MACI following failed microfracture (UK)

[skittle]

Wednesday 6th October - On my own

Probably my best night’s sleep last night! I’m fairly sure I didn’t sleep through the night, but it felt a better sleep.

Hubbie’s back at work today, so I’m being left on my own for the first time for more than a couple of hours. I’ve been left with a number of calls to make and a heap of exercises. I had a text check in from hubbie late morning, so I gave him a quick call. My knee is aching from exercises, I don’t want to overdo it, but I’ve got to get this leg moving.

I managed to get down on the floor this evening. I waited for hubbie just to make sure I didn’t have trouble either way (I didn’t). I’ve managed to lift my heel off the floor eventually, but only about a sheet of paper away. It’s a start, but it took a while. I probably have about 10 degrees of movement now, but I have physio tomorrow lunchtime. Doing exercises, then icing followed by bed meant I slept right though for the first time since surgery.

[Lottiefox]

Hey Skittle

Thanks for keeping your diary updated. Sometimes people are reading but not always posting replies. Your experiences will be really useful for other people having MACI. Don't beat yourself on the pain meds reduction, MACI is MAJOR bone work and you'll need some medication help for a while. You're doing well, this is a long recovery from what I've read but those who take it slow and steady have great outcomes. Keep us posted and I hope improvements are soon on their way.

I'm a UK gal too, MACI was mooted for me but my whole knee is a bit - well, worn out and most of it is patella which MACI isn't great for. So, I trundle along with PT, some drugs and lots of indoor cycling!

Take care

Lottie x

[skittle]

Thursday 7th October - Physio session 2

Mummy is coming over today so I can get to physio later. I’m looking to start dumping the brace from today. I’ll still sleep with it for a bit, but it’s probably going to have to go back at the end of the month when I have my review with Prof Briggs.

Bundled myself into the back of Mum’ car at lunchtime to get to physio and managed to get a spot at the top car park (the easy access). Physio went well and I’m getting rom of nearly 30 with assistance. I need to be 45 by next Thursday (fingers crossed). Exercises in the evening didn’t give me anything additional, but I have a few days to go yet.

Current plans are for hydrotherapy to start in a couple of weeks which gives my wound a chance to fully heal. I can’t get in the water until it does. I’m a big water baby, and I haven’t been in the pool for a year, so it’s giving me something to really look forward to.

I needed to up the pain relief today, but with physio I really expected it.

[skittle]

Friday 8th October - My best friend visits!

I had a great night’s sleep last night. Clearly getting more exercise during the day is having its benefits. I’m still on the same amount of pain relief to go to bed on, but I won’t drop it until at least tonight as if I have a problem in the night, it’s not fair to disturb hubbie. He’s getting tired having to do everything plus working full time with an hour commute each way. At least it’s the weekend tomorrow so he can chill out a bit after his cycle ride.

My best friend is coming over today. She’s been living in Lanzarote for the past 18 months and has just come back. We’ve not seen each other since May when she came to visit with her husband and their daughter (who’s now 29 months old) so we've got some catching up to do.

I’ve been reading a few diaries on here whilst I’ve been at home, and noticed talk about a femoral block. I remember the anaesthetist saying I’d get a local in my leg as it’s a really painful operation. Reading through the discussions of the block triggered some vague recollection of my leg muscles jumping all over the place just prior to surgery. It’s pretty much the only thing I remember from pre-theatre to be honest.

Exercises today have been tough, achy and well tough. I can’t even lift my heel remotely off the floor and flexing isn’t getting anywhere near what I had yesterday. My knee hurts a lot, so as much as I hate it, I’m giving in to pain relief. I suppose now that I’m moving around it’s going to happen

I’ve spoken to my boss this afternoon to confirm that I’m taking next week off sick instead of working from home. Things have been really manic whilst I’ve been off and I feel a little guilty leaving the team in the lurch for longer than I anticipated, but I’ll start checking through my emails next week and see how it goes.

[skittle]

Saturday 9th October - Episode  err . . . Day 15

Lesson learned last night - when I’m half asleep I have no balance. Thankfully I’m still wearing my brace at night and I only fell onto the bed. It was enough to wake hubbie up and give him a bit of a scare. I was fine though and grateful that my leg just went straight up in the air and came back down on top of the other one.

I watched my first film today since surgery. I’ve held off this long not because I know it can be the start of a slippery slope to boredom, but more because I haven’t had the attention span to be able to watch anything longer than 45 minutes. I decided to watch Mamma Mia! I’ve never seen it before nor knew the storyline, but I couldn’t stop laughing! Trying to dance when you’re sat down trying to do exercises is amusing too!

