First four weeks

A couple of days after second surgery the hospital physio's arrived, I was still in a lot of pain and was surprised that that they pushed so fast to get me up and about. I was fitted with a hinged brace, metal bars with lockable hinge joint at the knee which was set at 10 - 90 degrees, its velcroed to cushioned pads that strap around the shin and thigh, very neat but don't strap them up too tight or can cause excessive cramps and foot pain.

Once on you can move around on crutches, had a few lessons in going up and down stairs (3 days post surgery!) and signed off for release. They told me that I shouldn't put any weight on the leg other than absolute minimal needed for balance when standing up and sitting down, I had a few lurches and really felt them, big message to avoid these at all costs.

The first month which started with a week on Severadol (10mg morphine) plus Paracetamol & 30mg Codeine was very sleepy, spent over half of every day mostly asleep but did find that I needed to move around and did flex the joint during the day which really helped minimize the foot cramps. I went back to the hospital after 3 weeks when staples came out, this stung a bit but surgery scar looked really good and no sign of infection. This was when I learned that it would be at least another four weeks before they would even consider weight bearing. If you have this, no matter how fit you were before then don't expect miracles, it is a very serious inury to a weight bearing surface, and it takes time, expecially if like me artifical bone/ bone grafts were also required to fill up gaps when displaced bone was restored to original placement.