New Knee Day 15: Pedaling!

Had PT today and after she left I hopped on the bike to do some partial rotations. I was really close to a full rotation but not quite there until I tried pedaling backwards. I was able to go full circle in reverse!

I figured out that the real difference was in my foot position. If I pointed the foot more instead of holding it at 90 degrees I was able to rotate my leg full circle. 

After slowing and adjusting foot position I am now able to pedal forward!!

Now I am working on getting everything lined up correctly and happy. 

New Knee Week 2

Finally lost a couple of the more crusty looking steri strips in the shower today. I can now see a little more bruising that was hidden. Knee doesn't look too bad for day 14!

New Knee Day 12: Progress Report

Sitting here on my recumbent bike doing a 30 minute pedal fest and trying to come up with a status report. This is Day 12 after operation and I am feeling like I am making progress.

First of all I still cannot do a full rotation on the bike pedals but I am very close!

Getting on the bike is much easier. I can lift my leg up without a lot of pain. The same thing goes for getting in and out of bed and up and down from sitting position. I have less pain and more flexibility which makes getting around much easier. 

I am down to one crutch (with PT approval) and when walking on the flat I can walk almost normally crutch free. Still have a bit of a limp though so need to work on that. 

My wound still has steri strips on but they are looking pretty ragged. A few more showers will likely see them come off. 

My leg never bruised up badly and except for the wound and a small amount of swelling it looks pretty normal. 

Speaking of showers I am able to put my good leg up on the toilet seat and dry off while standing with full weight on my robo leg. Just need to be careful to balance well with no twisting. 

Similarly I am able to get my socks and shorts on without too much problem. Again balance on new leg is good. I tend to be careful to hold on to something still but the weight bearing is no problem. 

As to pain level I am down to about 3-4 OxyCodin a day. Night is still a problem which is generally where the 4th oxy comes in. I am making progress. I can finally  sleep on my side without a lot of pain in the knee.  The biggest issue at night and early morning has been my quad muscle wanting to tighten up almost like a spasm or cramp. I feel it when that happens!

As to general well being I am feeling pretty good. My energy levels are definitely lower still. It takes a lot more to bounce back after any energy drain and I do need more rest time during the day. I am sleeping longer hours although the sleep is pretty broken so it is hard to quantify actual sleep time. After getting up early for the Anzac sunrise service Saturday I spent the rest of the day in bed! 

I am a little frustrated as there is so much I see that I need or want to do around the house but most takes a little more mobility than I have at the moment. I am trying to remember that my focus now should be working on my rehabilitation. 

New Knee Week 1: Anzac Day

Up at a most unworthy hour today and we went off to pick up the krazy kiwi for an early morning service commemorating the servicemen who died at Gallipoli. Glad I brought my crutches and also glad it is by tradition a short service! The knee and I made it through and I am glad to have joined in.

https://www.facebook.com/events/420630538107770/
http://www.gallipoli2015.govt.nz

New Knee Week 1

I'm just about over the high of making great range of motion progress and not having as much pain to deal with as I thought I would. Now I am getting bored..... And while one is bored one does silly things.
I hopped on my recumbent a couple days ago and started a series pedaling back and forth, not making a full revolution. At that point I was only up to about 112 degrees and I believe around 120 is the magic number for a full revolution on the bike. Did I mentions I was bored? In fact I was even more bored sitting on the bike not going anywhere and not making even a full revolution of the pedals. So I started playing with my bar end shifters and of course managed to shift jerking the pedal and suddenly I did a full revolution - YIKES OWEY! That was not boring! Luckily no metal bits fell out of anything (bike or knee) and I was able to do a few more three quarters revolutions before getting off the bike and grabbing an icepack.

Quote of the Day

"Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?' have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you."
— Maya Angelou (Letter to My Daughter)

New Knee Week 1: Sleep vs Pain

Pain levels have not been too bad so far but last night seemed to be the night for it. The doctor and nurses all warned me that nighttime was likely to be the worst. There is just no really good position for me to put my leg in. Normally I am a side sleeper and that seems to be the worst there seems to be no way to get everything positioned comfortably. I have decided that increasing pain mess at night is a good idea, as is using a seldom used sleep aid.

New Knee Day 5

Progress pretty good so far. I had my first at home PT session. She was pretty good at making me actually do the exercises correctly which is of course harder. She also took the humongous bandaid off so I'm down to just steri-strips and the multiple construction markings which are evidently part of Dr. Hollands  trademark.

New Knee Day 4: Bonk!

Bonk! Went along fine today not doing a lot. Some heel slides and quad sets along with a few of the other exercises on my list. I was sitting up on the couch doing some light knee bending when suddenly I hit a wall, Had the classic "stick a fork in her, she's done" moment. Shaking, chilled, generally not feeling too good. 

