Arthroscopy, TTO and MPFL recon surgery on the 11th April 12...excited! lol

[Forevergimpy]

So sorry you are in such pain. The dizziness may be due to all the meds you are taking. Try your best to rest and be still, surgery pain is the worst!

[helencatherine]

 I had a fabby sleep last night! I was in crazy pain before dozing off but my medication somehow helped me get to sleep, slept for 7 hours straight and woke up pain free which was bliss lol.  Moving around aggravates it though, which is to be expected but once I rest leg again it seems to subside back down to a manageable level around 3 or 4 which in comparison to yesterday's 8 and 9 is a walk in the park lol.  I'm going to try and move my leg down from the sofa where I'm currently resting and sleeping with one of those physio therabands as moving my leg is so painful!  I seem to somehow manage to control the pain by using the breathing technique I used for labour lol.  My leg seems to be trying to wake up by shuddering and twitching, also there are some sore spasms which cause a shooting pain almost feels like an electric shock lol. Hopefully today will be a lot easier, all I can do is take each day as it comes and deal with it lol the joys of recovery x

[yc_angel]

I;m glad you had a good night of sleep...lol i know thats hard the first few days....my tip is to keep a small bench or stool in the bathroom and when you have to go first put your feet up and then sit...it realy helps with the pain because the leg is elevated and not down....

The up and down motion sends blood rushing trough the leg which is totaly normal but realy hurts in the beginning....I just give myself like 30 seconds to breathe it out when i just stand and then get my crutches and move on...

I use the same technique with showering....I'm so glad my nurse showed me this cuz it has realy made my life a bit easier..

I wish i could say the spasms and the elektroshock feel goes away after one week but it doesnt...you just sort of get used to it...I get the more painful ones at night and i just pop an extra paracetamol to sleep.....

Lol and your totaly right you just have to take each day as it comes...

Xx

Angel

[lululocket]

Hi Helencatherine,

Just to say that I hope you are doing ok, and that the pain slowly does get better. I found that getting to the bathroom was the worst for pain, but instead of a little stool I would make sure I had on slippy socks to make sliding my heel easier as I sat down.
I also found it hard to lift my leg with the good one hooked underneath - until I mastered it about a week after surgery, I just got somebody else to lift it for me, supporting under the ankle and knee since I was in an immobilising brace. There was a lot of "1, 2, 3 lift, oww oww oww, ok, turning on 1, 2, 3, turn, ow ow ow ow, ok lowering slowly, slowly slowly, ooww slooower ow.....ok great! Thanks!"

By the way, with the nerve fireworks, I found that someone touching my foot would set them off, but kind of in a good way. So I got my lovely sister to squeeze my feet in a not-quite-a-foot-rub kind of way, and felt all the nerves going off. It did hurt a bit and was stressful, but it seemed to help my brain make sense of what was going on and I felt like it calmed it down a bit.

Best of luck, remember each day is a little bit closer to recovery.
Lulu

[helencatherine]

Hey Everyone

Sorry for taking so long to update, been wollowing in self pity and netflix the past few days lol.

This is Day 6 PO and I can honestly say that things are looking up ok there are times where things just downright suck but all in all I'm happy with the way things have gone so far

I wish I had taken the time to update on PO days 3 4 and 5 but two of those days I was battling with pain levels dipping then rising, adapting to having to move differently, forever being laying on my damn back and not being able to do anything lol frustration started kicking in big time!  I'm normally very active, yet now i'm stuck on this sofa with my full leg in a cast and very little to occupy my mind.  I've been reading some books, watching netflix and well that's pretty much it lol.

Day 3 PO I was still in a high degree of pain, my meds hadn't quite managed to control my pain...I absolutely hated having to go to the toilet or standing at all, I felt and do still feel as if my knee is going to burst through my cast!  I was also battling slight nausea (which I put down to the amount of meds I'm on and my body trying to readjust to that) some dizziness which i also put down to my meds and possibly the degree of pain I was in.  I'll be honest and say that on day 3 I really was beginning to get slightly hacked off with the whole thing and though that I'd never get through this EVER, but thankfuilly things started changing a little on day 4.

