Day 4 & 5 (29/30 Jan) - I had my x-ray and final physio session at the hospital (no issues, just confirming the exercises) and was discharged with a bag load of instructions and drugs (paracetamol, ibuprofen, aspirin, omeprazole and lactulose).
It was a 1 hour drive home and hooray, I was back home with my ‘babies’ (12 & 14 years) - who very quickly took the opportunity to take photos of me in my TED stockings and pronounce me the ‘the crip’ amongst other less than desirable names.
I then spent a while getting everything in place for me to be able to rest, ice (with cryocuff - lovely thing) and elevate (lounge doctor) and spent the rest of the evening doing that. Slept well overnight, and was able to sleep on my side both ways for the first time which was a real help.
Woke up at 6:45 with the kids to ready them (make sure they ready themselves) for school, shaved and showered and then moved to the sofa to begin a day of watching my backlog of box-sets, whilst intermittently exercising (80 flexion/0 extension), icing and elevating.
I have the odd zinger (nerve pain) now and then on the lateral side and also on the medial side of my shin, especially when I get up after I’ve been elevating for a while. A large square area of my shin feels a little like it is both numb and zinging all at once, but this goes completely and immediately once I put weight on the knee.
No problems at all until around 2pm today when I suddenly felt I’d had all of the energy sucked out of me - ended up sleeping for a couple of hours which seemed to do the trick at least, but that energy sap came right out of the blue.
Other than that, I’m struggling with the boredom a bit, although I’m sure I’ll get into a routine in good time and hopefully back to doing some work from home in a few weeks which will help.
I appreciate that none of these things are problems at all in the general TKR scheme of things, so I consider myself very lucky at this stage in proceedings.
My knee is less swollen than yesterday but still pretty big, I’m going to start measuring the circumferences of my calf, knee and quads daily to see how it progresses (or otherwise) and how that affects ROM.
I’m able to walk reasonably normally without any sticks now and with no pain at all, although I do tend to use one around the house, just in case - I still feel I am compensating a bit for how my knee was before the surgery, but I need to re-learn how it is with a solid knee, which is definitely what this is
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Canada
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