Thurs, July 25 Today I am having pain behind my knee and on the outside of my calf below the knee. Nothing horrible, just new. Had PT today and everything seems to be going along well. I tried sleeping in my bed last night, but no go. I did finally get to sleep, only to wake up with strange new pains. Finally said the heck with it and went to my recliner sofa where I slept quite well the rest of the night.
Friday, July 26 - I had a visit from old friends who drove from the Pacific Northwest to visit, so I went out for the first time. We went out for breakfast, then came back home where I iced and elevated, then out again for dinner, and back for same. I did feel a lot tireder than I would have normally. I've enjoyed the visit, but am really tired. On the positive front, I slept all night in the bed last night!
Sunday, July 28 - Had a tough morning today. I think the visit from friends and not napping as much caught up with me. We were supposed to meet our friends for breakfast, but when I started to get dressed, I was feeling so bad, I decided to take a couple of Tylenol and lie down for half an hour. I completely conked out, and my husband took pity on me and cancelled the breakfast. I woke up an hour later, and found that I didn't have to get dressed after all. Well played, husband, well played.
I iced and elevated and watched mindless TV throughout the morning, and by the afternoon, felt so much better. I also had a complete turn-around in the lower GI which I think made me feel better as well. Although things had been moving, I don't think they had been moving as much as they needed to.
Monday, July 29 - I slept on the bed most of the night last night. It's still harder finding a comfortable sleeping spot for a long time. I'm a stomach/side sleeper, and the knee will only tolerate that for a short time, so then it's the turn over, re-adjust, etc. It always takes such a long time. Finally got up about 4 a.m. and was back on the recliner sofa. Got to get back with my structured therapy today, since I let it go during the over-doing phase of my weekend.
Six hours is about all I can go without pain meds during the night, but can go longer during the day depending on what I'm doing.
Tuesday, July 30 - Had a couple of interesting things happen. First, I ran out of pain pills. I take Norco, and I had put in the refill order the day I got my staples out - last Weds. The girl at the pharmacy told me they would mail them to me because the refill date was not till Friday, but the order would be processed right away (this is a military hospital and very picky about controlled substances.) My P.A. had told me to call him if they wouldn't give them to me today, but I thought it would be OK to have them mailed since I still had some, and surely the mail would not take that long. Silly me!
I thought surely I would get them on Friday, couldn't imagine not receiving them on Saturday, and by Saturday night, I was in full hoarding mode, counting out how many I had left, and how many hours I would have to go between each one. I contacted my P.A. on Monday morning and explained what was going on, and that I was coming to the hospital (which is 70 miles away) on Tuesday, and staying overnight while my dog was being spayed, so I wouldn't be at home to get the pills until Wednesday. I asked if he could he could get me an emergency stash if they didn't arrive on Monday. He found out they hadn't been processed until Friday (thank you unknown girl at the desk,) and if I hadn't received them by 3 p.m., he would get me some on Tuesday.
I haven't had that much pain, certainly not as much as some others or as much as I was afraid I would have, but it's amazing how not having the pills made me so anxious. I wound up yesterday with three pills. I took one at 11 a.m. and I tried to stretch out as long as I could but by 7:30 p.m., I had to take another pill which left only one. I took my last at 4 a.m., and felt completely naked. Thank goodness my P.A. came through with the emergency stash today, and hopefully, the refill will be at home when I return tomorrow. I was already stretching the time between pills longer, and doing fine, until I thought I was about to run out. I feel much calmer now.
The other thing was that my steri strips started falling off, and I could see a big opening in a couple of places along my incision. It looked bad to me, but I told me P.A. about it, and when I went to the hospital today, he looked at it and replaced all the steri strips, but he said it didn't look bad at all. Anytime I can see below the first layer of skin, it looks bad to me.
Wednesday – July 31 Three week anniversary: I can go at least six hours between pain pills, sometimes longer. I walk with cane most of time except when I forget it and walk with nothing! No one's measured my ROM, but I think it might be 110. Extension is better but not zero yet. Still have swelling from time to time, so icing and elevating is what I do most of the time.
Finally received my pain med refill by mail today. I checked the tracking number just to see where it went,and why it would take so long, and it came from South Carolina! This does not compute.
On the plus side, slept in the bed all night last night although numerous wake-ups. Am finding that it is not so painful to move my leg in bed as it was. Yeah progress!
August 1 - I think I've learned a new lesson -Just because you could, doesn't mean you should! I tried the recumbent bike yesterday, and it felt so easy that I did about 15 minutes - some rocking, some backward rotation, some forward. I had a much tougher night last night, and my knee is stiffer. I think the 15 minutes of recumbent biking was about 10 minutes too much. Gonna try some gentle stretches this a.m. to loosen my knee before PT this p.m.
August 2 - Gave up on sleeping in the bed last night. The sofa seems to offer more support to my back when I try to sleep on my side than the bed, and I love to sleep on my side. Maybe a few more weeks of healing will help me return to my bed. Trying to just take pain meds at six hour intervals, or longer if I forget or sleep through.
Last night had lots of deep aching on the outside of my leg - calf and up into my thigh. Is this the infamous IT band? I massaged it, and it felt some better, but only really subsided when I took my pain pill.
Going to get back on the recumbent bike again today, but limit it to 5 minutes a couple of times a day until I see how my knee reacts. I asked my PT yesterday during therapy about the bike, and he didn't seem to think that the bike had anything significant to offer. He said it doesn't help with ROM or strength; however, my PT at the hospital said the bike was key, and all I really needed to do. Who to believe? My home PT says that I'm improving, but doesn't measure which is OK. I'm beginning to think it may be time to start moving to outside therapy. How do you know when that's right?
I'm improving, but the therapy at home seems awfully easy. I guess I need to get my head in shape. What do I want? For it to hurt? I don't think so!
I still don't have horrible pain, just new ones, and generally quite short lived - a stab or spasm which sometimes make me go "OW!" I guess I'm just impatient, I have to keep telling myself it's only been 3 weeks!
August 4 - What was that I said about therapy at home seeming "easy?" Well, we added some stretches on Saturday that are not easy, but definitely are good. My hamstring tightness is the worst thing I deal with right now, and all these stretches are working on that. I'm still finding that every six hours on the pain meds works the best. I have the norco 10/325 and one works well for me, have never taken more than one.
Last night I slept through the 4 a.m. time, and would have taken a pill when I got up, but I have to take the empty stomach meds then. I was just sitting with my foot elevated on the recliner when it suddenly felt like someone had taken a bite out of my knee. OK, time for pain pill - that put it at about 8 1/2 hours since the last one. So can't stretch for too much longer than 6 hours right now.
August 5 - I'm working on getting my pain pill to a schedule which covers the night and therapy.
Last night, I took one at 9:30 p.m., slept in the bed (on my sides!) til 6 a.m. (of course I had numerous wake-ups during the night as I had to adjust, but I would go right back to sleep.) When I did get up, I had some painful spasms, but took a pill at 6:15 a.m., and now all is well. My therapy is generally around 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., so I'm planning to take another pill around 1:30 p.m, and if I can, not take another until the bedtime dose. That will put me to taking 3 pills in a 24 hour time period (compared to 6 when I first started taking them,) which I'm willing to go with for a while. My next step-down will be to cut the daytime pills in half, we'll see how that works. My P.A. said that I would be taking pain meds for at least 8 weeks, so I'm just at 4 weeks now as of Weds. I'm not worried about getting addicted as long as I am taking the pills for pain.
I will say that I have not had the pain that I thought I would have, or that others seem to have had. I consider myself very lucky.
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