PKR Ligament Sprain in GoodLeg

Smokey is beautiful. How nice of you to honor him this way.
May your Smokey be blessed with happiness and free from all pain and suffering.
And you, as well, @sistersinhim.
 
Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing all my babies at the Rainbow Bridge! Each and everyone of them has been loved.
 
It is amazing how much our pets help us with our recoveries. Their sweet purrs, wagging tails, and loving attentions give us a real boost to get recovered for them! They remain by our sides our we fight through days of pain and depression. The responsibilities I had to take care of my 13 fur babies urged me on every day even when I wanted to stay in bed!
 
In my never-ending quest for quality sleep, I came across this:
If you cannot sleep or get get back to sleep in the night (@luvcats ....)there’s still time to get some help from Mickey & Minnie! Yoda’s blanket is particularly Force-ful, in my case. LOL.
Disney Bedtime Hotline available for KIDS OF ALL AGES. Through the end of September, families can call 1-877-7-MICKEY (1-877-764-2539) toll-free to hear pre-recorded bedtime messages from Mickey Mouse, Woody, Jasmine, Anna and Elsa, Yoda and Spider-Man (abctv, cnn, et al).
 
I cannot find someone else’s thread(s) where leg extensions were discussed.
@rustic
@bland9
?
Now that my right medial knee ligament sprain has healed, I can do the flexion, quads, & extension exercises again with that leg, and work on doing more walking with the longer/my natural stride.
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It is funny how some of the stretches/exercises that hurt right after the surgery become welcome stretches later on.
 

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@sistersinhim What a lovely tribute to your Smokey. I'm sad for you. I'm sure my Isis is there on the welcoming committee. My other angel kitties weren't so much the welcoming sort. lol

How adorable that there's a hotline for bedtime wishes for little ones! Not really my thing, but we are at 78 days and counting!!!

It is funny how some of the stretches/exercises that hurt right after the surgery become welcome stretches later on.
Isn't that the truth? I decided not to do many of the mandated stretches early on because I didn't feel like they made a huge difference either way in the first weeks. So today my Newbie knee let me know in no uncertain terms that she's ready for some real exercise. I'm just not sure why she thought 3 am was the best time for all that. lol
 
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I remember in my early days how uncomfortable it was to do a revolution on the bike and then a month or so later if I was having pain, petaling the bike lessened it. These recoveries are a trial and error thing!
 
@luvcats
My right knee woke me up at 3am! Maybe all the knees (tired of lugging us around) get together....too scary/Stephen King to even think about!
Mine got lidocaine and 3 more hours of sleep.

Today I went to a store for birdseed and practiced walking with a longer/natural stride. Once home, did the steep driveway, sidewalk, and driveway pad for the same.
Still not smooth, but definitely better. Not limping.

Last 2 days of SUMMER. I cling to every second. We are into the fall 85 high/72 low, dry, low humidity weather that is quite pleasant.
 
I'm not even going to contemplate a great 3 am knee conspiracy! That just says Twilight Zone to me, and I dont go there! Lol

Not limping is a huge improvement! An easy stride will come soon, just keep focusing, without getting crazy.

I wouldn't mind the last bits of summer so much if we were having your weather, but it's back to high humidity and low 90s. I'm ready for fall.
 
My weekend Epiphany:
I refer to my husband’s side (85min) of our sleep number bed as the Plateau and mine (45max) as the Cloud. Yesterday I visited the Plateau to do hip flexor stretches—better than a mat on the floor , which I cannot use yet per the OS because the shoulder RCR is still recovering.
WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT IN MY GAIT after the hip stretches. First time since June I could do this stretch. I couldn’t do this on the right side while the then-sprained, now healed right knee ligament was healing. Doing it on only the left made the right side feel worse. It was agony.
Now: Bliss!

PS Thought of you @Elf1 and your new sleep number bed when I wrote this. Did you get the adjustable frame? No more juggling pillows.We added that this year and it is worth every penny—so comfortable!
 
@marieltha we didn't get the frame, we have a pedestal bed with drawers underneath that we didn't want to give up. Maybe some day much further down the road.
 
@Elf1 We got our bed and the pedestal base in 2009 and have loved the mattress ever since. Still in great shape.
Particularly useful also when you get the flu and the roaming body aches, as you can adjust to suit. Wonderful invention.

LOL, every time we sleep on our very nice Stearns&Foster regular mattress in the guest room, he says, “ This is too soft” while simultaneously, I say, ”This is too hard.”

Added the adjustable frame this year when the combo of my March knee and May shoulder made the pillow towers just too aggravating. The No Snore setting is very useful, as well.

FYI, if you ever decide to replace the pedestal, there’s a big demand on ebay.

Enjoy your new bed!
 
@luvcats mentioned in her knee thread the challenges of sitting in a chair with recovering knees, and also, the need to walk in the night.

