Four Months: Lefty the Magnificent
Lefty's been lagging, but something odd happened this past week, and I'm not quite sure what or how, but Lefty came into his own. A few days ago, I woke up and stretched and kind of planted my left foot so I could leverage myself to roll over in bed. It was a perfectly ordinary movement, but Lefty bent a little (as knees will do) and I felt this sharp ripping pain. It happened, of course, in Lefty's troublesome "spot" that never quite went away.
My first thought was "Oh
!" The last thing any TKR needs is to have inadvertently injured a healing knee.
But no. I placed left leg carefully flat on the bed, and... hardly any pain at all. I massaged the knee a bit, rubbing at the sore spot, which felt no different from before. But as I swung my legs out of bed, I noticed something new: Lefty bent BETTER than Righty. Easily. Righty bends very well, so that was a surprise. And I had no pain, none at all, when I stood and walked, just the usual stiffness, but even that felt less than before.
I don't know what happened inside Lefty. Tore loose an adhesion, maybe? Finally stretched out a stubborn muscle? I'll never know. But since then Lefty has been one happy camper of a knee. Both knees surrender their stiffness within three steps after rising from a chair or bed, or getting out of a car. And once that stiffness abates... they feel almost completely natural. Walking feels easy and carefree. I walk up and down steps and curbs without a second thought. Also, this is the week going up stairs became easy, and going down stairs is even easier. [I don't know why, but going down, rather than up, stairs has been easier for me from the beginning. Might have something to do with Lefty's pre-surgical deformity that made going upstairs nigh impossible but still functional going down. Whatever... I take whatever the gods of knee replacements will give me!]
I knelt on Lefty this morning. He didn't like it much and grumbled his displeasure - but I can tell he's going to be up to it in the future. Righty kneels without much complaint, just feels quite strange, but not painful. We'll get there.
So far, four months is proving a very interesting phase of recovery indeed. It's still in consolidation, all the little ups and downs of topping off the healing going on beneath the skin and all around the new joint. It's working, because there are lots of times now I forget my knees are anything but original issue. I bound off the sofa to go get something I want. I playfully swing a leg onto Mr. Shoes lap. I cross my legs. I climb stepladders. I roll over in bed (Lefty can do this without pain now). I haven't tried jogging yet. So far I only have two gears: walking, and faster walking. That's right, I zip around the grocery store.
Go, Lefty, go!
Canada
