leg and knee pain. My muscles is a bit sore but overall, I feel really good and have been walking all over the house. I'm excited to clean up the house! I have two FREE hands. For as long as I live I will never, ever, ever take walking and having 2 free hands for granted again.

I have been cleared to do pretty much everything.. whatever that means LOL. I know I can't run and jump and will ask my physical therapist tomorrow for clarification on what I can do. I didn't want to ask my surgeon.. i'm sure he already worries about me. He told me to be careful at least four times. I wanted to say "Really, do you think I want to have get back on crutches or have surgery again? Of course i'm going to be careful!".

Hopefully my limp/gait isn't too bad and my physical therapist can give me a list of exercises I can start doing at home as well as in the clinic. I have a 5K Livestrong walk in Austin I need to start training for!

Tomorrow is the big day and a major "oh crap" moment today

After 20 months of being on crutches (well 2 months I was allowed off but it took me a while to transition to no crutches and by the time I transitioned we figured out that it wasn't working)  I have my big appointment tomorrow. I am crossing my fingers and toes that everything looks good and I will be allowed to lose the crutches and the knee brace. At this point I don't know which I hate more....

My major "oh crap" moment happened while at the gym lifting weights. I finished my bench press, my inverted rows and then moved onto cable rows. Apparently that was a bit much for my shoulders, because.. well you know, they get a LOT of work using crutches. I was in the middle of a row when I felt a "pop" in my left shoulder and felt an ache. At that point I said a not-very-nice word in a loud voice, stopped my upper body workout and finished my gym visit by riding the Spinning bike. When I got home I still had some shoulder pain, and a few more choice words, took some ibuprofen and tried to take it easy with my shoulder (HA!). Hopefully this is nothing bad and I don't think it is, even though it is annoying. Once my surgeon allows me to stop using crutches tomorrow, see i'm thinking positive, I should be able to rest my shoulder for a few days. I'm not even thinking of the off chance that he'll tell me to use one crutch because that won't allow my left shoulder to rest and I don't even want to go there in my mind. In fact.. I may be able to use this to my advantage by whining about my poor shoulders and my shoulder pain.

We'll see what he says tomorrow!

Slowly getting rid of some of this pudge!

Since my surgery I have lost about 10-15 lbs! Not too shabby, considering most of my time has been spent on the couch with my leg propped up. I do try to be as active as I can, however I do tire easily and past experience has taught me to be very cautious when things start aching. The reason i'm not sure about how much weight I've lost is because I couldn't get an accurate reading on the scale when I was non-weight bearing. It's a bit hard to balance on the scale with one leg and the numbers bounced around a bit so I just guestimated.

It all started when I was in the hospital post surgery. The food was just gross and I didn't have much of an appetite so I didn't eat much. Not exactly the best way to lose weight and my husband started double checking and adding things to my hospital menu. I am not a picky eater... I will eat almost anything when i'm hungry. When I refuse to eat that is saying something about the food. After I got home from the hospital I still didn't have much of an appetite, thank you pain medication, and didn't want bread or pasta anymore. I had some serious vegetable and fruit cravings, which I think was my bodies way to counteract the pain medication (morphine is known to slow down the bowels). Then I found out about a Facebook Group that Jennifer Boudreau Clements started, called Lose to Live. Here is a link to her blog http://andsomefruit.blogspot.com/. Jennifer lost 200 lbs and is now a Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor who motivates everyone around her. I can't thank her enough for adding me to the group!

Several people in the group raved about the recipes in a certain cookbook so, of course, I had to go out and buy it.

So far, all of the recipes that I have made have been a hit. And the recipes are versatile. I made the Swiss Chard Frittata recipe, using Swiss Chard from our garden and a leftover red bell pepper. My husband made a frittata this morning using left over spinach and sun dried tomatoes.

Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients

Saute

Add Egg

Finish in Oven

Breakfast is served!

The awesome thing is that I don't ever feel really full or really hungry. And I don't get major cravings anymore.  My strength levels are good too, in fact I'm strong enough to finally be able to buy this shirt. I could probably cut more calories and lose weight a bit faster. However I want to make sure that I continue to heal, grow bone and gain some muscle.

