Thanks to all

[Newwoman]

I appreciate everyone being so supportive and please keep me in your thoughts tomorrow as I have my manipulation at 8am. I will return here as soon as possible and let you all know the honest truth as to what this is like.
I go straight from the manipulation to pt so it will be a long morning.
Cathy

 

[beachcomber]

best of luck to you! We'll all be wishing you an uneventful manipulation and a helpful return to progress on your ROM.

 

[Pattipoo]

I will be thinking of you...sending great vibes and big prayers!!

 

[Newwoman]

Did I mention I'm terrified................................

 

[Pattipoo]

I would be too....try to find something funny to watch on TV or your computer....here's a thought....go to Youtube.com You can find TONS of funny!! Type in Tim Conway/Harvey Korman.....they've got hilarious skits on youtube.

girl....I promise I'll be thinking about you and praying for God to give you His Peace and Strength!!!

I'll be waiting to hear from you!

 

[Pattipoo]

Here's a funny!!
YouTube- Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show

 

[Skeet]

I'll be praying for you tonight and tomorrow. I pray you have a good night's rest and great dreams, that you have peace and confidence in the morning, that God gives the doctors incredible ability to determine exactly what needs to be done, that it goes extremely well, is minimally painful if at all, and that PT helps keep the swelling and pain at bay, too. May this resolve all your issues and put you well on your way to being released from PT and back to the living normal portion of the population.

God be with you!
Skeet

 

[Doug]

Best of luck with it. I really look forward to hearing how it goes.
If you go to one of the video sites, do a search for Eddie Izzard. I had some young college kids loan me several DVD's of his and he is riot. R rated.

 

[SusieSW]

Cathy - I think it's really normal to feel terrified. I'll keep you in my thoughts. There will be a whole bunch of us thinking about you and praying for a great outcome - that's a lot of good stuff being sent your way. Please let all of us know how you're doing.
Susan

 

[Newwoman]

Well I haven't had internet access all day so here goes the truth about knee manipulations.
The day didn't start too well because they couldn't get the iv started and after 3 attempts they decided to go with gas. As I limped into the procedure room I thought what the heck am I doing. After a few deep breaths the next thing I knew I was awake and in a lot of pain. It was the kind of pain like after the replacement surgery.
I also have very thin skin on my forearms and bruise easy and I told the nurses that was the case but when they finally put the iv in after they gased me they taped it to the back of my hand. So now laying in recovery in pain from my knee I look over at my hand and it's sore and bandaged and find out that when they removed some tape they took my skin with it and then put more tape on so that when I removed it when I got home I lost the rest of the skin on the back of my hand. My husband took me today and about an hour after the manipulation he was driving me to therapy. My therapist was a sweetheart and tried to be as gentle as he could and still get benefit from the manipulation. The most degrees before manipulation were 75 on the bike but today I reached 70 sitting on the table pulling my leg back with a towel. The surgeon told my husband that when he started the bend my leg stopped at 30 degrees and then popped and went to 90 degrees and stopped again and when he pushed on it popped again and went to 110 degrees. He even sent for my husband and showed him how far I was able to bend it.
I am glad it is over and I know all your prayers and thoughts helped and as my adult daughters would say "it is what it is".
I go back to therapy tomorrow and Friday so I will be keeping the bend going and hopefully I will sleep well tonight because I sure am tired.
My knee is still sore but not unbearable although I probably have the lowest threshold for pain of anyone.
Once again thanks again for all the sweet words and I thank God I found this site because everyone here understands and gets it.
Cathy

 

[Pattipoo]

SO glad you have that behind you.....been thinking about you all day.
It's gonna get better and better!!
Bless your heart!
Patti

 

[Skeet]

I am so glad this is behind you. Thanks for the update. It sounds like the procedure was a huge success, although the IV was pathetic! Couldn't they simply put it in your arm or something? I feel for you. I hate IVs and just thinking about them makes my blood pressure rise.

Here's to fast healing, hon. I pray you now start just zooming ahead in PT and seeing all sorts of success. I'm proud of you for taking the leap and doing what you needed to.