So lesson learned? Eat protein lunch in mid day - don't go straight to ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yeah you read that right. That saying about life being short, eat dessert first. Don't listen to it. Good nutrition is not just for wimps. I should have stayed away from sugar and had a more reasonable midday meal. 

New Knee Tidbits: Kicking the NSAIDS

Before you go into the surgery your doctor is going to ask you to stop taking your NSAIDs. For me that was no Declofenac for 3 days before surgery. I was made aware in that time how many aches and pains I actually had. Not just my knee hurt but various other parts of my body were in rebellion over the lack of their favorite drug.
So why does the doctor want to torture you like this? It seems simple: NSAIDS can cause bleeding, don't want excess bleeding. Or is it that NSAIDS inhibit healing? Something along those lines I guess....  OK Cool but when I started looking around for more specific information I found a bit more controversy than I expected: http://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/pharmacological/non-opioids/practical-approach-discontinuing-nsaid-therapy-prior

Quote of the Day

“Surgeons can cut out everything except cause.”
-Herbert M. Shelton

Quote of the Day

"I want to replace my knees with miniature Rube Goldberg machines. That way you'll know how difficult it is for me to simply walk out of your life."
-Jarod Kintz

New Knee Day 4: Home PT

So far I have had a pretty normal day. Brunch at Portage Bay Cafe on Roosevelt followed by a visit from the home health Physical Therapist.
The PT and I went through all the drugs I was taking which involved her quizzing me on what each drug was for and why I was taking them, etc. We then went around the house so she could make sure I was comfortable doing what I needed to do. She encouraged me to have someone stand by more often for a while. Like when I take a shower or use the stairs. She also figuratively slapped my hand for occasionally taking a full step going upstairs instead of the same leg up. She encouraged me to do my exercises 3 times a day. Or if that was too boring pick a couple one hour and a couple more the next then cycle through them all. Next person will spend more time on actual exercise and not paperwork. For the next two weeks we have home PT scheduled 3 times a week.

New Knee Day 4: Brunch!!!

I know I just got my knee replaced a few days ago but Sunday is still brunch day! I'll have to have someone else load up my plate at the breakfast bar but I want a Portage Bay Cafe Breakfast!!

New Knee Day 3: Lazy Linda

Ok I was way lazy today. I spent a lot of time watching TV with my leg being bent and straightened by the CPM machine but other than that sleep was the order of the day.

New Knee Day 2: Home!

Home and ready to really start training!

New Knee Day 2: Freedom!

Bright sunny day in Seattle and I'm on my way home!

New Knee Day 2: Slowly slowly

Pretty good nights sleep broken up in about 3 hour increments. All my vitals were good last night. 

Dr. Woke me with a knock on the foot at 6:30. He is very pleased with my numbers! Range of Motion of 3 to 110 is going to be pretty hard to beat today. They took out my drain this morning. A little burn but not bad. Without the drain I will need to ice a lot to keep swelling down. 

New Knee Day 1: One day down.

I'm all tucked in to my hospital bed. Immobilizer brace on to keep my leg straight overnight.

It has been a long day. Good news on rehab department- I was able to control my pain level and get in two Physical Therapy sessions and one Occupational Therapy session. 

OT is concerned with making sure I can take care of everything I need to - like getting into a shower, putting my socks on, etc. 

PT made sure I practiced stairs and walked with crutches plus they ran me through some incredibly not so fun exercises straightening and bending and lifting my leg. I had great range of motion numbers! 3 to 110 degrees! Big high five!

Now though I am knackered. I'm going to try for a good nights sleep. 

New Knee Day 1: PT

I pushed hard on the CPM machine today. Started at 0-60 degrees and every 20 minutes went up 5 degrees. So ended at -5 to 80 degrees. After that I rested up for about an hour but the pain level was not really going down much so before my Physical Therapy session I asked for a second OxyContin. Good thing as the pain was much more manageable during therapy. 

The other big help though was the arrival of a couple of my long term bike buddies right at the time to hang with me and chat while I went up and down stairs and up and down the hallway on crutches. 

Friends plus OxyContin equals great pain management!

New Knee Day 1: Clothes

Yeah! I am out of the hospital gown and into shorts and a comfy shirt. Also wandered into the bathroom and back. More pain today than yesterday but still not too bad.

New Knee Tidbits: Break-in Requirements

Had a chat with my surgeon today about what I should and shouldn't do to try to rehabilitate my knee. He was quite clear. "You cannot push hard enough to hurt it."

In other words go ahead and try to straighten it and bend it, walk on it and work it! 

I believe there is an implied agreement not to fall down the stairs and such like.....