Day 4 PO I woke up and there was ZERO pain....i lay there thinking oh my god this is brilliant!  Within 5 minutes the pain came back...with avengance, in despair I popped all the meds I was due to take and lay there under the duvet feeling sorry for myself lol, not even dominoes on my phone was enough to distract me lol.  By mid afternoon my leg had settled back down again and that's when i realised that i couldn't let this beat me.  I decided instead of laying there waiting till my bladder was about to burst to head to the toilet that I would get up ever now and then and walk the length of my hall with my zimmer frame lol, this seems to have heleped with the pressure that I feel is building in my leg at times, not sure if that makes sense!  By the end of day 4 I was feeling a lot more positive, the intense pain in my leg was now sitting at around a  3 on a scale of 1 - 10 and I had already gotten used to the electroshocks that were shooting through my knee at random times and I was starting to actually enjoy the rush of sensation which would come over my leg as if someone had thrown ice cold water over it.....I was still hating the pain and discomfort when moving though lol.

Day 5 PO I started getting really fed up with not being able to do much self pity started kicking in and I was beginning to take it out on just about everyone lol they just couldn't possibly understand how useless I felt just laying there with this damn knee that decided it wanted to play bad guy again   I had to pop some heavy duty pain killers that the surgeon prescribed to me that I was only to take if the pain was through the roof, I took oxycodone if i'm right in saying one every 2 hours.....I was completely out of it and totally pain free after a few hours.  My leg ( touch wood) has NOT been painful since so i'm hoping that i've reached a point in the recovery where I will no longer be in that awful high degree of pain again lol.

Day 6 ( today ) Things have been great!  Been up and about, still trying to figure out a way to get my leg up on the sofa without much pain lol but each time i do try it it gets a little easier I've been popping my usual meds today and so far the pain level is only around a 2 with the most pain rising to around a 6 when I move from A to B (still hating the toilet run!!!) figured out a way to rest my foot on my zimmer frame though when i;m in the toilet lol.....it's all very odd though sitting there hoping I don't fall down the toilet bowl, clutching my leg cast and holding on for dear life lol it's a whole new experience! All in all pain wise, things are looking up I can really feel the area where they were working on the MPFL, I don't feel anything at all around the TTO area and considering I have two screws there i'm amazed lol.  The only area I seem to be having pain from is the MPFL area, I was advised that this was secured with two screws also...the knee pain is certainly a lot better than it was in the first 4 days, thank god!  One more week left in my cast then I've to have it removed, speak to the surgeon on that day and have it restrapped back up then non weightbearing for a further 6 weeks.  Sorry for the rambling guys lol...one eye on the pc the other Breaking Bad on Netflix x

Take it nice n kneesy guys lol x

[Lorikeet]

Hi Helencatherine,

I'm glad to hear the pain levels are improving.  I had the TTT, LR and scope and I've not noticed as much pain from the TTT area as from the sides as yet. That said, my pain levels haven't been too bad, probably no worse than 4-5 since the first few days post-op...although I was on a high dose of naproxen until day ten so that probably was helping too. Oddly I found it easier at the start to use my good leg to help pull the bad leg with immobiliser up. Now that I'm further along and don't use the brace my good leg is being defiant and refusing to lift, especially at night. I guess it's just tired from all the extra work it's doing.

I hear you on the frustrations of being able to do so little. Even though I'm off crutches and brace now, it's awfully hard to walk around for very long so there's not much I can do. I had to go into our second bathroom today and discovered how filthy the sink and counter were. Was ready to find a scrub brush at that point but I couldn't stand for too long and had to try to forget about it for now. At least my hands are free from crutches and I can do little things like washing a couple dishes when I'm in the kitchen.

[yc_angel]

Hey helen,

I'm glad to hear the pain is getting manageble....it never fully goes away now does it....i know exactly what you mean when you say the mpfl area hurts.....I'd say in the first week my whole leg hurt like hell but now i can distinquish where the pain in comin from and its mostly from where they cut and the inside of the knee....

The feeling of useless is very familiar...especialy since i'm an active person...but i am channeling my energy towards painting, puzzeling, lol allot of TV time and reading....basicly anything i can get my hands on without feeling too much pain I'm doing....on sunday i helped with cooking...and yesterday i cooked a little chicken and salad all by myself...wich I am sooo proud of...though i must say my crutches and my wheelchair do help me allot when moving around....especialy since my leg is proppe up in the wheel chair...

