Following your journey, SusaninChicago!
I also needed to go back to work after my first TKR in 2016 snd the energy drain was far more important to notice and give all due respect to, I found, or my following day I suffered and sort of went backwards in terms of healing, progress, etc.
I’m a few weeks behind you now with knee #2, and I also find that work interactions like Zoom meetings, phone calls to sort things out, etc, are all “expensive” in terms of energy.
Maybe a story from my daughter’s Lupus forums could be useful to us recovering kneezers...
The story is, that with Lupus, a person only gets so many “spoons” each day that represent the energy they will have available to use. Once they run out of the day’s spoons, they cannot do anything else.
So my daughter and others must plan their days and consider the day before: if they overdid it, then they will have fewer spoons the next day. Once they run out of spoons, they can no longer interact with other people or do anything...in truth, it could lead to a dangerous Lupus flare. They put people in hospital with kidney and lung failure.
So, like a person who deals with Lupus, your spoons could get used up early in the day if you overdo it, like I did yesterday!
I definitely used up my spoons by pushing hard on the leg press for many reps! Yes, I’m strong I know, but it meant a very achy afternoon and evening, and being awake in the night for 3 hours trying to settle my hurt leg down.