The burning issue in my life right now is when and how to wash my hair. I washed it Tuesday morning, and it's now Saturday, so the only thing I can say is...yuck! I'm going to have to manage to stand at the kitchen sink long enough tomorrow to wash my hair. This is something I realized prior to surgery would be a problem, but I didn't quite realize the challenge it would present. If you are having TKR surgery, give some thought to how you'll solve this problem. The longer and/or thicker your hair, the more of an issue this will become. I had my hair cut the Friday before my Tuesday surgery. Now I wish I'd gotten more cut off! At any rate, I'll have to ask Stan to help me a little although I'm really trying as hard as possible to do everything I possibly can by myself.
This day has been a definite improvement over yesterday. We left off this morning just as I was about to do my exercises. Stan is being a wonderful coach and is pushing me enough, but not too much. I made the mistake this morning of not taking Percocet before exercising, so the whole experience was......less than thrilling. But I did finish all my exercises, so I felt proud of myself. Stan tried to get me to eat lunch, but I just couldn't. In fact, by the time I'd finished exercising (which took almost an hour), I was so exhausted that I went back to bed and slept 2 hours. When I woke up, it was time for our son to come over to babysit me so that Stan could go out to the grocery. A little later, our daughter-in-law and the granddaughters came over so that she could change my dressing and give me my Lovenox blood thinning shot. By the way, Lovenox shots have to be given in your stomach--double, triple yuck!
As soon as the family left, Stan put me through my exercise moves again. This time I had taken Percocet, but it made my tummy feel so bad that I don't know which is worse--less pain but more nausea with Percocet or more pain but no nausea without Percocet. It's actually a tough decision.
So, I've exercised and walked my laps around the house with the walker, Stan is fixing Morningstar Tomato Basil burgers for dinner, and then I plan on an early bedtime. I'm definitely not the life of the party, so I feel sorry for Stan being stuck here waiting hand and foot on me. If you go through TKR, try to have a back up person to come in and help so that your primary caregiver gets a break.
That's enough for today, my fourth day. I suspect more of the same tomorrow, but maybe I'll have more energy--hope so!
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