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.