terrible awful no-good very bad knee

[TwoBadKneesUSA]

Yeah sounds fairly normal to me as far as it goes.  Keep an eye on it though.  Goop in any form is a bit disconcerting anyway and even more so when you just had surgery.

Gotta love the level after level of bombardment!  Those old games are still fun, even if you can't always finish them.

Milly

[mdk]

Had Follow-Up #1 today. Got my staples out (didn't hurt at all, but maybe that's cuz my skin is all numb?), got some new steri-strips to I guess minimize the scarring, and got some new privileges. Now I get to do "about 50% of normal" weight bearing, still with crutches obviously, and I get to bend up to ninety degrees. I've got two weeks left on my convalescent leave but if I can get to a 90-degree bend comfortably before then, I think I'll go back to work early. It's not that I'm bored, but.... no, scratch that. It's because I'm bored. My good friend is playing the mommy role, and he isn't letting me drive while I'm on the pain pills. So, as long as I can (a) fit into a car again, and (b) not need the lortab all the time, I should be good to go.

OOH! I'm getting a handicap sticker for my car. Rockstar parking everywhere! Awesome. I don't know how long it's gonna last for, but I'll make sure to enjoy it.

That's about it for news. Two weeks down, two more to go before we start talking about PT apparently (something to do with how this doc treats bone healing I guess), so I'm working the SLR's and ankle-pumps until then and stretching my ROM. Which sucks, but I gotta do it someday. I spent most of the afternoon trying to learn my knew knee topography, because it feels totally foreign. I must've looked like a toddler. A giant, hairy toddler.

[TwoBadKneesUSA]

Sounds like you are doing well.  Bored it tough, you don't want to push things to where you undo everything, but the doing not much of nothing can drive you nuts.  I would use the hadicap thing whenever you can.  Let that knee heal.    If you think about it this is a fracture, a man made one, but a fracture all the same.  You want the bone to heal up a bit before you ask a bunch of it.  I'm sure it feels really different.  Mine always did except after a simple clean up scope. It is a bit of a shock to realize your kneecap is FINALLY straight!  Take care and hope you can get back to work doing something soon.

[mdk]

Blargh. Another one of THOSE days.

Time to lay off the motivated stretching. I don't think I'm helping myself by trying to rush all the way to 90. Also time to lay off the "bashing the knee into a table," but that's another matter entirely. This still sucks less than pre-surgery. Not by much -- but still.

On the lighter side, Syracuse-Georgetown is on tomorrow and I've got a front-row seat (to my television). Granted, imagining playing basketball is literally physically painful, which I didn't think was possible before now, but for the Orange I'll suffer through. I don't think is the last home-game of the rivalry, but it's a big one for sure. I wanna see us ranked #!, which is a #1 in capital letters and also an exclamation point. Go Orange, assassinate the Hoyas.

[TwoBadKneesUSA]

ROM should be gained more slowly but in a steady fashion.  I have been guilty of trying to fast track it and just end up makine the darn thing swell more.  So slow and steady.

Hope your team wins.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

[mdk]

Blargh again.

Check out my tiny hairless atrophied leg, and my bulbous swollen knee!



It feels about like it looks -- painful and useless. The picture doesn't really capture the whole contrast -- I'm practically down to skin and bones, with some dangly fat hanging off the back. Gross. I'm starting to think that PT is gonna reeeeeaaallly suck. Already asked the doc what I can do and they said rest ice and elevate, so I guess that's the rest of my week. For happy thoughts today, I thought about what I'd do if it never got better -- if this was as good as it ever got. I'm thinking I'd just cut it off. I'm not sentimental. I just wanna be able to do ANYTHING besides lie on the couch all day watching crappy TV.

My younger dog pooped on the carpet over the weekend, and I cleaned it up as best I could (which hurt) and gave it to my roommate to take out. Apparently he never got around to it. Now there's dogpoop-covered trash swirling around in the wind in my backyard. Betcha nobody bothers to take care of that, either, until I can walk out there myself and do it, which at this rate is probably gonna be a few years. So... yeah. I guess I'm in a good mood.

[TwoBadKneesUSA]

That is some atrophy!  It does come back, but it will take a lot of work.  We all have bad days and days we feel really down.  Your room mate sounds like my kid. "I'll take care of it in a minute."  Just wonder when that minute will be the one.  Ah well.  Make sure you are elevating it above the heart as often as you can.

Milly

[mdk]

luckily for me, asking nicely doesn't seem to help in the least. So there's that.

[TwoBadKneesUSA]

Me either.   lol

[Brambledog]

Hey mdk, just thought I'd check in on your progress and say hi!

That leg is, to be fair, the sexiest limb I've seen in a long time 

This part of your recovery was always going to suck majorly, you're doing really well though. I'm dead impressed that you've been able to drive already!

Muscle atrophy is a nightmare. Mine is still pretty much the same despite months of PT, but then the CRPS is helping that one, so I haven't a clue how it would be without that little contributing factor. You'll get that muscle back again, maybe not exactly the same, but close enough for everyone except you... 

Good luck with it all. Hope the gloop has stopped now, and that PT isn't too hellish when you start. TwoBadKneesUSA is right - slow and steady wins the race on that one...

