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Knee Infection* Limb Salvage Surgery Recovery

Day 4/5 Post Op: I’m still inpatient as my JP drain is putting out substantial fluid. I’ll likely be here a couple more days. Regional anesthesia pulled my nerve block catheters as we weren’t getting the results we wanted. After pulling them I realized I was underestimated how much it helped, but too late. Anyways I was put on a stricter med schedule, and even with more opiates I was in some pretty crazy pain.

I had my wife bring my TENS unit my home health PT let me borrow a while back (it’s a cheap little handheld one but does the trick). I was pretty limited on pad placement as my bandage covers half of my leg, but I got it on the areas I noticed the most pain. After setting up the TENS around my knee, I noticed a HUGE difference in my pain. Went from a steady 7-8/10 to a 2/10. I’m basically pain free doing my CPM without the use of painkillers which is absolutely amazing. [Bonesmart.org] Limb Salvage Surgery Recovery
 
Oh and still haven’t heard from Infectious Disease about my cultures taken during this surgery. Previously my culture grew in 2 days, and here I am at 5. No news is good news!
 
Hi daddydaygo,
I am sorry you were dealing with such pain. Thankfully the TENS is bringing you some relief. I certainly hope right along with you, that no news is good news. Please keep us posted.
@daddydaygo
 
Good idea to remember to use your tens unit. That sounds like it was a great help.
Following your post op thread and wanted you to know that I am rooting for you.
 
Whew!
Fantastic news! Truly happy for you. :yes!:
I hope you sleep well tonight given this wonderful news.
@daddydaygo
 
Days 6-8 post op: STILL inpatient, my JP drain is draining around 90ml every 12 hours and they’re looking for 30ml. I got off board privileges (it’s a naval hospital… not sure what the civilian term is but I’m allowed to go outside with an escort!) so the past two days I walked a BUNCH outside of the building. My new leg has felt GREAT! That most likely contributed to the drain draining so much. It’s slowed down a lot today so hopefully I’ll get discharged tomorrow.

My OS asked if I’d rather do home health or outpatient and I opted to go straight to outpatient. Home health is great, but outpatient has better tools for success. Inpatient PT here has been working with me on my quads. Did lots of quad work today with the EMS unit, and I’m pleasantly surprised with how everything is slowly coming back. Still can’t straight leg raise, but I’m not worried about it as that took me weeks to be able to do previously.

I’m just ready to get discharged to see my pups, have a proper shower, and sleep in my own bed without getting woken up several times in the middle of the night!
 
Wow...that's some incision. It looks neat and clean though...and no bruising?!!!
Hope you had a good day and sleep well tonight.:sleep:
@daddydaygo
 
I ended up getting discharged from the hospital on Thursday. I took a stress free shower for the first time in a long time. When I had the spacer in, it was a huge process to stop and disconnect my pump, cover my picc, put on my “shower leg brace” (only use it for showers and hang it up so it can dry) and sit in the shower at full leg extension. Then deal with drying off my leg switching to my daily brace. Hard to put into words but it wasn’t a fun time. But man oh man this shower was absolutely amazing, I haven’t felt that kind of euphoria in a long time.

Anyways, I’m still dealing with a constant 6/10 pain level. I’m taking extended release Oxy morning and night and also take immediate release basically every 8 hours. I’m hoping the pain subsides so I can stop relying on painkillers.

I’ve been slacking on my CPM usage, probably only getting 10 hours on a good day. It’s just inconvenient because it’s large and heavy and impossible for me to move myself. So I rely on my wife to move it for me. We’ll figure out a good system soon though.

Quads are coming back slightly. I can contract my front quad but not the sides. I can push down on a rolled up towel under my knee and elevate my foot. That’s probably the extent of my strength so far.

Sleep is so much better. I still wake up several times, but I’m not in agonizing pain like I was previously so I’m able to fall back asleep rather quickly.

This is likely my last update for a while until I’ve hit a milestone, I don’t think blabbing about being in pain and stuff is good reading! Haha. Thanks for reading and following along with my journey.

TO DO LIST:
Get pain under 2/10 daily with minimal or no painkillers
Bend to 110 degrees
Do a straight leg raise
Get those side quads firing again
Gain some confidence putting weight on my leg again (I find myself balancing on my other leg standing up because I was non bearing for 6 weeks, just a habit I have to break)
 
@daddydaygo Still very early days for you, but it sounds like you are doing really well.
daddydaygo said:
I’ve been slacking on my CPM usage, probably only getting 10 hours on a good day.
Click to expand...
Wow - that sounds like a lot of activity. What was prescribed?

Please do keep us updated. Yours is complex case. We look forward to many more milestones.
 
daddydaygo said:
TO DO LIST:
Get pain under 2/10 daily with minimal or no painkillers
Bend to 110 degrees
Do a straight leg raise
Get those side quads firing again
Gain some confidence putting weight on my leg again (I find myself balancing on my other leg standing up because I was non bearing for 6 weeks, just a habit I have to break)
Click to expand...
You are just out of major surgery. All these things will happen, but will take time. Go easy on yourself and don’t work too hard on these goals. They will happen as you heal, and you can’t force healing.

Regaining our ROM does not require forceful bending or painful exercises. That is counterproductive.

Regaining our ROM is more about Time than repetitions of a list of exercises.

Time to recover.
Time for pain and swelling to settle.
Time to heal.

Our range of motion is right there all along just waiting for that to happen so it can show itself.

In the general run of things, it doesn't need to be fought for, worked hard for or worried about. It will happen. Normal activity is the key to success.
 
Happy Sunday daddydaygo!
Amazing how wonderful a simple shower can feel after struggling through them as you were. Certainly enjoyable progress! I hope you're able to stop relying on the painkillers, but only when the time is right so you remain comfortably mobile. Thankfully sleep is good, that's an added bonus. It seems you're doing well, I'm happy for you. If you feel like updating, don't worry about your content, pain is a normal part of the early recovery process and your words won't be wasted, someone will benefit someway / somehow. So update as often, or as little as you like, but, I, for one am following your comeback with interest, so hope to hear from you again soon.
Have a great Sunday and week!
@daddydaygo
 
Jaycey said:
Wow - that sounds like a lot of activity. What was prescribed?

Please do keep us updated. Yours is complex case. We look forward to many more milestones.
Click to expand...

My OS wants me doing it 18 hours a day. He had to do a lot of release cuts in my quads, quad tendon and also IT band (not to mention the removal of a lot of scar tissue around my patella and the back of my knee) to get everything stretched out enough to hit 90 degrees in the OR because I was so stiff from the spacer. So he wants to ensure I at least maintain 90!
 
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