Knee range of motion is stalling and my scar is starting to fade

I was trying to figure out an exciting title but.. well... I gave up.

My husband reminded me that it's been a few days since I've written something. I was going to write something on Friday, but with the tragedy in Japan I felt a bit selfish wining about my issues.

The title is pretty self explanitory. My range of motion has stalled at about 110-115 and I am extremely frustrated. I know some of it scar tissue because when I aggressively massage my scar and knee I will feel little 'pops' which is scar tissue breaking up. I've also had a few 'pops' while doing my patellar massage so I'm sure that there is some scar tissue there holding me back. I know that my physical therapist can do some manual manipulation to help things along, I just don't want to need that. I've never had issues getting my range of motion back so that makes it even more frustrating.

Now to the good news. My scar is starting to fade, yippee. (Which means I won't have 4th graders walking by me looking at my leg giving a horrified gasp and yelling "woa"). I started using Mederma cream upon the recommendation of the Tech at my surgeons office.

I've only been using it for 1 week but I think my scar is starting to lighten up. I'm planning on taking progress pictures to compare. The directions say that it should improve the appearance of a new scar in 8 weeks, a few months in an old scar. Since I have a combination of scars I will probably have to use it for 3-4 months.

Here are some before pictures of my scar. Hope this stuff does what it says it does! I would like to get rid of some of this redness.

Snickers

It's been an eventful week.

On Monday my parents left nice and warm Texas for snowy and cold Oregon. I do not envy their drive. Hopefully they will be back home, safe and sound, today.

Sometime on Monday, we're not sure if it was when my parents were loading up their car and had the front door open, or when we had the back door open because we were self-cleaning the oven, one of our cats got out. We weren't too concerned, she's snuck out before and usually hangs out in the neighbors yard until she wants to come inside. Then she scares the living daylights out of us by jumping onto our bedroom screens in the middle of the night.

Tuesday came and went, no Snickers. By Tuesday evening we were starting to get concerned, so my oldest and I walked up and down our street asking the neighbors if they had seen her. I had visions of the neighbor dog mauling her, an owl getting her, or her being hit by a car (we did drive around the neighborhood and there were not kitty carcasses so that eased my mind a bit).

On Wednesday we went online and filled out a form that would be sent to all of the animal shelters in the area, with a picture of Snickers and her microchip #. By this time my husband and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that Snickers had either died or someone had found her and took her in. The kids were pretty sad, we got her as a 6 week old kitten, she was found after she and her litter mates were dumped on the side of the road, and she's been part of this family for almost 4 years. Even our other cat, Sampson, seemed mopey and sad.

Wednesday night at 10 pm, just as my Netflix show was ending, I heard a faint "meow". Almost immediately our German Shorthaired Pointer, Otto, ran too the door wagging his tail. Sampson got up off the couch and ran to the door too. As I was getting up I heard a series of "MEOW, MEOW, MEOW" right at the door, how dare I leave that poor cat outside while she obviously wanted in. When I opened the door Snickers walked right past me to the food bowl. Typical cat behavior, here we were worried and she didn't even care, all she wanted was food.Still, we went to bed happy knowing that she was safe and nothing bad had happened.

This morning, as we were getting up, we heard excited little feet coming down the stairs. Elise, our youngest, came into our room carrying Snickers in her arms and the look on Elise's face was priceless. Totally melted my heart. She was so happy to get her "Snicky Licky" back and couldn't stop smiling and giggling. The boys were excited too. Snickers does the "bed shuffle" at night. She sleeps with every child for a portion of the night and the boys really missed that.

As of right now Snickers is still sleeping in one of the kids rooms so whatever she was doing outside really tired her out. Hopefully she won't get outside again.

Soreness is here and "real" life is returning

On Wednesday I got the go ahead to move up to 50% weight bearing and ever since my right leg has not been happy.  I was quite the sight on Thursday morning when I was really hobbling around the house and the physical therapy clinic muttering "ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch". Thankfully the soreness, and stiffness in my ankle and foot, is getting much better as my leg adjusts to being used again. It's really weird but I almost feel as if my right leg is longer than my left, however when I look in the mirror I look even, and I have noticed that the feeling is going away the more I use my leg. I guess I'll find out at the end of March if my leg is uneven. (I hope not!).

