1) Pain levels are at 6-8. There are times I have no pain, and other times I have stabbing pain that takes my breath away. The stiffness is the thing that gets to me too. I would rate the stiffness at a 6.
2) I am not taking any prescription pain meds anymore. I was prescribed Percocet, but quit taking those fairly early in my recovery. Percocet makes me feel funky and Tramadol does nothing for me. I have reactions to almost all narcotic pain meds so tend to stay away from them. I am allergic to MSO4 and to Dilaudid. I take naproxen 200 mg twice a day.
3) Moderate swelling; Left is more swollen then right. Right is more stiff then left. Go figure. I still have inflammation in both knees as both are warm to hot every day. I use a cream on them called penetrex which helps the inflammation. I will take ibuprofen for the inflammation sometimes (not for pain) but it doesn’t seem to help.
4) Flexion is at 110 degrees for left; Right at 106 degrees; extension is 0 for left; right is at 5 (I can’t quite get the right knee to straighten out.)
5) I ice sporadically. Today I have iced most of the day and kept my legs elevated. Tomorrow I hope to do the same. Otherwise, I have been icing in the evening when I am essentially done for the day. I can ice for 30-40 minutes at a time for each knee.
6) I have a bed that has an elevation feature for my legs and I have been elevating them every evening in bed. When sitting in the living room I also elevate them, so unless I am sitting in a restaurant my knees are up. It doesn’t seem to help the swelling, however.
7). Level of activity: well I confess I belong to the ODIC club. I live with my daughter right now (while I am recovering) who has three teenagers. So I find myself washing dishes multiple times a day and straightening up the house. I don’t cook, but will fix a sandwich or something for myself to eat during the day. I also have lunch with friends quite a bit as well as running errands. I do drive and I have a stick shift. I do grocery shopping about once a week and have been Christmas shopping as well. I go back to work January 3rd and I am a college professor so will be on my feet a bit. I plan on making sure the lecture hall has a stool for me to sit on.
8) No PT at this time. I did 12 sessions and they sent a plan of care to my OS for approval to keep up the PT, but they have not heard back from him. I wasn’t terribly happy with my PT anyway as he had me do leg presses, using bands on my ankles and squats. I always felt terrible after he finished and needed to go home and ice and rest.
Home exercises:
Heel slides 10x2 times a day
Hang my knees off the bed for extension for 10 minutes once a day
Stretching with my daughters help as she works my quads and hamstrings once a day.
I confess I find exercises confusing. This forum talks about no exercise and yet I feel compelled to do something! So any help you can give me on what to do I would appreciate.
I think that covers it. There is one thing you should probably know. It has impacted my “sitting still” and also how I feel about this whole thing. My youngest daughter died this past summer quite unexpectedly. She was 41. She died in July and I had my surgery in September. I thought about delaying the surgery for a bit, but knew Rachel would not want me to do that. She knew how much my knees bothered me. In hindsight, the emotional upheaval I was (and am) still working through, along with the physical pain, was really too much at one time. It impacted my willingness to endure pain (not!) and my emotional state. So I know this has impacted my recovery as well.