Well, today I am exactly four weeks post-surgery. I had my 3 week post-op check with my primary doc, not the OS, since the clinic is four hours away - so all she was really looking at was incisional healing, pain management, etc. All of that is great. For the past week I've been able to be almost entirely off narcotics; I just finished my bottle of Tramadol and I don't think I'm going to refill it since I still have Oxycodone left that I haven't been using - I can pull it out if anything happens, but right now Tylenol 3 - 4 times a day seems to be all I'm needing. I'm walking without a cane, although I do have a staff I take with me if I'm going to be out of the house any significant amount of distance (as much to help support my non-operated knee and keep it from having any problems.
I had an interesting convo with my PT yesterday. He told me that in 35 years of practice - focused exclusively on joint rehabilitation - he has never seen anyone come in pre-surgery with as restricted a ROM as I had! It was actually rather validating, because while I've known for decades I had "bad knees", I didn't really have any way to compare them to "normal". . . this was just how I lived. But what this does mean is that he's not trying to get me to reach some arbitrary goal like 130 because all his patients "should" have that level - he's hoping that I can get to 90 degrees before I see my OS next month because that would be a little better than the 87 degrees I had pre-surgery. Since I was at 77 yesterday, and I still have four weeks before I see the OS, I think it's achievable. My PT is planning to write a strong recommendation against MUA, because he believes that the adaptive shortening of my muscles and ligaments due to my knee malformation means that the MUA would be damaging rather than helpful. I agree entirely, and I'm planning to decline the MUA anyway, but I'd rather convince the surgeon why than have him think I'm being unreasonably stubborn, since I'm hoping to have the same doctor do my right knee next year.
I did make the trek down to visit my Mom last weekend for her 90th birthday. I wasn't sure whether or not I'd be up to it until a few days before, but by Thursday I was pretty sure I could handle it. My daughter went with me, and drove some of the way, but since I was only using Tylenol I actually got to drive more than I had planned. We stopped halfway for the night since it's a long distance (6 hours) and that was a good plan; the hotel had plenty of ice to apply as well. At Mom's, I spent most of the time in her recliner with my legs up while my sister played hostess. I do think I paid a price for the trip, as I've been very low-energy this entire week - sleeping more, not feeling as perky as I did last week - but the knee is doing great and overall I'm glad I went. I don't know how many more birthdays she'll have!
Finally, I'm starting back to work next week, but on a VERY limited schedule - 3 days a week, 4 hours a day, for the next month. Since I can prop up my leg and ice it at work without too much trouble, I think I'll be able to manage - then go home and nap! (I'm definitely not trying to be Wonder Woman.) Someone in another thread mentioned that at about this point - four weeks - a good rule of thumb is that for every hour "up" we should allow about two hours "down"; and that seems reasonable to me. On my work days that is ALL I'm doing, at least until I see how it goes the first week.
So overall - good recovery. I'm trying not to push myself too hard, and give myself LOTS of time and rest. It's a hard lesson to learn, but important. I'm a few years away from retirement, and I want to have an active life for many more years, so I need to make sure I do this right.
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