My x-ray pictures were pretty impressive and my surgeon was thrilled with my progress. The reason my surgeon likes the Biomet Distal Femur Compress is because it saves bone by putting counter pressure on the end of the femur which, ultimately, encourages bone growth and keeps it strong. According to my x- rays my bone is already starting to grow wider and thicker along the end of the implant. The humerus bone that they placed along the length of my femur and implant to stabilize everything is starting to mold into my femur. See, all of that hobbling and gym time have really helped with my healing, even when certain people (ahem long suffering husband) thought I was crazy.

Speaking of gym time... I have managed to PR on my bench press and am progressing very nicely with my upper body lifts. I have missed going to the gym and am really happy that even though I haven't been going to the gym consistently the past year or so I haven't lost much strength.

Another exciting thing happened this week. I finally got to see Wicked!!  Sorry for the picture quality, it was taken by cell phone. Our seats were all the way at the top and the staff was worried about my being able to go up the steps but I made it. The seating was a bit tight and I had to maneuver myself around to get comfortable with my leg but it was well worth it. It was an awesome show.

Last but not least my parents are (finally) leaving tomorrow. They've been a huge help with everything but now that I'm able to drive again they are going back to Oregon. It's going to be weird, we've had visitors since the beginning of January and it's going to seem so quiet and weird. I have a feeling that between the kids after school activities, guitar lessons and practice, and soccer we'll be too busy to notice things being too weird and quiet at home.

Hard to believe its been 6 weeks

Tomorrow is the big day. If my x-rays look good I will go to 50% weight bearing and then, hopefully, in 4 weeks I will get rid of the crutches for good. It's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited but honestly it's really hard for me to get excited about anything regarding my leg. It seems like the past 18 months have been a constant stream of excitement and then major letdown so my mind is preparing itself for the possibility that something could be wrong tomorrow. I know, I know. I should think positive but it's hard (imagine me saying this in a whiny voice).

On a more positive note I think that my surgeon will be pleased with my progress. As of last Wednesday my range of motion was 112, I've had no issues with riding either the recumbent or conventional bike, and I can keep my leg straight when lifting it straight up in the air. I'm also back to regular weightlifting at the gym and I have lost a few pounds.

Perfect Song

I love this song so much. It's a must share.

Update on my goals

A few weeks ago I wrote about my goals for this year. While I haven't been able to get a huge head start on my goals for the year I'd like to think I'm moving in the right direction.

I've been lifting heavy upper body weights at the gym. I still feel a long way off from being able to do a dead hang pull-up a lot of my upper body strength was preserved by using crutches the past 19 months.

Since joining the Facebook weight loss group I have lost some weight, my clothes fit differently and there are definite changes when I look in the mirror. Since I'm on one crutch it's a bit hard to figure out how much I weigh, since the scale won't settle on one particular weight I have to guestimate. However, I'm not going to obsess about the scale, or a certain number, I'm using it as a tool to satisfy my curiosity. My goals of strength and crossing the finish line at various events are much more important than a number or a certain size.

Speaking of crossing the finish line.... I had a conversation with one of the physical therapists last week about my goal of doing the Austin Livestrong 5k walk. He told me that in his opinion I would have issue no with training or walking a 5k, as long as I get off crutches soon so I have time to train. Just in case, I hobbled 1/3 a mile this past weekend with two crutches and 1 leg. It took me about an hour, but I did it. I hope I don't need to hobble 5k, but just in case it's better to be prepared.

It's been a crazy week

This past week has been a bit crazy so I haven't had much chance to really collect my thoughts and write.

Last Friday everything here shut down because we actually got some SNOW! I didn't believe it until I saw it, needless to say it shut the schools and my physical therapy clinic closed for the day. I did my therapy at home and enlisted the help of my oldest son with some of the exercises. He wasn't too excited but he helped me out with the bribe of playing a video game.

