On this blog, I’ve been counting the days since surgery from the day of the operation. That makes surgery day Day 1 in my count. And the first day I wrote about it as Day 2 (the day after surgery). But a friend argued that most people think of the first day as the 24 hours since surgery, and my perhaps eccentric counting was misleading, so I am changing the heading to show just the number of posts, without a day. When I refer to the days since or the date in the post, I will try to be clear. Today, then is the seventh day since the operation: a whole week has passed. Would that the pain and discomfort did as easily.
I had my first physio/rehab session this morning. The hardest part was getting into the car. My leg was just not going to bend enough for me to sit in the passenger seat up front. Pain? Oodles of it when I tried. So I got onto the back bench seat, dragged myself inside and kept my leg fairly straight. The agony of driving over Collingwood’s decaying roads with their potholes was almost bearable. Almost…
Getting out of the car was only slightly easier. The CGMH is old and its admissions area is poorly designed for anyone with mobility problems.
CGMH has a great rehab team and a member ran me through some tests, measured the angle of my knee bend (58°; not as good as it should be….) and put me through several new exercises, including stepping onto and off a low-rise (5″) step pulling my operated leg up with its own muscles. I’m supposed to do it at home, but nothing in my house is a sturdy box that high, that can also take my weight. Where can one even buy a small standalone step in Collingwood?
Susan rigged up something that will work in the interim while we look for solutions: She took my fat Amercian Heritage dictionary and another book, and put them under a metal, computer monitor stand to prevent its collapse. Total height is not much more than 3″ but it’s the best we can come up with right now. All the other exercises I can do with things we have at home. Yes, I have other dictionaries, including several from Oxford (the OED, which I prefer) although I seldom consult them these days.
My goal for the next session is more than 60° bend on that knee. Not sure if there’s enough time to loosen the knee that much, but I will try. Is it redundant to tell you bending hurts? It might lessen when the staples come out, next week. Until then: a dozen exercises three times a day. And, yes, everything still hurts. Nothing seems to prevent it. Sometimes it’s strong, too, the pain.
One item I can’t go far without is a strap I use to pull and lift my operated leg onto couches, the bed, footstools. It’s an old strap made to tie items onto a car roof, bought at Canadian Tire maybe 35 or more years ago. Susan cut the buckle off so I wouldn’t whack myself. It works like a charm.
I seem to have put on a few pounds already. I expected to: I’m not moving a lot, not walking or pedalling my bike. I really miss our walks with Bella. But right now, a shuffle behind the walker in the dining room is as far as I can go. I’m not eating a lot because I don’t feel up to big meals; I’m trying to eat a lot of fibre because, of course, constipation is a problem with recovery. Sigh. Just one more thing to make me miserable.
Last night was a rough night, and I became dehydrated because when I sleep on my back, my mouth opens, and the passageway dries out. And being dehydrated just exacerbates constipation. Stool softeners in the interim.
I finished reading three books today. That means I need to find three new titles. I have a book bag I carry up and downstairs (or rather, Susan does it for me). I have a few books I started but got interrupted from reading. I’ll check my bedside bookcase.
I didn’t take my Tylenol at lunch today. Part was to see if it made any difference to my pain, and part to see if my gut symptoms improved. I’ll take the nightly dose before bedtime. I was taking 3,000 units (three x 1,000) but I’d like to cut it back to 2,000. Acetaminophen has much less of an effect on my pain than ibuprofen. I can’t take that, however, because I’m also on “baby aspirin” as a blood thinner to help prevent clots.
More tomorrow.
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