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!