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

[yc_angel]

Hey helen,

Wow what a scare, I hope your doing better now....Hows the bending and the knee in general...
The sleeping thing I had it cuz i wasent getting enough hours so my body was making up for it during the day...now i'm happy to report i can sleep normaly again and i can sleep on the side and on my stomach with no problem....SO hang in there it will come back slowly its just a matter of trusting your leg again

Xx

Angel

[helencatherine]

Hey x

Just a wee update for you guys on my recovery and also a few questions that I'm hoping someone can help me with or at least relate to

I had my op on the 11th April 2012 so i'm hmm let me think 8 weeks post op? approx 8 weeks lol.  My recovery is going well, there's been a few scary moments however but all in all everything seems to be going to plan.

I had my second meeting with my surgeon 7 weeks post op, he was very impressed with my recovery so far considering the frights and scares i've had over the past 8 weeks.  Firstly I fell on my cast two weeks post op that hurt like hell, ended back in hospital but everything turned out ok.  Then there was the DVT scare around week 6 in which I spent two days in hospital, was scanned and doubled checked, everything was ok so now I just need to wear this ultra tight stocking which is thigh high and a bit of a pain lol. Anyways i'm going to try and break this down so it's easier to read lol

Week 7 Surgeons appointment - Mr Hendrix was very happy with my recovery, I now have an 85 degree bend in my knee which i'm proud of lol but I don't have full extension which i'm working on, I blame that simply on several bits of advice from several medical people on where to put my pillows under my leg to elevate it.  I was lead to believe by most of them that my pillows should be under my knee, turns out that I shouldn't have been doing that, possibly only the first few weeks but certainly not after then and that's why i still don't have full extension lol.  I'm working on it though with hamstring stretches and now forcing myself to sleep on my back AGAIN this time with just my foot n lower leg elevated, yes it hurts but omg it better be worth it lol.  Mr Hendrix sent me for an xray and told me that my bone's healing nicely, just the lower area doesn't seem to be binding with my bone as good as the upper area.  My MPFL area HURTS LIKE HELL!! apparently i need to grin and bear it, so needless to say that's what i'm doing.  I asked my surgeon about two things that I seem to be having major issues with. 1 is with numbness and tingling in my left hand and wrist, turns out it may be carpal tunnel syndrome so he's making a referral to another hospital to have that checked out.  It may well be related to my crutches but to be on the safe side it's getting checked out, in the meantime I'm wearing a little wrist split only when i'm sleeping and I must say it does help the other one is this crazy amount of sleeping that i'm doing, apparently that's down to my dihydrocodiene lol it's all i do is sleep.

My question to you guys is - Hip pain on the operated leg side? It's so severe it literally takes over from my knee pain.  Does anyone else suffer from this?  I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a break down on my recovery process to see if you guys think it may be related to that or not.

I was in a cast for two weeks post op, cast was removed and relied only on crutches and zimmer frame and toe weight bearing for approx 7 weeks.  Physio have me doing quad, hamstring stretches, also laying on my side and doing bent knee stretches which omg feel awesome lol. I have a few other exercises that I do with my physio, heel slides etc.  On my visit to my surgeon I was advised that now I can full weight bear as tolerated on my operated leg using only crutches.  I've never had a leg brace, I've never had my leg strapped up, I've only ever been in cast for two weeks post op so my leg's had it tight since week two lol.  Does anyone get this hip pain in their operated leg? I noticed it a week prior to being allowed to put full weight down on my leg. So i'm not sure it has anythign to do with that, sorry for the rambling!  and sorry if non of this makes sense lol blame the medication for that

Oh and does anyone else just cry all the damn time for no reason?  This seems to be my speciality at the moment

have fun guys, take it nice n kneesy lol 

[lululocket]

Hi helencatherine,

Sorry about the crying! I had a massive crying session for about two days, so yeah I think it's normal. About week 11 for me. I'm vaguely theorising that all the medication and mad 'emergency, heal the leg' hormones in my body just got too much and need to come out of my body, possibly in tears. They just seemed uncontrollable. It will be fine afterwards. My mum was offering all sorts of nice advice whilst I spent three hours being hysterical, but I didn't really want her to solve problems, I just wanted to cry for a while. Oh dear. But I felt much better three days later, after lots of sleep, and a quiet weekend and some nice food!

