lululocket's TTT, 8th March 2012

[lululocket]

6 weeks and 4 days

Feeling a bit flat today. I am still going okay, I managed some steps with only one crutch, but I really want to just retreat into bed. I'm working from home, and am in a chair all day for the first time. My physio and OS both said it was good to sit in a chair, but it's not that comfy, my quad hurts, and there is no duvet :-(

Plus it is raining and grey and miserable and I'm just a bit fed up. I want to go to work and be good at things, walk wherever I want.....just for a day you understand - I know I'm getting better and I will get to that point eventually, but after 6 and a half weeks I feel like I need a 'normal' health day as a holiday. I can't remember a day when I had a full 24 hours without pain in my knee, it's been about 5 years of daily pain, and I'm excited at the prospect of having everything FINALLY fixed. But please can I have a little day off this endless sitting and shuffling, pushing at exercises all day, this drooping fatigue....where is my duvet! Grrrrrrr. Back to work.

[Lorikeet]

Sorry you're having a rough time of it right now, Lulu. I hope the weather will at least clear up so it's one less thing to drag you down. Anyway, hang in there. (hug)

[lululocket]

6 weeks and 5 days

Thanks Lorikeet. Wow, talk about a good rebound. After posting that, I logged off work early, took paracetemol and napped on and off/cuddled the cat for nearly 2 hours. Got 'up' (=sat up), watched TV, had dinner, went to sleep for 9 hours. No more knee exercises, so just a half-day of PT. Extreme rest...

This morning I returned to my physio exercises. After a few warm up steps with two crutches, I was managing to get around with just one crutch. Even so, I went back to two crutches for my 10 minutes of walking practice, then quad sets, SLRs, going on tiptoe and (the worst) tiny squats.

At lunchtime I went to the physio and we had a brilliant session. He took one look at me walking and took me down to just one crutch. On just my 5th day of weight bearing! My expectations may be low because on the other leg this all took weeks and weeks, but this is crazy! He then made me turn the crutch around so that it is more like a walking stick (i.e. almost no weight through it at all), and I managed that too! Ok, I didn't really do that well with it, but we managed 10 metres or so before he relented. 

We also worked out how to get me going down a step with just one crutch (the ground floor of my house has two steps down in the middle of the house which I couldn't work out with just one crutch). I was struggling because my 'good' leg is still week from having the same op two years ago, so I've got PT for both legs now. Doh! He then made me go down a whole flight of stairs with one crutch and the bannister. Woohoo!

I'm back working from home, and I'm definitely not working as well as normally, but this is the best day i've had for productivity, and the first day my head isn't dropping onto the desk every 10 minutes. This is such a great answer to prayer for me! Suddenly I feel I have loads to do....and guess what? I'm going to do it! Well....some of it anyway.

  Maybe I should spend another half-day in bed....heehee

[lululocket]

Oh, and xrays from last week (complete with ceiling rose behind the second one!). I was a bit surprised as I thought there would be a neat cut at the bottom of the bony portion cut out, instead of this long tapered wedge. Anybody know what variation this is?

Also, the second one looked pretty messy to me, I was expecting something a bit neater 

[Lorikeet]

Sounds like a half day in bed was exactly what the doctor ordered, Lulu.  And if working from home means you are more productive, so be it. You have to do what you need to keep healing. It's good you do have the option of working from home though.

I didn't notice the shape of the bone cut so much as the way the screws went in. I'll be interested to see how mine looks, assuming my OS has a follow-up x-ray done in a few weeks.

[helencatherine]

Wow! Your xrays look awesome!  I was told by my surgeon that it would take something very powerful to ever dislocate my kneecap ever again lol so I'm dying to see my xrays :-D just. X hope he lets me have a copy

[lululocket]

7 weeks and 1 day

Oh I remember this bit...the kind of good but very tiring bit.

Recovery is going pretty well. I'm working really hard at physio....or so it seems anyway. Three times a day I'm meant to be doing:
40 quad sets
20-30 SLRs
20-30 baby squats
going onto tiptoe and back 20 times
10 minutes of walking (slowly, but meant to be good quality)
Flexion work (5 mins or so of trying to bend it as much as I can).