Saturday was spent running errands and I noticed that the bottom of my scar seemed bumpy and was itching, right at the suture line. That evening I saw something on my scar and tried to wipe it off, then realized it was pus. I squeezed a bit, just to make sure, and a bunch of nastiness came out. To put it mildly I freaked. My husband drove me to the ER while I was trying not to panic and think about an infection in my leg ruining my implant and new knee. I was diagnosed with an infection in my sutures, which is apparently pretty common, especially in someone having as many sutures as me. It's nothing really serious, but it was a good thing I went in because even mild infections can get serious very quickly. After being examined by the ER doctor and the Orthopedic Fellow on call I got 10 days worth of antibiotics and was sent home.

My physical therapist, surgeon and I think some of the blame of the infection is the pads on the knee brace. The pads get sweaty when I work out and then they rub against my incision. I was using silver impregnated band-aids to cover my incision but I started having a reaction to the tape and had to discontinue using them. When I had my ER follow up appointment with my surgeon, he pretty much said it was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't situation". Hopefully, between the antibiotics and the incision and sutures completely healing I won't have any more issues.

The good news for the week is that my range of motion is now at 107 and my pain is getting much better. I went one day this week without taking my morphine and I only need percocet for break through pain when I go to physical therapy. I tried one physical therapy session without percocet and while it wasn't too bad I decided that I'd rather take the percocet and be completely pain free.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I hit an important milestone the other day. I took my 15mg of morphine and it controlled my pain all day, so well that I didn't need any percocet for breakthrough pain. Woohoo. Of course I didn't go to the zoo or gym that day, I pretty much sat around the house except for a short excursion to Peter Piper Pizza with the family. But still, yeah for milestones!

Yesterday was a physical therapy day and oh boy I am feeling it today! So much that my aching leg woke me up and I woke my long suffering husband up to get me a percocet. Of course, being the nice guy that he is he jumped out of bed with a smile on his face and a song on his lips... oh wait, that was the dream I had. In reality he kind of grumbled and then made a mad dash to the kitchen so he could get back to the bed I was keeping warm. See, wasn't that thoughtful of me? I'm kind of hoping tomorrow's physical therapy session doesn't result in a leg so sore that it wakes me up. I'm trying to figure out what I did that would make me that sore, the only thing I can think of is the recumbent bike since I was a bit achy after Monday's gym session. Maybe I'll have to limit my time to 5 minutes during therapy sessions since I'm doing more exercises afterward. I'll have to talk to my therapist about that tomorrow.

My physical therapy session went really, really well. My therapist and the assistant therapist told me that I should be the poster child for knee replacements and that I am far advanced in my recovery than the other patients they see. Especially after three weeks (today) post surgery. Someone made the comment that I should work out with the other knee patients to get them to stop whining. Ha! See being stubborn and determined work in my favor sometimes. I rode the recumbent bike for about 10 minutes, normal seat position which means my range of motion is somewhere in the 100's. Then I hopped on one of the exercise mats and did some heel slides, with 5 second holds; ankle pumps, all 4 ways; clam shells (ugh); Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) for 10 seconds on 50 seconds off; and ice, while putting my ankle up and concentrating on stretching my leg, to work on my flexion.

We didn't have a chance to go to the gym so my husband and I worked out at home in the evening. I had to get a little more creative since I'm on one leg and can't do a dead hang pull up or get on the ground to do a push up. Well I could get on the ground, getting up would be a bit more interesting. Thankfully I found my exercise bands so I could do some band rows, lat pull downs and shoulder presses. I did incline push ups using my bathroom counter as support and then my husband hoisted me up onto the pull up bars so I could hold myself up and control myself coming down. As soon as I am able to walk I am getting some of these pull up bands so my husband doesn't have to hoist me anymore.

On my last bit of news, I have joined a weight loss group on Facebook. I've gained a lot of weight since my original diagnosis and it needs to GO. It's been really good to have people in the same boat as me, passionate about health and fitness but needing a little bit of accountability and support. In my case it's been easy to say "it doesn't matter I can't do x,y,z anyway" as an excuse to eat what I want. I know it's not all just my food choices, being inactive for 18 months hasn't helped either, but I need to get out of this rut. I wouldn't have worked out at home if the founder of the group hadn't encouraged me to think outside the box (I was whining about not going to the gym) and just do something. Thanks Jennifer for the advice and support!!

