Well, it's been 4 weeks today since my surgery.
So far, I can say that my recovery has been mostly average, based on my readings of the active threads. I definitely consider that a good thing.
Sure, my ROM isn't where I'd like it to be, but it will get there. I see small improvements every day. However, you occasionally have those bad days as several people have noted. My ROM at the end of last week was 80 and it was measured at 95 a couple days ago. My best was 103, so it's all over the place. Don't really care at this point. If 90 is as good as it ever got, I would have no complaints. I can do what I need to do. I have been driving the last couple of weeks out of necessity to get to PT (actually their suggestion
). Not much of an issue as I had already cut back a lot on my meds..
Currently, I am still weaning off of the meds. (Percoset). I had cut down to 1 (5mg/325mg) every 4 hrs. for a week. Then I made the mistake of cutting down to 0. Needless to say, that didn't work
. I had chills and diarrhea . I am now doing 1/2 of a dose in the morning and 1/2 in the evening. Working better, but still have milder versions of the symptoms mentioned (but tolerable).
I cut back on the pain meds. because I just felt they were no longer needed for the pain, and I was right. My pain level now is between 0 and 1. Not really pain, so much as that my new knee aches. I'll just use Tylenol for that. I also want to get back to having a clear head. Don't like this "clouded" feeling.
Oh, yeah, sleep. Almost forgot about that. Not much going on in that department
. Since I have such poor extension (20) even after surgery, it's difficult to sleep on my back (which is what I prefer). I now try to sleep on my side part of the night, but that only works for about 1/2 hr. then the knee starts to ache. So then I rotate positions. Seems like I am constantly rotating positions all night long. Bottom line is I get about 5 hrs. sleep a night.
In summary, I have no regrets about the surgery. Now all I have to do is convince myself that my new knee is up to the task of sharing the burden with the old knee, of getting me around. I continually catch myself walking slouched over. Fell into that habit with my arthritic knee. It will just take time.