New Knee Day 1: Sleep

Other than a wake up by the nurses every few hours it has been an ok night so far. My blood pressure was fairly low so they had to monitor it and up my IV input. Any pain has been managed by some OxyContin every few hours. When I am awakened I try to remember to move my extremities, keep that blood flow up! I have a catheter in which I was just told would come out at the 6:30AM visit so I'll be on my "own plumbing". My personal goal for the day is to be able to get up and move about more. Not sure if PT will agree or not. Having a few less attachments would be nice. Currently I have a drain on the knee, an IV, foley catheter & squeezey things on my legs. 

I'm glad I brought my earplugs! Wish I had remembered my eye shade. 

New Knee Workout

Feeling awesome!! Physical Therapist came in and got me up. I walked 50feet with walker! A little sore but way easier than I imagined. Of course I still have a nerve block in that knee so will have to wait until tomorrow for a more accurate taste of the pain levels. He also measured my range of motion: 8 to 94 degrees which is awesome! Of course with pain meds I am betting tomorrow's measurement will be less.

The PT asked a lot of questions about numbers of stairs in my house and where I had handrails. They will train me on both walker and crutches so I am glad I brought my crutches with me. Of course Mr. BikePT Erik already got me going there so I am hoping for a smooth day tomorrow. He warned me to be careful with my pup dog. Lots of people trip and fall or there dog jumps up and hurts them.

Hospital Food

Just got my room service menu and put my order in for some yogurt, raisin bran and a milk shake! I'm thinking salmon for dinner.

New Knee!

Out of surgery and feeling great. I have pain blocks in and the spinal is not all the way worn off. My robo leg is in a CPM machine moving from 0-60 degrees. CPM is constant passive motion machine     as to the surgery I didn't feel anything. I had a nice combo of happy drugs. 

New Knee Day: getting closer

Dr. Holland just came in and signed my knee! Getting Closer.

New Knee Day: Waiting waiting

Of course they ask you to get here at 7:30 and then are surprised when you are here on time ready to go. I'm in pre-op now, hospital gown on and all the papers signed and it is only 8:00! They will start putting drugs in around 8:30, surgery should be around 10:00. Glad I brought my iPad. 

New Knee Day 0 - Surgery Day!

Well this is it! I get to go under the knife/ sawzall/ / router/ hatchet - Whatever it is they use to rebuild my knee. I get to hit the hospital at 7:30 AM and hopefully will be in and out of the surgery by noon. My doc was confident that he would get me rebuilt in under an hour but there is of course all the pre-prep and post-prep and hopefully a little time for a nap in there somewhere.

New Knee Day -1 : I'll be Back!!

Up and at em! Last day to commute to Kent for a while.

Flywheel: Thank You!

Last 6:00AM Monday class for a while. I am not going to miss hitting the snooze button until the last possible minute and dragging my carcass out for 45 min of sweat! But I will miss the workout!

And for any of you with knee pain I highly recommend the spin workout. As far as prep for surgery goes I feel great. My legs are strong and I feel in good shape. (Even though my shape is rounder than I would like!)

Thanks go to all the great folks at South Lake Union Flywheel for keeping me going. 

New Knee Day - 2 : Monday!

Early Early Early 6:00AM Flywheel - Oh why do I do this? I'm hacking this leg up this week. Why keep on working it out?

New Knee Day -3: Sleep In and ignore the ToDo List!

Yep up early as usual but got my coffee and crawled back in bed for a nice long lay in! After that we made a trek up to Maltby Cafe and a cinamon roll the size of a dinner plate. Then a ramble through the town of Snohomish and several of its antique stores. It was a wonderful relaxing day but by the end of the ramble I was feeling the knee more and more.  It is three days pre-op and I am off my NSAIDs.

Quote of the Day

“I always take Scotch whiskey at night as a preventive of toothache. I have never had the toothache; and what is more, I never intend to have it.”
-Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

“If we are creating ourselves all the time, then it is never too late to begin creating the bodies we want instead of the ones we mistakenly assume we are stuck with.”
― Deepak Chopra

Quote of the Day

“Be careful about reading health books. Some fine day you'll die of a misprint.”
― Markus Herz

New Knee Day -4 : Ice Cream!

Chinese Food followed by Chunky Monkey with chocolate sauce! Yeah - I felt like I could use some junk food.
On the plus side today I got the recumbent bike down and cleaned off. I stripped off the fairing and fenders and changed out the pedals with some platform pedals. It is now downstairs in the trainer all set up and ready for rehab work. And of course with a nice view of the TV.

New Knee Day -6 : CPM Machine

CPM Machine was delivered today. I signed a bunch of papers and the tech set it up, applied all the fake sheepskin padding and fitted it to my leg. Unfortunately he didn't tighten two of the bolts so when I picked it up to take it off the Man Cave bed my lower leg adjustment went wildly long. No worries I'm an engineer - I can fix that.