Two weeks and four days later

Today is 2 weeks 4 days since my surgery and other than a cold I had the past few days I feel really good. I know part of it is the drugs I'm on, I take an extended release pill every twelve hours and percocet for breakthrough pain. The extended release pills are doing their job wonderfully, if I take a percocet it's only one at a time and I take one as a preventative, right before doing something active like physical therapy, the store, or gym.

Yesterday we went on a family outing to the zoo which was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, sunshiny and 80 degree with a bit of a breeze. I wish I could say that I hobbled through the entire zoo but I relented and let my husband rent a wheelchair for me so he could push me. Just FYI I hate wheelchairs. Really hate them. I did get up a few times to hobble through narrow spaces, down a steep narrow path and up a hill. My husband kept ordering me to sit back down in the chair when I started up the hill and being the good wife that I am I ignored him and kept going. I felt bad for him, no need for him to push all ...lbs of me up a hill when I am perfectly capable of doing it myself. It was a great day to get out, but I was ready to go home when we were done. My knee was pretty achy and needed to be iced when we got home.

Today was pretty good awesome because I realized how quickly I heal and how strong my body really is. Yes, it did take me a while to figure this out (I blame the drugs for slowing down my brain) but, really, after what my poor body has been through in the past 18 months.. and it's still going strong and healing. It's just amazing. Today's workout consisted of bench press, I went up to 75 lbs but could have easily gone up in weight. I decided to take it a bit easy, after all I'm still on crutches and it's the only way I have to get around. I did some shoulder and back exercises and then, just to see what I could do, did some tricep cable pull downs, balancing on one leg, at 35 lbs. I think I broke the heart of the guy before me because he did 5 lbs less than me and he was on two legs. The highlight of the entire workout was when I sat on the recumbent bike, with the seat in the normal position, and was able to do a full revolution.. well actually 10 minutes worth. Woohoo!

Post surgery physical therapy appointment

I finally met with my physical therapist and one of her students yesterday. The appointment went really, really well and she is extremely pleased with my progress. She laughed when I told her about leaving the hospital early and going to the stairwell to navigate the steps so I could leave early. She asked the student if he could tell what kind of patient I would be. At this point i'm just ready to GO. I don't want to hurt myself, or do something stupid, but i'm going to push myself so i'm ready to walk when I get the go ahead.

I was mistaken the other day when I said my range of motion was at 70, it's at 94.. or at least it was yesterday. It could be more now. My flexion is at 0 when I rest it down on the floor or the therapists table. However I can't keep it at 0 when lifting my leg straight up, which is fine, for now. For my therapy I had little electrodes stuck to my leg transmitting a pulse for 10 seconds every minute. When I felt the pulse I had to flex my leg and concentrate on pushing my knee down on the table. This is supposed to strengthen the muscle and encourage healing, without stressing my knee and new femur. I go back to physical therapy next week, and will go 3 times a week for a month. When my surgeon clears me to walk my therapist will reevaluate my progress and we'll set new goals and plan new exercises.

After my physical therapy appointment my husband and I went to the gym to lift some weights. It was fun and I got lots of stares with my bandaged leg, brace and crutches. It felt SO good getting out and doing something physical. The only problem was that I was pooped by the time we were done and I just couldn't hobble through the parking lot to the car, so I stood on the curb while my husband brought the car to me. He's nice like that!

Staples are gone

My new x-ray with the Biomet Compress Distal Femur Replacement

Look ma. No staples!

I had my surgery follow up today and everything looks great! I have full extension of my leg and my range of motion is at 70. I can also lift my leg straight up when I'm in a sitting position (I got a hi-five from my surgeon on that one). As you can see in the picture the staples have been replace by steri-strips that will come off in the next few days. Once the steri-strips fall off I will be able to apply lotion to the scar, but I can't use any kind of Vitamin E oil, or special scar lotion, for another 2 weeks.