So I'm in week 2 now of recovery and I can tell you it does get better....the pain is still intense at times and the spasms are out of control at night but the feeling of uselessness does get better

Use your good leg to help your bad one...that also relieves some pressure

Xx

Angel

[lululocket]

These posts made me giggle a little because they made me think of my dad. He keeps coming in each evening and asking how I am, and then if it hurts. If I say yes, he always says 'where does it hurt?' and the answer is always 'MY KNEE is where it hurts. Obviously. Because I let a man chop it into pieces. I love you. Please can you get me some ice?'

Praying it gets slowly better folks.

[helencatherine]

Lol I've heard that question a few times from relatives, where is it sore? Lol I used to answer sarcastically but now I explain in graphic surgical detail lol seems to have put them off asking haha!  Yesterday was eventful, ended up back in hospital at the plaster room having my cast changed as it was causing me some problems.  According to the nurse it had been rubbing against my kneecap causing a big friction graze on my kneecap, to top all that off it turns out I was allergic to the mepore dressing covering my surgical wounds :-/. They recast my leg which is now a rather lovely green colour lol and advised me to come back to hospital if I run a fever or feel flu like as it may indicate infection.

Today has been great, managing around more on my crutches and Im relatively pain free, it peaks at times to around a 3 or 4 bit mostly hurts when I'm moving around, saying that I'd go as far as saying my hip on my good leg hurts more as it's taking most of the weight lol.

My little foot seems to always be cold, is this normal? Even my thermal bed socks aren't helping lol nor is my youngest cat maisie who,s now known as the hairy hot water bottle lol she's always managing to doze off near my feet lol.

Having a nice Indian takeaway tonight then will probably catch up wth some breaking bad on netflix x have fun everyone xx

[Lorikeet]

I guess the cast problems just serve to make the experience more memorable. Hopefully things will be less eventful from this point.

I've found my right knee and leg have been having a hard time with all the extra load since my surgery so can understand you hip giving you trouble. My "good knee" has even buckled several times, which makes for interesting balance. I can also identify with the cold foot. My toes seem to always be cold lately so I dragged out my bed socks this afternoon and I feel a bit better after wearing them for several hours. I think wearing a brace or cast and also being less active puts us at risk of poor circulation.

[yc_angel]

I defenitly can relate with the cold feet....Its just so damn weird but i wear socks and over that i wear big floppythings with rubber under neath to keep me from slipping on the floor....so that is keeping me pretty warm...but if i was to take my sock of it woul still feel cold to the touch...

Lol where does it hurt question is getting annoying cuz i would think its pretty obvious....I also have an uncle that thinks asking me if i can dance yet or run yet is funny....its seriosly lame but everytime he asks the same question...and then laughs when i tell him no....wich is totaly irritating ...ugh family...can't live with em , can't live without them...

xx

Angel

[helencatherine]

Lol angel the worst one for me at the moment is. .won't be long now until you're up and running, it makes me want to get up and say. . Do you actually have any idea what I went through on that operating table? Lol I wasn't under for 5 hours just so they could tickle my knee lol, I find that the best way to deal with this is by going all surgically graphic on them hahah they soon learn not to say crazy things lol.  I've also encountered the "helpful" person who kindly cleans up the livingroom where I'm currently sleeping only to discover once I've woken up that my crutches are 3 mile away and my Zimmer frames laughing at me in the corner lol!

Day 10 post op, today, I woke up feeling as though my kneecap wanted to burst through my cast.  The pain I was in was sitting around a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.  After 5 minutes of trying to breathe my xjw through the pain of sitting upright I realised that my meds were at least 3 hours overdue, important lesson learnt, always keep on top of meds even if it means setting an alarm for during the night!

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone that's offered advice and support, if it wasn't for this I swear I'd be driven up the wall by this experience lol. 

[Forevergimpy]

When I had my TTT done in my 20s my dad was forever trying to cheer me up. He never did understand why tickling the foot on my operated leg (while in an immobilizer) was NOT in the least bit funny. I would actually cry and then he'd feel bad and wonder if it was the drugs making me so sensitive.    Oh well, I guess that's why we have (and use) this site.  To have a group of people that are not just a support system, but truly understand what we are facing is such a blessing.

Best of luck to you all.

[helencatherine]

Lol! Oh god that must've been a nightmare lmao, I freak out when my daughter changes my sock on my operated side cause it's so tickly ha, years down the line we'll all look back on our experiences and laugh lol

[helencatherine]

Guys? These painful full leg spasms are normal right? I swear they hurt so bad-