God bless,
Skeet

 

[Newwoman]

Thanks Patti and Skeet! Praise from those who are there means a lot to me. I will go tomorrow and push as hard as I can. I am blessed that all our three adult daughters have settled within 3 miles of our house and with them our 5 grandchildren and each time I look at them I know why I need to push at each therapy session. You can't keep up with those sweeties with bad knees.
I also own a travel agency and John and I do a lot of travel and airplanes are no place for bad knees.
Do I sound like I'm trying to talk myself into therapy I am................

 

[Josephine]

So pleased you have that done and dusted, honey. Not pleasant but then, what surgery is!


But it makes me so angry to hear of tales like this - about your IV, I mean. It's so unnecessary and shows a singular lack of care and consideration. There are many other sites that could have been used not to mention other means of securing it - like a good old fashioned bandage!

(Sorry - end of rant!)

 

[gatiger]

Newwoman, I really hope things get better for you now. I think I may have the same thing done myself. I know you will, but please give us the real scoop on this 'manipulation thing' as soon as you can. I for one am desperate to hear the truth.

 

[Newwoman]

Gatiger,
Read my post above in this thread about my description of the manipulation. You will not actually be awake for the movement of your knee but when you wake up it hurts like hell but the difference between that pain and the pain right after surgery is it goes away.
Yesterday I went right to therapy after the manipulation and I cried the whole way to therapy much to my husbands dismay but I was terified. I already hurt like hell and I was headed to a place where they were going to bend my knee with me awake. It was not as bad as I thought it would be because my therapist would bend it then massage and stretch it so I wasn't constantly forcing the bend. I have never relaxed during therapy I mean I thought that's stupid to even ask me to do that when you're trying to break my leg. Well yesterday I forced myself to think about laying on the beach in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic with a coconut tree for shade and a fruity drink in my hand with an umbrella in it and a breeze blowing in off the blue crystal clear water and you know what I relaxed and all of a sudden I was bending further than I had before.
Today at therapy I bent even further than yesterday and I'm using every trip John and I have ever taken to get those visions in my head and go there to relax.
Part of my job in the travel business is painting a picture of what clients trips will be like but I couldn't do that for myself to help me relax until yesterday.
Get the best depression medicine you can I've been on Zoloft for years but just had the doctor up my dosage from 50 mg to 100mg and also give me Xanax for daily use. I did not go through gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago and go from 359 to 200 to have my knee replaced and be crippled. I will get myself straight no matter what it takes and be able to do all the things I love but I am willing to wait for that to happen, so if it takes a year to get there than that's okay. We have to stick together and support one another whenever it is needed because we need each other.
And Josephine I wished I had you in the procedure room yesterday and I would still have skin on the back of my hand. What in the world is wrong with some people. I think I'm going to call my surgeon though to get an antibiotic for my hand though because I am afrain of an open wound like that with my knee.
Hang in there Gatiger because if I can do it anyone can I'm a big baby.
Cathy

 

[gatiger]

Thanks, Cathy. Do you have any idea of how much more bend you were able to get at therapy? Also, was there any discussion of what to expect now with the manipulation behind you? I'm glad to hear that you think it helped and it sounds like it gave you some encouragement. We all need that, some of us more than others. I applaude you for having the courage to 'go back in' and experience the unknown AND come back and tell wimps like me whats up. Talk to me girl.

 

[Skeet]

Cathy, you are my new hero. You have been to the darkness and returned to the light. I cannot imagine what you are going through but you know we are going through it all with you.

I'm still gobsmacked at the treatment you got on the IV. I'm with Josephine on this one. Makes me want to put an IV in the person who did yours! Esp, since I'd have no idea what I was doing... which is what it sounds like they had - no idea!

God bless you dear. I hope your "wound" heals fast and has no ill affects on anything else.

Skeet

 

[gatiger]

Ya think maybe we could open a clinic? Sometimes I think 'they' are learning as they go.

 

[Josephine]

Can I be the matron?