Also, on the hip - have you thought about whether it is weak glute muscles? If your glute wastes away on the surgery side, when you start walking with crutches again you actually use your glutes quite a lot, especially to compensate for the lack of quads, and they are all weak so it hurts a lot. I had lots of hip pain too, even sitting still, and my hip felt kind of raw and bony, which I think was just the bone structure being unsupported. Try standing and poking both buttocks to compare the muscle loss with the non-operated side. It might explain a lot. About week 10 I moved on to doing exercises to strengthen the glutes and the pain reduced very quickly and is now gone at week 13, although I can still tell that there is a slight strength difference.

Keep sleeping! Oh, I need so much sleep it's amazing...

[helencatherine]

Oh never gave my glutes wasting away a thought Lulu thanks!  That's possibly what's causing it, that and the combination of my leg working a new way since my knee's in the correct place now I guess it's only natural that the rest of my leg will need to adapt to the change but omg it's almost never ending!  Always something happening, and as for the crying dear lord it's all I seem to do, I literally cry for no reason cry and sleep lol sleep is well it's simply amazing! until i wake....then my hip throbs lol

I'm that bored I've taken up knitting and selling all sorts on Ebay.  We will look back on this time in years to come and laugh about the whole experience, but for now....i'll continue to cry,moan and sleep lol. x

[helencatherine]

Little baby boy sock cupcakes my daughter made lol

[helencatherine]

Hello x

I'm in so much pain right now from my knee to my hip it's that bad my teeth are chattering, what the hell is this!e!?

[Lorikeet]

I hope you have called your OS by now as that doesn't sound at all normal. If you can't reach your OS, maybe you should go to hospital? I hope you are okay.

[Lorikeet]

Just checking in to see how you are going. I hope you are doing better by now. Take care.

[helencatherine]

Hey Lori xx I'm doing fine thank you!! I'm doing so much better now :-D I feel so proud inside.  I managed to do two full revolutions on the exercise bike during physio the other day! It hurt but oh my god I was so shocked and happy I sat there crying lol. I have so much confidence in my knee cu the moment, ok it hurts at times but I expected more pain with more physio.  I'm now able to move around the house with no crutches :-D outside though I always still take two, still have a limp lolmy lower back hurts at times my groin pain isn't so bad and I can finally sleep on my side. I still at time go through the teeth chattering due to pain but my Rom's increased to 110 and I feel my pain is getting lesser.

I'm very happy with how things are going, one thing that does slightly concern me is the bone on the tto area is only partially healed, the part at the bottom hasn't merged with my bone yet and I do get considerable pain and discomfort in that area, not due to speak to os until 30th august but my physio stated this can sometimes happen hence the up to one year to recover.

Hope all-s well with you too x mind take it nice n kneesy lol x

[helencatherine]

Ventin warning!!!  I BLOODY HURT!!! My shin bone is on fire!!! I'm hacked off with this ridiculous crap!

[Lorikeet]

Well done on the progress on the exercise bike and getting around without crutches. Funny, it's been so long now since I used crutches that I barely remember how to use them now.

But the pain doesn't sound good at all.  Since it's such a long time until your next OS appointment, I hope you will check with your OS or even your regular doctor to make sure there's not anything else happening now instead of waiting.

I'm going pretty well here...just a bit of the usual difficulties but overall is probably getting better now.

[helencatherine]

Hey x
Just checking in!  I'm fed up with my pain now, still on all my meds, still having spasms, still have groin pain and to top that off my cat's having kittens lol!

Physio's going great, can now do full revolutions on cycle, now fwb with one crutch which is possibly the reason for so much pain, scars look awesome! I've even had compliments on them lol.  Still don't quite have full extension, just short of it and stuck at 117degree bend.

Doctors stupidly tried to take me off meds, resulted in ending up in hospital in sheer agony :-( still making and selling diaper cakes! Love it, keeps my mind off things.  Tried to get earlier appointment with OS but need to wait until 30th! Ugh!!!

Hope everyonm Else is doing well, all I can say is thank god for frozen peas and medication lol x

[Lorikeet]

Glad to read of your progress but again worried about the continued pain. I've hardly needed any medication since the first few weeks, aside from a brief period where I had some increased pain...but even then i was using pretty minimal medication. Maybe keep bugging the OS office about appointments. Call every day and maybe they will find a way to get you in. You shouldn't have to still be dealing with this pain without being seen. I hope the OS will be helpful when you do finally get in again.