Knee update!

Ok enough with the nonsense, lets talk about my knee. (Side note, I wrote this on Wednesday but forgot to publish)

We are now at day 10 post op and I can honestly say I'm feeling so much better than I did the first week after surgery. 

For those of you that visited the first week, man oh man was that an adventure. The first week was so painful, I believe I cried everyday for the first 7-8 days. Every act required so much assistance and just plain hurt. In addition to the pure pain, I also felt so foggy due to the pain Meds I was on. I was taking 10mg of oxycodone every 3 hours in addition to Tylenol every 6 hours and Benadryl for the itching. A.k.a., I was a hit mess. 

Today the pain is still real; I mean very real, but manageable. I've reduced my Meds to 5mg of oxy every 5-7 hours as needed and dropped the Benadryl. I'm still keeping with the Tylenol but reduced that to about twice a day. 

As for my knee itself, I'm still doing 6 hours a day on my CPM machine. The CPM passively bends my knee for me while I'm laying down. While its easy to use, it's definitely work on my end. Often when I begin using the machine my knee is so stiff that the motion can be quite painful. After some time my knee adjusts but then it's time to increase the range if motion in degrees. For example, I'll often start at 30 degrees then increase every 30-60 minutes in 5 degree increments until I can't take it anymore. Guys you have no idea how fun this is.

Yesterday I got a fancy new machine to add to my routine. It's an exogen ultrasound bone stimulator. So fancy, I know!

Basically I put it on my skin for 20 minutes and it helps stimulate bone growth. It's painless and although I'm skeptical I'm hoping it works. 

I also have a nurse visiting me 2x per week and a physical therapist named Kyle who visits 3x per week. Both are great...although Kyle probably gets the most attitude from me as his job is to make we work. He bends my leg and starting today he'll make me use crutches and start some other exercises on my good leg and upper body. 

Tomorrow is my first follow up appointment so I'll have a pretty detailed update on my current progress and what full recovery is going to look like. 

If you made it this far in reading this ridiculously

long and detailed post, you must be family or incredibly bored ;) either way thanks for your support and love.

Xoxo

I