What a difference a day makes...and a change in sleep arrangements! Here's a very good hint for you if you are going through TKR. Build a "ramp" of pillows in your bed that will keep you leg elevated above the level of your heart and that will keep your leg straight. Sleep with your leg on that ramp all night. You'd think you might toss and turn, but it was my experience that I lay perfectly still on my back all night with my leg elevated. I put a gel-pac on my knee before going to bed and once more during the night Stan came down and put a new gel-pac on my knee. Doing those two things helped my knee quite a lot. Yes, it was still stiff and swollen this morning, but it wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday. As a result, I'm feeling more optimistic this morning.
The morning is already almost over and physical therapy is looming in my near future so I'll just tell you briefly that I've had an okay morning. We had breakfast, and then I spent quite a long time on my computer before finally rousing myself to take my morning sponge bath and get dressed. Not that I wanted to, but I did my exercises, and then, once I'd "iced and elevated," Stan left to take the granddaughters swimming while I went to sleep for an hour. I really can't believe how much I'm sleeping, by the way, but I am rationalizing it by thinking that the body heals best while you're sleeping, so the more I sleep, the quicker I'll get well--at least that's what I tell myself!
I've just eaten some yogurt so that I could take my two Percocets to get ready for physical therapy. I'm not sure which I dread more--PT or taking Percocets! At any rate, both seem inevitable, so I might as well do what I have to do.
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