Tabbycat
post-grad
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2016
- Messages
- 1,045
- Age
- 62
- Location
- Newport, Wales
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Gender
- Female
I was definitively both weepy and short-tempered!I wasn't weepy so much as short-tempered.I think all our emotions are fragile during recovery.
I remember (to my shame) that once I yelled so hard at my poor husband, just because he wasn't telepathic and didn't sense immediately what I needed him to do. The poor man fled to his office at the other end of the house and he stayed there for a couple of hours.
Oh, the regular doses of ibuprofen and icing of swollen knees! I look forward to not knowing that. I have begun to notice my non-operated knee giving me grief while I swim, so perhaps that is a small step in the right direction. Good luck w the left one in a few days time, @sheliac! On an unrelated note, I am an OSu grad, originally from Cleveland-area.Thanks for writing your 6 month progress report. It helps to know what to realistically expect.
From what I've learned here, it may take us a year or more to get to the glad stage. For me, I have a pic in my mind of the "before" knee pain -- I don't want to ever forget how life limiting my knees had become. Like you, I was very active, even with the horrible knees. But I was in horrible pain and living on ibuprofen . I think it's easy to forget how bad the 'before' was, when we are in the midst of recovery. It sounds like you are well on the way to meeting your goals-- just not in the timeframe you'd like. Here's to moving on to the 'glad'. You'll get there -- you are an inspiration and it is evident you do what you set out to do.
Shelia
RTKR - 8/23/16
LTKR - 9/20/2016
thanks from fhe encouragement, @Tabbycat! I have long felt a lot of pressure, especially from PTs, about ROM. It made me dread the visits, and they eventually realised it was stressing me out. There was ten day period between me leaving the hospital, where I had some physio, and when the surgeon (away for Easter) realised they had failed to make my appointment requests a priority. One physio sorta made me feel like those 10 days could be the reason I was delayed in straightening my leg. I don't know if that was the case. I can say that my surgeon and my physio team certainly had differences of opinion as to why my leg wasn't straight. But you're right: no point letting that stress hinder my recovery! Sound advice.@Suzibelle
It's ok to have a pity party now and again, we've all had at least one at different times
At 6 months you are only half way through the time they say it takes for a full recovery. So although you still have a way to go, there's lots of things you can do now. I've decided to try to stop putting myself under pressure to be further on than I am, I'm here and that's that, otherwise there's always a conflict between what I can do, and what I want to do, or what other people think I should be able to do, and that creates stress which hinders recovery, for me anyway.
Little by little you will get back to doing the things you love, maybe not as actively as before, but I have no doubt you will be glad you did this at some happy day not to far into the future.
Tabby xxx
Well, I'm on six w a non-straight leg. My last physio seemed to think the muscles had contracted so much that they are playing a role in this. I will say they are tight as a drum. I went back to heavier ankle weights dangling over the bed. Fingers crossed for us both?I'm still trying to get my leg to straighten after nearly 5 months!
Thanks for your honest appraisal of where you are at. I wasn't nearly as athletic as you, and had terribly painful and bowed knees, so my expectations aren't nearly as high. So helpful to hear the stories of how people are doing certain points along the way. Thanks again. Best of luck to you.