Look forward to good news updates soon, keep going with the computer games - excellent distraction method! I spent many happy hours on the Tomb Raider games.....especially the older ones where you had to collect that damn blue diamond to be allowed to save your progress!!!

Brams 

[mdk]

Battlefield Therapy does seem to work miracles for my morale.....

Had my 4-week follow up today, with new X-rays. Things are coming along very well -- the maltracking looks a LOT better, and the screws kinda make me feel a little bit like Wolverine (now if only I could get the instant-healing ability....). Bone healing is going a little on the slow side, so I'm looking at another 2-4 weeks before that's really done. In the meantime I can add a little more weight, and assuming all the tricare stuff goes smoothly, I can start PT next week (of course, when have I ever had trouble with TriCare?). The doc offered me some more convalescent leave, but honestly I'm getting cabin fever, and I think at least partial workdays would help. My knee definitely lets me know if I go for more than 3-4 hours without stopping to elevate, so I'm thinking I can work something out where I work in the mornings and come home for rest/pt in the afternoon. So that should theoretically start tomorrow, or maybe Thursday, depending on how long it takes to get my handicap parking tag.

I've worked out the math, and it seems like about 4 days out of the week I feel pretty rad, and the other three are crap -- but still better than pre-surgery. Of course, those four good days are contingent on me not doing anything but elevate and ice, so as I start to become a little more active than a couch-potato, the numbers might shift a little for a while. But that SHOULD be temporary, and a stepping-stone to seven awesome days per week, so I'll take it.

[Brambledog]

Great news! 

Thank goodness you're finally getting somewhere with this. All those weeks of hell must seem like a different country now.... Hope things continue so well, you're working damn hard, you deserve things to come right for you.

Good luck,

Brams 

[TwoBadKneesUSA]

If you feel ready to go back, you probably are.  Hopefully they will work with you and let you elevate as needed and get home to rest as well.  It may even help your case that you want to come back and do something.  I would be careful since the bone healing is a bit lagging, but I can't blame you for wanting to do more than sit on the couch.

Good luck and do let us know how part time works out for you.

Milly

[lululocket]

Hi mdk,

I had a TTT on one leg about two years ago, and I'm having the other leg done in 2 weeks (only 2? I thought I had longer, argh).
Last time I had 2weeks off work, then logged in online and worked from home for about 8 weeks, before braving the train (in London, hideous). I therefore have been through the 'back to work' dance already, and have carefully plotted the next one. Ask me questions! Last time it frankly was a bit too much for me, and this time I'm taking 4 weeks off before working from home.

However, after a few weeks off, I think it will be good to do something (do you have a desk job like me?). Working again was pretty good for feeling less useless. The hardest thing was being uncomfortable easily, and also getting tired and wanting to nap in the afternoon. To help with that, this time we're planning shortened hours (from home), with a 2 hour long lunch break since it takes so long to get anywhere else in the house, and also to do a lunchtime PT session. Once I have 90 degrees, I told my boss I'd be back up to more like a normal length day, just with my extra long lunch still. I also got occupational health at work to sign off on this, whoopee!

My only caution in going back to work is stress of travel, and the extra sleep you will need. When I actually start going back into the office again, pI'll put my hours back to 10-4 again, since I'll still be out of the house 9-5, and frankly the journey absolutely destroyed me on crutches. I started sleeping longer hours! With handicapped parking I guess it's pretty different, but don't underestimate the stress of driving etc. And honestly, I'd do a short week or two first. In fact, my bank holiday related plan is to go back with a two day week, four day week, then finally a full week the third time of trying. Or maybe just have Wednesdays off (rename them snooze days since if you're like me you will sleep more with any extra movement).

Lucy

PS - General TTT encouragement; my op was to correct abnormal anatomy rather than an injury, but let's put it this way, I'm going back for seconds, so it worked pretty well! The constant burning sensation is gone, and I can even sleep more comfortably on the side that has been fixed! Plus I'm starting to trust for the first time in my life that it won't actually dislocate. Yesssssss! I'll start a diary about the second one pretty soon...

[mdk]

Thanks for the encouragement. You're right to caution me... this whole week was a bust, lol. I kept trying to get in, but I have things I needed to do first (visit the DMV, follow-up with military docs, etc). What I've discovered is that I have a lifespan of about 3 hours -- if I don't stop to medicate, elevate, or ice in that time, I turn into a pumpkin. Things took long enough each day of this (short) week that it just never worked out. But it's been good to be driving around and getting used to THAT whole adventure, lol.

But, on the bright side, I got everything else done, so next week I can start up in earnest. They're hooking me up with (officially) half-days, which, knowing MY boss, will translate to "Dude, leave when you need to leave." Which is good, because I anticipate "needing to leave" at different times from one day to the next. The work situation should be simplifying, somewhat.... when I left, I had an extraneous desk JOB, but no actual DESK, because people with real/important jobs had all our resources covered, and I had to scrounge for a vacant computer every day. I *think* I'll actually have my own workstation now, though. Crossing the fingers.  

And yeah -- even as much as I'm complaining now, you should've seen my other thread -- not a single day has gone by since the TTT that was worse than any given day leading up to it. Well..... okay, maybe like ONE day was worse. No, this sucks and all, but I'm *GLAD* I'm doing it.