Having forgotten to do so yesterday, I'll mention that yesterday was the four-week anniversary of my TKR surgery. My, time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?
Just to recap, in case I (or someone else) might want to know what to expect at certain times during the recovery, here's an overview of my life right now, expressed in terms of TKR topics of interest:
1. The incision site: The incision is now completely healed. There are no more scabs and right now, it sort of looks like someone who has had a sunburn: slightly pink with some peeling skin.
2. Pain: Yes, I still have intermittent pain, but it's never severe enough to cause any impediment to my daily life. My knee generally hurts after physical therapy, but so would your knee if you were doing what I'm doing!!
3. Swelling: As you know if you have kept up with this blog, I have swelling every few days for no apparent reason. It's distressing when that happens, not so much because of the discomfort, but because of the perplexity as to why it happened and what, if anything, could be done to prevent it.
4. Sleep: For the first two to three weeks (especially the first two weeks), I was sleeping all night plus 2 to 4 hours during the day. Those times are over for the most part. I still rest in the afternoon usually, but often don't fall asleep. After today's PT, I did sleep/doze for about 45 minutes just to escape the ache in my knee! As for nighttime sleep, I'm generally going to bed around 10:00 and waking up sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. Those times are about to end because school starts next week, but for now, I might as well indulge myself.
5. Appetite: This has been strange. Most days I'm eating normally now, but every 3 or 4 days, I will get that old queasy feeling and will feel like all food is disgusting. If only that feeling would last for the indefinite future.....well, no, not really, but I guess having no appetite every once in a while isn't all that bad.
6. Mobility: As you will have read, I'm more or less walking on my own everywhere I go now. I have been taking my cane with me still when I go out in the world, but today my physical therapist told me to leave it at home. She said it was time to stop depending on anything to help me. Okay....... The good news, however, is that the therapist measured me again today, and I have 0 degrees extension (i.e. I can extend my leg until it is perfectly, absolutely straight) and I have 105 degrees of Range of Motion (that's the angle at which I can bend my knee). There's nowhere else to go with extension since that's all anybody can do. I will need to keep working on range of motion, however. My surgeon said that the most I could ever hope for would be 120 degrees, but that if I could keep it between 110 and 115, I'd be able to do anything I want to do except sit on my heels (which I never could do anyway). So, when I complain about my therapist, I know she's trying hard to get me to that 110/115 point and I appreciate her dedication. I will try to get there before the end of August when my therapy ends.
7. Stairs: I have been using my cane to go up and down stairsteps, one step at a time (i.e. bringing both feet onto a step before progressing to the next step). No more of that sissy stuff for me as of today! My therapist took me out to the stairwell of the building without my cane and had me climb up and down two flights stepping up normally (one foot over another). It was an effort, but I did it. Going down stairs is still much more difficult than going up the stairs, however.
8. Pain medication: The only time I take Percocet now is before physical therapy. I'd like to say I could be stoic enough to go through all that pushing, pulling, straining, and movement without medication, but I'm not there yet. Even with the Percocet, it still hurts, so I'm just not brave enough to do therapy without a little help. I'm about out of the initial prescription, but I did get another prescription from my surgeon at my two-week visit, so I'll probably get it refilled early next week in order to get me through the remainder of my physical therapy sessions.
9. Physical Therapy: For all my whining about how hard and painful it is, I must admit that seemingly innocuous exercises really seem effective. Aside from the horrible bending-the-knee-backwards episode at the end of every session, I really wouldn't mind the rest of it. It's demanding and leaves me a tad tired and sore, but exercise is supposed to do that. It's the bending-the-knee-backwards that just absolutely kills me! Where's my ice pack???
10. Daily Life: One week from tomorrow, the school year starts again and I return to work. I am planning to go to work, and I think I'll be okay, but I do plan to use sick leave if and when I feel I need it. I've been accumulating sick leave for years and have used relatively little, so I figure if I devoted my whole summer to recovering from TKR (instead of taking off 6 weeks during the school year), I can indulge myself with the occasional day off if I start feeling run-down or too terribly stiff and sore. Around the house, I'm doing more or less what I usually do. I've been doing laundry for a couple of weeks, have fixed a couple of meals (although it's still SO hot that neither of us is interested in hot food), and take care of small chores like loading a few dishes in the dishwasher and making beds. Stan is still doing the major housework like vacuuming and most of the routine straightening up. For the first time today, I drove the car home from the grocery, so that hurdle has also been breached. I guess there's no excuse at all not to go to work next week, is there?
Well, that's a summary of my state of being at the one-month mark since TKR surgery. Since I still have no frame of reference, I am going to assume that I'm doing pretty well. I'm having busy enough days and seeming to survive them well enough, although I'm still very tired quite early in the evening.
Stan and I had another full day of activity today. We kept the granddaughters with Stan overseeing most of their activities (bike riding at a park, swimming for two hours in the afternoon). I meanwhile did a little bit of laundry, went to a VERY demanding physical therapy session, and prepared a minimalistic dinner. I did lie down to rest this afternoon, but spent most of the time reading and a little time dozing. On the way back from taking the granddaughters home, we stopped at the grocery and, as I said earlier, I drove home--the first time behind the wheel really since our Florida trip in June.
It's been another day in the life, therefore, and I'm getting ready to wind down and to start thinking about how nice it will be to sleep as long as I want in the nice cold, dark basement. (I'm not a vampire, really I'm not!!) Fortunately there's no particular reason to get up early tomorrow, so I'm going to indulge myself in a very lazy morning.
So, the second month of my recovery begins, and by the beginning of my third month four weeks from now, I fully expect to be almost back to 100%. Wish me luck!
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