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TKR gr82cu2 Hello new knee, it's great to see you!

You and Tucker helping each other. :kittykiss:

Swelling this early is pretty normal and using your ice machine is a good thing. I'm sorry your pain is still so high.
 
@Daystar this is my "nest"
[Bonesmart.org] gr82cu2 Hello new knee, it's great to see you!
 
Whew! I felt *maybe* able to get up and give myself a little PTA bath, brush teeth, change undies and jammies. That wiped me out! I hope later when one or the other of my daughters in law comes by I can get one of them to help me wash my hair in the sink. It feels icky!

I changed the pad on my incision again. Still a little oozy but nothing dramatic or alarming. It is sore at the very top and raised up a bit there which is where most of the oozing seems to be coming from. It's just a little bloody fluid. Nothing appears to be infected. When my PA daughter in law comes I'll have her look at it.

My knee is bending better today than yesterday but still not better than Thursday :( It will come back once this swelling goes down more, I'm sure. While still painful to stand it is much better than yesterday. So, I think I'm heading back in the right direction once again.

Everybody pray for @Daystar and keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She is having a tough time right now. Maybe stop by her thread and say hello :flwrysmile:
 
@gr82cu2 Like your nest! Yes your ROM will improve once the swelling leaves. The top part is were the muscle was also cut, that is about the only spot that bothers my hubby some now. Do you have any steri-strips or butterfly bandaids. Maybe you can put one across it, but ask the doc first.
I was just on Daystar's thread and she had talked to someone and is hopefully getting the meds sorted out. She has had such a rough time.
 
@tiredwife I have all the extra pillows in the house here on the couch with me, LOL. I just strapped on my e-stem and got some exercises done. No worse for wear I don't think. It feels much, much better today. It just makes me mad to think I lost several days because of my idiot PA. Grrrrr!!! The Celebrex seems to be doing the trick. Kent is coming with my lunch. He went to get more TED hose from the hospital they forgot to give me. And then his folks are stopping by and then older son and his PA wife. No rest for the wicked this afternoon but at least maybe I'll get my hair washed. I hate to let it air dry. It looks awful but I guess I'm not entering any beauty contests anytime soon :rofsign: My leg modeling career has been ruined :rotfl:
 
My inlaws were just here. He's 85 and she's 83. Not in the best of health but they get around a little still. They brought us 2 slices of cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory! Score!!!! I don't know what kind. I haven't gone and looked yet.

Still waiting on the young'uns to come by. Tick tock, tick tock, mama wants a nap. Whaaaa!!!
 
I swearing swear some PAs and PTs are masochists! Makes me furious that pain is not controlled or even enabled! I had my worst pain day and swelling on day four. Sleep, except for pain wakeups and meds, was pretty good for several weeks as that is my body's response to trauma. Hope the swelling goes down!
 
:hi: @G82cu2
Good to see that you are home and have your nesting zone all set up. You had such an upsetting time with Darrell and that doesn't help in the overall recovery process as it takes away so em of your healing energy.
I will be discharged from Rehab centre either Tuesday or Wednesday.
So, went home this afternoon for 3 hours and set up my heading nest & then out yo local restaurant with husband and back in the rehab centre for 8:15 pm.

Leg stiff so icing & elevating. But , good to get home and may go out for the afternoon again on Sunday.

Hope that you settle in well and you recovery at home goes great for you. It is early days with ups & downs, but now that the journey has started we have no choice but to continue.
:chillpill:
 
@cjf1222 I think Darrell was on some sort of power trip or something. I have no idea but he is one of the rudest people I've ever come into contact with. I'm surprised my OS keeps him around because everyone else on my OS's team and staff are just wonderful people. No complaints at all about anyone but Darrell.

@marmora How exciting for you to finally be going home! I think if I had been gone as long as you and got to go briefly and got a taste of home I wouldn't have been able to go back to rehab. There's no place like home! I think if I had had to stay in the hospital another night I would have been tearing my hair out. All the noises and voices all hours of the day and night. You are going to do so well once you get home. Be sure and let us know how it goes.
 
@gr82cu2, I slept a lot the first few weeks. Your body has been through a lot and is working overtime to heal. I have to agree about the massage helping with getting rid of the swelling. If you don't want your husband to do it, try doing it yourself. Start as low on your leg as you can comfortably reach and work your way up. You might want to use lotion, just be careful not to get any on your incision. It is pretty normal to have swelling this early in your recovery. It will last for weeks. My right knee is still slightly swollen (not as much as yours) but it is slowly getting better. It will get better.
 
Saturday August 1, 2014 roundup (5th day after surgery)

I woke up this morning at 7 am feeling pretty decent. The swelling had decreased some in my leg overnight and it wasn't nearly as painful to get up and down and walk on it. I did get a better peek at the back of my leg when I gave myself a sink bath and it's pretty ugly looking, all black and blue.