I'm mostly managing all of this, oh and some one legged squats on the 'better' leg as it's still not totally recovered strenght from having a TTT 2 years ago.
Often the last one of the day suffers and I'll drop the baby squats and sometimes the SLRs as I'm tired and my leg has puffed up. I'm tired most of the time it seems, and my hip and lower back and shoulders all ache like an old lady since Ive got so much more active in the past week and the rest off my body is taking quite a strain to make up for my sleep little knee.

I had physio today with Chris, who is taking such good care of me. It was pretty good - we managed to get 112 degrees flexion (it was 108 just 3 days ago). More interestingly, the 'tight' portion moved, so only the inner portion seemed to be restricting the flexion, rather than the centre, which made Chris happy. It hurt and made me almost cry, but in a productive kind of way.

I'm finding my hip flexor is very tight, my quads weak but a bit tense, and my glutes weak - altogether it means that as I'm trying to walk I find I keep sticking my bum out and collapsing forwards somewhat. To try and release the front of my leg and help with the walking, Chris also did some soft tissue work, including working around the patella tendon itself, which felt like the meanest thing he has done to me since the operation. It was painful, but mainly because it was emotionally so difficult as well - nobody has ever worked like that on my knee and I found it hard to believe it was ok. Great for the scar tissue though, and he stayed away from the actual surgery site.

Oh....is it nearly bedtime yet, I'm so tired! I had today as a holiday from work, and a good thing too as I don't think I'd have managed any work today, and yesterday was a bit of a struggle. The PT is paying off so far though, I'm down to one crutch 100% of the time now, and hopefully with the work Chris did I'll find it easier to walk upright again. He doesn't want me to rush off the one crutch though, he says it is important that I don't get into bad habits, so I have to walk really perfectly with weight through the crutch rather than like an old lady stooped over which is how I currently look with no crutches.

If that made sense...

[lululocket]

7 weeks and 5 days

I had another PT session, two a week at the moment before I start going back into the office and it becomes more of a challenge to fit in the appointments.

Small increments, but increments none the less. I got another degree bend (literally, one more, grr), so I'm at 113 now. My extension feels tight to me, but Chris worked on it a bit, and found that it was the same as my other leg, or very very close so he's not worried about it right now.

My baby squats are getting easier now, I can go on tiptoe with no problem, and this morning I managed 50 SLRs before they started to get shaky with muscle fatigue, which is many many more than last week.

Walking is still tricky though. I have one crutch, but I'm slumping forward a little. I've also been trying to get around with no crutches but I'm slumping forward a LOT. Chris asked me to go back to one crutch, slow down and do every step properly. Ooops. But I think it's muscle strength still, and lack of balance whilst I'm standing on just the recovering leg, so I hurry to get the good leg down and it turns into a bit of a limp.

Back to bible study tonight, I'm very excited!

Oh, I also went back home briefly (my brother dropped home my housemate after she'd visited me). I went in the house briefly to say hi to our dog, and he got SO excited, and barked SO loudly that he actually set a car alarm off! I couldn't believe it, but there was nobody else anywhere nearby, so it was definitely him! Oops. Well hopefully it won't be too many more weeks before I'm home, I don't really know to be honest, it's quite a big transition to be cooking and everything, especially when my parents are happy to have me for longer, and I can focus just on my recovery if I stay here. I'm just trying to focus on a day or two at a time.

Lulu

[lululocket]

8 weeks

Feels like a bit of a milestone! But this is just a really quick post to show you a picture of my scar last night, which is looking amazing. You probably can't even tell unless you look at the extra puffiness, but the right leg was cut up 8 weeks ago, and the left one over two years ago.

I've been putting vitamin E cream on it, massaging it lots (including my physiotherapist doing that too), and my surgeon is a clever man. He said he usually tries to make the two legs match!

[lululocket]

8 weeks and 1 day

Ooh I had physio today. Great progress in three days, from 113 up to 118 degrees flexion! Very happy. I'm also starting to walk better, and I can stand on just my bad leg and balance.