Did the best thing this afternoon - I HAD A BATH! Finally got a look at my new war wound and at last it appears to have stopped weeping. It looks like I’ve had a blood blister which was causing the bleeding and weeping. It’s just one big scab now covering three clip holes. We’ll just have to see how it pans out to see what level of rubbish-ness it looks like, but the rest of it looks pretty good to me.

More exercises to do this evening. . .

[skittle]

Sunday 10th October - 10/10/10

Getting there with the exercises now and moving a little more in the right direction. A little bit of the scab fell of this morning and it doesn’t look too bad underneath. It’s my niece’s birthday today, so I’m getting a change of scenery and going to visit her later. It means bundling me in the back seat again, but I don’t mind.

I managed about an hour before my knee started to ache too much and we came home. Got out of the brace and jogging bottoms and back into more comfortable shorts and went to sit down . . . BANG! Bent my knee slightly, got a massive hit of pain and the room span. Fortunately I was about to sit on the sofa anyway, so I fell backwards crying and screaming. Once the pain had subsided enough to stop crying I went straight for pain relief. I don’t pussyfoot around now when it starts. That followed by ice meant that it settled within about 45 minutes.

Still, off to the doctor’s tomorrow . . .

[Snowy]

Ouch! The unexpected bend doesn't sound like fun at all. I hope the doctor is able to reassure you that no damage has been done.

Congrats on the first bath - that's a blissful post-surgery moment.

Hope all continues to go well!

[skittle]

Hi Snowy!
Fortunately the bend was mid air and was just a result of having it my fixed brace for a tad too long whilst visiting my niece and a coldish room. It doesn't feel any different inside and like many people here I'm sure you understand the change in feelings if anything goes wrong. It does ache a bit if I let it stiffen up, but I don't get too many sharp pains nows, just a constant low level pain.

[skittle]

Monday 11th October

Weird dreams again last night - don’t you just love drugs? Exercises again this morning. They are getting a little easier now, so no doubt I’ll get some new ones at Physio tomorrow even though I’ve still got a lot more movement to get. I just look at it as one small hop towards getting back in the pool (albeit hydrotherapy to begin with).

My MIL is coming over later to take me to the doctors to get another sick note and more drugs. No doubt the doc will want to see my new scar and I’ll need to describe what’s gone on in the past 17 days. She arrived just as I was finishing my exercises.

As suspected, I needed to explain everything to my GP, but I walked out with my sick note and more drugs and she didn’t ask to look at my scar. Fair enough I did have my brace on, so she probably didn’t want to disturb it. But the look on her face when she called me in was an absolute picture. It was almost ‘OMG what have I got here?’

Another set of exercises to go today, then ice and bed. Sleep enables my body to fix itself, and I’ve not had my afternoon nap today for the second day in a row.

[skittle]

Tuesday 12th October - Physio session 3

I had a reasonable night sleep last night. I only woke a couple of times with shoulder ache as I’d pulled myself onto my pillows again. Mummy is coming over again today to take me to physio, she’s cooking dinner for us again tonight which has made hubbie happy.

Physio is chuffed with my progress and I have ROM over 45 which was Thursday’s aim (it’s more like 60 from cold). I have more exercises to do including SLR and massaging. Physio wasn’t worried at all about my bout of pain on Sunday either which was cool. The scar is looking good, and she’s going to check if they have the equipment to get me into the hydro-pool whilst I’m still non-weightbearing. If so, I’ll be getting wet in a couple of week’s time which will give the scar a bit more time to dry out. As a result of progress, my Physio has cancelled my session on Thursday, so I’m back in a week’s time!

I’m staying fairly positive at the moment which is great as I’m not the strongest person mentally, but the more I think about what this means to me, the more positive I’ll hopefully stay.
I start looking through my work emails tomorrow with a view to working from home full-time next week. TBH it’ll be nice to get back to an office - I’m starting to miss people

[skittle]

Wednesday 13th October - Day 19

I had a rough night last night. Woke up at 1.30 and just couldn’t get comfortable, so I propped myself up on my pillows and proverbially tossed and turned (as much as you can in a fixed brace!). I’m going to try and sleep without it on Saturday night, so we’ll see what happens then.

Started going through my work emails this morning and emailing my boss a bit. He’s made me laugh today which is good as I won’t see a soul until hubbie gets home late this evening. Even doing half a day’s work has worn me out and I’ve had my first afternoon nap since Saturday.

Sleeping without my brace this afternoon has meant that my knee is quite sore this evening. I really want to ditch the brace and if I’m going to get pain like this, it may be longer before I sleep without it. But positive thoughts are a must so I’ll still give it a go on Saturday.

Another day of highs and lows. My high today was cooking dinner for the first time since surgery. It was only pizza and chips, which you can just throw in the oven, but it’s a start and it’s another night that hubbie doesn’t have to cook.