I gave myself a sink bath around 10 this morning and got changed into fresh undies, jammies and all that jazz. I was pretty worn out from just doing that.

I iced, I elevated, I medicated and took a little nap. Then people started calling and texting and waking me up so I gave up on the nap and did my e-stem exercises instead. I just put the probes on my leg. One near the top of my thigh and one to the inside upper part of my knee. It warms up for 2 minutes with gentle pulses and I do light flexing, stretching exercises during the warmup phase. Then it starts working the muscle and I do quad sets, leg raises, knee bends, etc. It's not very difficult at all and doesn't feel straining on my leg. The whole routine lasts about 30 minutes once cool down is complete but I'm not actively working my muscles that whole 30 minutes. The machine sends pulses and then rests. When it is pulsing is when I do the exercises. I rest when it rests. I'm supposed to do this routine twice a day but didn't again today because later in the afternoon my leg started swelling bad again. My compression hose are now very uncomfortable and they hadn't been.

At noon Kent came in with lunch he had picked up when he went out to get me more compression hose and I felt well enough to sit at the table with my leg propped up.

After lunch I laid back down until Kent's folks stopped by around 1:30. They brought cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory (which I haven't eaten any yet) and stayed about an hour or so.

I laid around most of the afternoon, napping off and on until Nick (our oldest) and Becky (his wife) came for a visit. Becky is a PA so I showed her my incision, swelling, bruising and she thought it all looked ok considering I'm not very far out from surgery. Becky also washed my hair and helped me get on the new pair of compression hose. They stayed and visited for about 2 hours total.

Kent made us a little dinner and here we are, tucked in for the night at nearly 10:30. I'm hoping the swelling goes down again overnight. I felt so much better this morning but as the day has gone on I feel like I'm going backwards again. I didn't take a lot of meds today, especially earlier because I was feeling better so I need to remind myself of the BS mantra about taking meds on time so you don't get set back. That may be what I did.

Speaking of meds, I was looking at my med bottles a little while ago and realized for the first time that he gave me two refills on the Tramadol so I'm extra, extra set on meds I think. I've been alternating with the Oxycodone, Hydrocodone w/tylenol and Tramadol w/tylenol and keeping track of how much tylenol I'm getting in a day. I'm nowhere near the maximum. Honestly, I kind of think the Tramadol helps the most. It's still an experiment in progress.

Have a good night everyone!
 
:SUNsmile:@G82cu2
Enjoyed reading your summary of Saturday at home . Especially, the Cheese Cake Factory - we were in one in March in San Francisco when there fir my nephews' wedding - yummy.
The key/ trick to avoiding noise .& voices while in hospital I have found over the years are 1. These fabulous silky sleep masks called 'Sweet Dreams' that my duster sends me every Christmas, she buys them in Macy's. Not only for the hospital but use them every night at home, as I like total darkness to sleep. And 2. Industrial strength ear plugs - don't hear a thing. When the night nurse first comes on duty I tell her/him that I have ear plugs, in case they want to wake me and cause I can't hear them, don't want them to think I've gone unconscious !
What I also feels helped in my recovery is that visitors limited to maximum if 2 and I will only let then stay for a maximum of 15 minutes ( except for my husband). Find having lots of visitors and they staying for a long time very energy zapping.
Going home again on Sunday from 3-8pm. Short and sweet re-introduction to life in the real world.
Take care and continued progress during your recovery.
 
@marmora The hospital provided those squishy ear plugs which I did use after about the middle of the first night. They blocked out voices but I could still hear beeping going on. It was better than nothing, in any case.

I think tomorrow our youngest son will likely stop by and then the visits should tail off for a few days as everyone will be back at work. I turned the ringer off on my phone finally. If they really want to talk to me they can leave a voice mail and I will call back. Or they could text Kent to ask how I'm doing.
 
:chillpill: @G82cu2
Family & friends do want to show their love & support , but they don't realise how much energy it can take from us having them visit too long. Bless their hearts and it is hard to let them know you'd like them to cut their visit short. After they've made the effort to be with you.
Can be a hard one to get right without upsetting them and/or tiring the TKR person out!
As you can see its about 4:30 am in Dublin, had 2 Solpadeine for mild pain at 3:45 am re-did my icy Cryo cuff and now ready to head back to sleep.
Take care
 
Look who decided to wake up with me this morning :)
[Bonesmart.org] gr82cu2 Hello new knee, it's great to see you!


I slept 1-3 am and 3-8 am. I wouldn't have woke up at 8 except I was having a bad dream and I jerked my knee back. Ouch! But all is well because Tucker decided to wake up with me this morning. Good morning everyone!
 
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