Re: Cancelled surgery due to severe anxiety-POST-SURGERY UPDATE
So far, not only it has been "not as bad as I thought it would be" but it seems I'm doing amazingly WELL!
My doc is a big believer in adaquate pain relief-that's helped a lot.
He uses a "silver dressing" on the incision, and right from the first dressing change, I've had little or no redness, no oozing, very little bleeding. My home PT said it was the best-looking TKR incision she'd ever seen!
Even though I started off in the hospital with not much confidence, compounded by missing a day of PT due to a mix-up, I progressed very fast and to my amazement was able to climb the 3 1/2 dreaded steps into my house 4 days post surgery. Now, 16 days post surgery, I have 118 degrees flexion and my PT keeps using words like "amazing".
I think it helped that I didn't wait until I was in very bad shape-it's easier to come back when you weren't so bad in the first place. In my case, practical considerations made me decide not to wait. We had just (finally) sold our previous house and had money in the bank to make up for my loss of income while recuperating. Also, there is always a worry that my husband's health insurance coverage could be reduced in the future.
I was able to go out to eat with my sister a few days ago with her SUV and a little stool to help get in and out. Yesterday, the PT showed me how to get in and out of my honda civic and to my amazement I was able to. That's a big step forward because now at least I can go somewhere as long as someone else drives