[skittle]

Thursday 14th October

Yet another uncomfortable night last night. Either I couldn’t get comfortable or my knee couldn’t - why couldn’t they both just settle at the same time? Thankfully it didn’t disturb hubbie too much and it’s settled this morning. I’m doing some work today with the aim of working a bit more than yesterday. I probably did less work today, but I didn’t fall asleep so that’s got to be a step forward in my book.

Exercises have been going well today and I actually managed an SLR on my own! It was only the one, but it’s a start and more than I could do yesterday. I haven’t been able to do one since, but it’s one more than I’ve been able to do since last December, so that’s my big high for today.

The Commonwealth Games finish today, so it’s daytime television for me tomorrow. If that’s not an incentive to go back to work I don’t know what is!

[skittle]

Friday 15th October - Three weeks gone!

I actually had a really good night’s sleep last night and tried going to sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees (and brace). It was a little strange and uncomfortable, but I managed about an hour before giving up and rolling on my back. I hardly disturbed hubbie too which was really good. To top it all, I even cut back on my night time pain relief, from 2 Tramadol to 1. The next step will be to replace it with paracetamol (I’m currently on 6 a day).

I can’t believe it’s only three weeks since I was a mix of cacking my pants and nervously excited about going into hospital to be fixed. If I said it had flown by I’d be lying. I’m still trying to settle into a routine which is going to be a problem when I start back working next week. Still, I’ll cope (I hope!)

I’ve managed to get some more work done today, and hopefully by building up over the last three days will mean that next week I can do reasonably well. At least I haven’t fallen asleep today.

Exercises have been tough today for some reason, so I’ve cut down the number of reps, but increased the frequency. Maybe the change will do my leg some good. I’m starting to get some shape in my leg now and it’s not a mass of quivering jelly anymore which I’m really proud of. My left leg (the good one) is also looking the most toned it ever has with all this hopping and jumping up stairs!

[skittle]

Saturday 16th October - Hubbie does overtime

I tried getting to sleep on my side again last night with the brace and it seemed a lot more comfortable than the night before. I’ve cut the Tramadol down to one a night for the second night running and it’s starting to give me weird dreams. They’re not nightmares, just surreal so I don’t think it’s anything to do with withdrawal symptoms I’ve read that can occur with Tramadol. No doubt I’ll get those when I cut out, but it looks like they only last a week or so, and I’m weaning myself off as quickly as I dare. I can’t rush it because I still have some pain episodes every now and then, but they are getting less so fingers crossed I’ll soon be able to replace Tramadol with paracetamol (I know it’s not great replacing one drug with another, but needs must) and then cut down on that too. I’ve been living off paracetamol since the start of December 2009.

Still, it’s the weekend and the sun is shining. However, I’m housebound as hubbie has had to work today. I’ve also got to try and make my own lunch today which shouldn’t be too bad, but does mean I have to eat in the kitchen because I can’t carry anything. He did however, get a plate out for me as it’s the one thing I can’t do, so we’ll see how it goes . . .

Lunch was a sandwich, so I managed to eat in the kitchen with no worries. Watched my second film since surgery ‘Elizabeth’ which was okay, but I just couldn’t get into it. I guess I just want some company as I can’t wait until hubbie gets home I’m having a bit of a down moment because I haven’t seen anyone other than my hubbie since Tuesday. I really need to get back to civilization and soon.

[skittle]

Sunday 17th October - Civilization beckons!

Blimey I was a miserable moo yesterday wasn’t I?

A much better night sleep last night. I’m still waking around 1.30 and 4.30 in the morning regardless, but it appears my body has adapted to this broken pattern. I woke up last night on my side which considering I didn’t ditch my brace as I originally intended to do I was really chuffed about.

I told hubbie when he got in last night about not seeing anyone for days, so we’ve agreed to bundle me in the back of the car later and visit Pets at Home.  I’m also getting a bath this afternoon too. Having a wash down every day whilst he’s at work because time is short in the mornings is okay, but it doesn’t beat a proper wash!

I’m also in much better spirits today probably because I’ve got things planned.

Pets at Home was great (and I never really thought I’d say that either). I got to see people; I mean REAL people and not just ones on the TV screen. Woo Hoo! Today has been really great highs compared to yesterday. I’ve had a massive hug from hubbie and another bath. Getting in and out of the bath was so much easy than last week and I couldn’t believe just how dead skin I scrubbed off, especially after doing the same last week too!

I’ve managed to sit at a table for all three meals today which was a real improvement as since surgery I’ve either been lying in a bed or lying on the sofa. It’s a big step forward for me and tomorrow I start back at work. I’m working from home for the week, but only 4 days. I’ll see how the week goes before deciding what I’ll do the week after that.