I found sitting up in a chair with legs at a 90 degree bend (or really any at first) difficult for a long time. My OS suggested easing the affected leg out in front a bit, and very slightly resting/elevating the foot/feet in your case? on something. Sort of like the place in the floor of the car where you can rest the foot? I used a pillow, a yoga block, my birding encyclopedia, rolled up towels, etcetera, at varying times. At present, the 2-pound squishy ball that was originally for shoulder exercises (years ago, before the tear) is kept under the great room coffee table and gets rolled out for whichever foot/knee needs a little lift. I do under the foot rolls on it before pushing it back under the table (I have 2 foot threads).

Our eat-in kitchen table is counter height with very high, but very comfortable padded chairs. Great for doing that leg swinging exercise. I had to add a footrest, as the bend to the rest bar on the chair was too much. I ended up with a smallish (6 inches high maybe?) rectangular storage tub with a folded towel on it. Not tres chic decor, but made the knee(s) happy. Actually, it is still there, but with a towel that goes better with the travertine.

Lastly, during both knees early recoveries, I found the little night walks very helpful. Noticeably less stiff the following morning.

I get up once most nights now to walk to the bathroom. My challenge is to walk enough to relieve stiffness (mostly now), particularly before bending the knees for the commode (18”—I have finally removed the even higher over the commode seat and rails and legs that I needed for the sprained ligament) and/or pain without waking up so much that I have trouble going back to sleep. I use APAP for mild sleep apnea. Ideally, there and back is enough (40+ steps roundtrip). If I add walking, I do it in the bedroom first. So when I head back, it is to lie down and sleep.
 
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Someone else today mentioned feeling awkward and wrong about expressing dissatisfaction to and requesting an opinion from their GP about their knee replacement that was very painful and just not right.

It made me think (ruminate) about how humans will often feel badly about criticizing/questioning physiological work/repairs, when we would not hesitate to question a repair to an inanimate object, such as a car or house.

My recent experience is on a much lower rung of the pain and inconvenience scale than the other person’s knee, but similar in tone.

I had a dental crown made in between my last knee surgery and right before my shoulder surgery. It was wrong from the beginning—too thick and too short! I was too sick to go back, but did call and tell them right away that it wasn’t right and I would be back as soon as the shoulder could tolerate it. My dental insurance company said I should get a redo at no additional cost to me.

It is so easy to make excuses: well, it’s a lower front tooth and you can’t really see it when I smile; maybe it is better to live with it than go through requesting and getting a redo—-blah, blah blah. This is emotion speaking, not rational logic.

So I have persevered, am wearing the new temp, and tomorrow, I get what I hope will be a proper crown (same practice, different dentist).

If something is not right, it is not right.
Be it a car, a tooth, or a knee.

[I edited my earlier version after walking in the pool and feeling better about life in general.]
 
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We adore our sleep number bed! I can't even imagine sleeping on 85! Might as well sleep in the floor. lol. I like 55. Beloved sleeps at something ridiculous like 30. We bought the base for conversion to a regular bed frame. I have a lovely, high cherry sleigh bed frame that I love. And adjustable bed certainly would have been nice with all my various surgeries this year though.

I should try putting one of my many totes under my desk to see if that slight elevation is helpful or not.

Isn't it odd how we're more likely to just accept something that's been done to us by a 'professional'? I think a lot of it is our early conditioning to just 'trust' our doctors. That teaches us to be unwilling to criticize after the fact. Which probably goes into how we are conditioned to just trust authority and do as we're told. See the US school system as exhibit A.

I'm glad you're making a fuss about an unacceptable crown. I'm not sure how I would make a fuss about this, but whoever did the close on my knee surgery did a very slapdash job. I had glue everywhere, including practically a puddle around the fold I have in my knee because my legs are very fat. It turns out I'm allergic to the glue, so having so much made my skin puff up around the staples. But more importantly, in one place the incision didn't line up properly, so it isn't 2 sliced edges coming together, one edge is higher than the other. That takes a lot longer to heal and should give me an annoying raised scar for several years. The scar doesn't really bother me too much, but the fact that the person was sloppy does.

Walking in the pool! Oh, envy! I can't wait until I can get back in the pool. It does help adjust your perspective, doesn't it?
 
Final(?) stages of recovery for me features more stretches.

According to medical anthropologists, the lower back is our weakness as we develop as a species.

I find myself doing gentle, sitting convex back curve stretches more as I age. Really just leaning forward over my knees. I hear the voice of my beloved childhood dancing teacher reminding us to never arc our backs. No back bridges in her studio. She was extraordinarily flexible to the end in her late 80s.
 
As to incisions/closings/scars, @luvcats I learned that most OS have a PA assist. My OS has his own (not a random assignee by the hospital) and although I have not asked, I suspect she might do the closings? He is very particular (which I love), so maybe not. Interesting to know if your OS does his.
 

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