My physio did quite a lot of work to help with my ROM today, patella manipulation, and pressing on the bones, as well as working on extension which has been a leeetle bit tight. It's not much fun, but it feels good afterwards. I was in quite a lot of pain today though and had to ask him to give me a break which was a first. No tears, but it was close. It's hard to explain, even though it really hurts it felt like constructive pain, and I was able to concentrate and work with him. When we're trying to bend the leg, the end is 'soft' so he can wiggle into it, and my instinct is to work against him and keep it straighter, but that REALLY hurts, so I have to think about using my hamstring and making it more bent, working with him, but because that hurts the other things I get all confused...

Argh, anyway, upshot is that the back of my knee is really itchy, and I just looked and spotted a big bruise has come up! Hmm. Might be we've been working too hard on that.

More positively, my dad's (temporarily my..) new turbotrainer arrived. It's a frame which you set a bicycle in to turn it into a stationary bike. I'll be adding 20 minutes morning and evening into my routine. A stationary bike would be a little easier, and I considered getting a second hand one off ebay, but my dad is really into cycling and does 50mile races at the weekend, so wanted one anyway for winter training; I just pulled the purchase forward a few months. And then had to put my sister's bike in it because mine is at my house, and my dad's bike would be comically large for me. I managed 18 minutes on my first try this evening, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better!

Happy knees everyone,
Lulu

[Lorikeet]

Sounds like you're making excellent progress, Lulu. And it's great to hear you're now balancing on your bad leg now...guess it's not so bad as it was, is it?

Sorry you've come out with more bruising after all this time and really sorry to hear about the itchiness...Hopefully it get better soon with a little bit less work on it. 

I'm interested to hear how the turbotrainer works for you. I do have a stationery bike and tried it twice this weekend. First time went really well. Second time was a real struggle. I wonder if this set up would be easier or more difficult. Anyway, hope it goes well for you.

[lululocket]

A turbotrainer is definitely more difficult than a proper stationary bike (I used one of those at the PT's)
The problems is that you attache a normal bike to a turbotrainer, and there are bars across higher up as a result, so it is MUCH HARDER to get onto (I am using a little stool to help me!). Think about how some people throw their leg over the back wheel of a bike to get on - nobody has to do that on a stationary bike because the middle is much lower.

It also rocks around a little more, and depending on your bike it may be harder to adjust the seat etc. Mine is my sister's bike, so fits me pretty well.

[Lorikeet]

That sounds kind of rough just getting onto the contraption. And I don't know about the rocking thing either. Anyway, hope it goes okay when you give it a go.

[lululocket]

8 weeks and 5 days

I actually updated yesterday but when I pressed 'post' my text disappeared into the mystery vortex of the internet, oops. However, the good news is that today was better than yesterday.

Yesterday was the most painful day I've had in ages. After two days without crutches I actually had to fetch back not just one, but TWO crutches and go zero weight bearing just to get around. I'm very much hoping that a nerve regrew and then protested, loudly. It was surgery site pain though - I don't think anything bad has happened, it's just par for the course, but OWWW. No swelling. I backed off the bike for the day, and also did only evening physio, and it seems to be happier today, although not as good as it was over the weekend. Luckily yesterday was a bank holiday here in England, and so I had not one but TWO sets of visitors, which made me very happy.

Physio very early tomorrow morning, and then it will be my first day back in the office - including a train journey and a taxi taking almost an hour each way! Since London is very busy, I'll be going in for about 10am and coming back at 4pm to avoid rush hour, and I know from experience that even then I'll have to ask somebody to give up a seat for me, even with a crutch in hand. Then Wednesday back working from home, and Friday in the office. In another two weeks or so I'll probably up the hours to working 7.30am - 3.30pm, to stay out of the crush but at least get a decent day of work done. Ugh, sounds awful already. But I need to get back, I really hate working from home, it is so hard to concentrate all day.

Wish me luck!

[Fogie]

Hi Lululocket,

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing with us and good luck !