I start physical therapy tomorrow and cannot wait. Of course I will probably change my tune AFTER physical therapy is over and I am stiff and sore. After physical therapy the plan is to head to the gym to lift some weights and hang out with my hubby. One of my goals for the year is to do a dead hang pull up, time to start working on my upper body strength.

Recovering slowly

I had my husband take some pictures of the healing process. He has a better view than I do (ha ha).

Entire Leg

Knee

Close Up

Pretty ain't it? The yellow is from the Iodine wash they use to cleanse  the skin for surgery and the red blotches are from blisters I got from the tape they used to hold the wound vac in place. So far everything looks pretty good, can't wait to get the staples taken out.

As of today my Range of Motion is around 45 and I have full extension. I've also tried toe touching while walking, but that is just a big pain-in-the-butt. I just don't have the time, nor patience, to worry if I'm "breaking an eggshell" when I put my right foot down. My knee has started popping a bit when it's swollen, but from what I've read this is normal when the knee has been replaced but the patella has been left since the swelling affects the way the patella tracks. Just another thing to add to the list of questions for my (poor) surgeon.

I am home

I got home yesterday, around 3 pm, which was a bit earlier than expected but I was ready to go. I passed all of my physical therapy requirements, and then some, and my pain was being managed without the use of morphine. I was tired of needing to call, and wait, for someone to come into my room whenever I had to get up to use the bathroom, or needed anything at all. The food was terrible, rest non-existent, bed uncomfortable, and there was no reason I needed to be there anymore. I do think my doctor was surprised when I asked to go home, but since he couldn't come up with a reason to stay he let me leave.

My pain isn't that bad, I'm very pleasantly surprised and can't figure out if it's because this surgery is just that much easier or if my pain tolerance is just that much higher. My biggest complaint is the feeling of the staples digging into my skin when I hobble around wearing the brace. BIG difference from the first surgery. Using ice helps with the irritation so I made sure to grab two reusable ice bags from the hospital before I left.

The nicest part of being at home will happen in a few hours. The post surgery shower! Aaahhhh, can't wait. I was really surprised when my surgeon told me to go ahead with the shower, but i'm not complaining. My hair is a mess and the tape residue needs to come off.

Pictures

Morning of Surgery January 13, 2011

Today January 16, 2011 

Support Stockings

My Wound Vac

 Removing the Wound Vac. It was stapled to me in some places!

Whew, Glad That Is Over With!

At this moment I am sitting in my hospital bed, almost typed  hotel for some reason, listening to the noise outside my door. I am extremely sleepy, however when I try to lay down I either can't sleep fall asleep, someone comes into my room to check on me or something beeps. Sigh. Hospitals are not restful. 

The surgery was pretty uneventful. We arrived at the hospital on the 13th around 5:45 am and were called back for vitals, and to make sure I was really me, around 7 am. From that point on everything went pretty fast. I changed into my gown, had my IV placed (first stick!), talked to the anesthesiologist who had the personality of a door, and made sure my personal belongings were labeled. At 7:30 I was wheeled back to the pre-op room to get my epidural, which I don't remember much of because they gave me Fentanyl. I do remember the anesthesiologist taking forever and needing to retry because the first time he placed the epidural line he hit a blood vessel. Soon after that I was wheeled to the operating room the last thing I remember was an oxygen mask on my face and the anesthesiologist letting me know he was giving me something to help me relax.

When I woke up I was still in the operating room and was being moved onto a bed. Someone wheeled me into recovery where I got some ice chips, apple juice and Zofran for nausea. X-ray techs came and took a series of pictures and then I had to hang out a bit until they collected my belongings and found someone to take me upstairs.

When I finally made it up to my room I was hooked and unhooked to a bunch of things, asked how much pain I was in.. not much because the epidural was doing its job beautifully and then left to "rest". Of course they needed blood, which my poor little veins just couldn't provide. I hadn't had anything to eat all day and when I did try to eat I threw up. It became a vicious cycle with the nurses coming in here trying to find a decent vein to take blood from and my trying to eat and throwing up. Eventually they ended up calling someone from the Burn Unit, apparently they can get a vein on anyone,  to come down and they were able to get the blood that they needed. Afterward I got a nice big dose of Phenergan and slept. 

My surgeon came up and talked to me, right before I zonked out, and he told me that the surgery went really, really well. They were able to exert 800 lbs of pressure on my leg! Go me!!! That has been one of my biggest worries that my bone strength has deteriorated that past 18 months and he reassured me that it hadn't. It was still nice strong and solid. The plan was for the epidural to be taken out today and for me to start hobbling the hallways but when the Resident came up this morning he told me that they were going to let me rest, pain free, one more day. My Physical Therapist came up to say "hi" and was disappointed that she wouldn't be the one to get me out of bed. She told me she was looking forward to seeing me in the clinic and that we would start out very gently, but she was looking forward to getting me up and moving. Eventually.

From what I've been told, tomorrow's plan is to get the epidural out and get me up and hobbling for a bit. On Sunday my surgeon will come up to remove my drain and i'll be able to start doing some range of motion exercises. I'm not sure when i'm going home, maybe Monday or Tuesday, basically when I can control my pain without morphine and I can get around without too much trouble. I will be toe touching only for 6 weeks and after that I will be full weight bearing. It's so weird to think that i'll be off of crutches the end of February. Perfect timing because my husband and I have tickets to Wicked on February 25. Maybe that will be our night to celebrate being crutch free? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Surgery Tomorrow!

My pre-op appointment was early this morning, at 7:30. Orthopedics warned me that it could take up to 4 hours, but the receptionist at the pre-admission unit assured us we would be done in 2 hours. HA! When we left the hospital it was 11:30. Orthopedics for the win!! The appointment was pretty uneventful, just filled out lots of paperwork (my husband wanted to be funny, for the question "What is your race" he put "human". Ha Ha.),
 gave a vial of blood, had a chest x-ray taken and talked to a nurse about what to do to prepare for the surgery. I have to shower tonight and tomorrow morning and they gave me some special soap to use, if I wash my hair I can't use any conditioner. I also talked to the Nurse Anaesthetist to find out what to expect with my medication and she made note of some things that I have had issues with in the past.

The plan for tomorrow is to arrive at the hospital at 5:45, check in and get situated. Someone, not a student, will start my IV. I'll answer the same questions I've been asked 10x's already, fill out a form or two, and wait for the good drugs to arrive. The big difference will be that once I get into the operating room I will get an epidural, whereas last time they gave me the nerve block in the waiting area. I am hoping that the epidural will work much, much better than the nerve block. The only thing I'm really nervous about is the pain after I wake up and for the first 2-3 days.

I Have A Surgery Date

And now i'm starting to get nervous. 

Surgery is scheduled a week from today, Thursday January 13th. Surgery is estimated to be 4 hours long and the hospital stay from 4-7 days. It all depends on my recovery; how well I do with therapy, and my pain. 

Good news is that after the surgery I will have a brand new scar. My surgeon is going to trim the current scar, all the way out to the "railroad" tracks running down my leg from the staples scars left over from the previous two surgeries. This time I will get sutures, which, in his opinion, leave a nicer, neater, smaller scar. We will see. 

Awesome news is that six weeks after surgery I will be off of crutches. It's hard to believe that in March I won't be using crutches anymore. 

Bad news is that the pain will be comparable with my first surgery which is something I am really not looking forward. As happy as I am to finally get this over and done with I am not looking forward to the first 2-3 days post surgery, especially since he wants me up on crutches 1 day post surgery. I am having a very hard time wrapping my head around that since I didn't even want to sit up the day after my first surgery. At least I know that I will get some good pain killers and the pain does get better day after day. 

There really isn't much to update on my knee at this point, besides the screw is continuing to work it's way out. I did find out that when my knee needs to pop and it feels like something is "catching" it is my iliotibial band (IT band) which explains why it's so painful. 

My mother in law is arriving on Monday, the 10th, to help us out with the kids during the surgery and my hospital stay. The kids are so excited, they can't wait to see grandma Sharon and are counting down the days!