Both days, got up early again around 5am or so and dozed on and off until little later. Finally, got up and took shower, etc. and came down. Now my routine is pretty much set once I get up. Get up and brush teeth, use bathroom, remove the ice pack and the brace, cover the knee bandage/ace wrap with plastic, take shower, reverse the whole process and get dressed and go downstairs. Next, do CPM for about 2hrs at 90% (I start at about 45% and within 10mins go to 90%). During this time, I eat breakfast and have a cup of coffee and I am ready to go and usually start off work by taking care of emails, phone calls, etc. - all this when the CPM is going on. Both days, the contractor fixing the bathroom has had several questions regarding placement of various bars, etc. in the bathroom. After this and some other interruptions, both days have been quite busy until about 6pm.
However, nothing much to report on the knee front as everything is fine except that the ace wrapping is coming somewhat loose, it loosens more every time I use the CPM machine. The swelling probably has come down a bit and may be that’s the reason for loose wrapping also. The pain is almost non-existent. It is still uncomfortable though. I tried to walk a bit and was able to do so, the only problem is that the icepack is quite heavy and with brace in place, you will almost have to drag the leg. Trying to be careful adds to the drama and walking doesn’t become natural anymore. In spite of all that, I did walk without assistance from crutches and not feel any pain. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s (Thursday) post-op appointment with the surgeon. Even though I am not sure what is lined up, I just want this to be done – I am ready for the next step.
My post-op experience can be encapsulated into the following summary:
1. Thank the donor, if you are getting a donor graft.
2. Get a laZBoy chair that has a leg raise and get a few wedge pillows. I had four and I usually used two to three with the lazyboy, one with CPM machine, and one in the night when sleeping.
3. Make sure you have help around you, especially the first couple of days – especially when going to the bathroom. Get a stepstool for your bathroom, if you don’t have one – this is to keep your leg straight if you are sitting on the toilet. A vertical handle bar (18”-24”) is really handy when using the toilet – I had the luxury to get one installed!
4. The doctor won’t tell you what to do with the brace and the icepack when you use the CPM machine. Make sure you remove these things and put them back on when done.
5. Make sure the CPM machine (the one I got is Dannyflex 450) is properly calibrated to your leg – mine caused issues when I raised it beyond 60% or so since my arms and legs are longer than the average.
6. I felt that the ice machine ($250) was quite useful. Without this machine, you will need to keep changing the ice packs and in addition they give a burning sensation after a short time. The machine was quite nice and the ice in it lasted several hours. It takes almost one full bag of ice every time – buy the ice that is all cubes and not the one that’s lumped together in one block. The only negative is that there is condensation and no one tells you if it will wet the bandage. The wetness was contained, in my case, by the Ace wrap or so it seemed.
7. Find out from your doctor how you should re-wrap the Ace wrap(!) so you don’t mess up the bandage.
8. Keeping your knee elevated above your heart level restricts bloodflow to your foot and it will hurt. Use help to get this foot massaged when possible. This is one possible reason why we have kids and if they are young enough you don’t give them a choice!
9. They won’t tell you when to stop the medication – my experience suggests that you can take the narcotics for three-four days and then ease it off to Ibuprofen (OTC) starting the fifth day. Always eat something (I usually ate a slice of toast if it was late in the night or early morning) prior to taking the narcs.
10. Have Milk of Magnesia (MOM) around and use it if you feel constipated.
11. Avoid the anti-nausea medicine, that will kill your day – I was extremely groggy for 6-8hrs after taking that medicine.
12. They suggest exercises every waking hour to strengthen your hamstrings, calves, thigh muscles, etc. – I just wasn’t inclined to do those – especially the last few days, couldn’t get myself to do anything! Not sure what that will do!
13. This is a no-brainer – don’t sleep during the day if you can help. This will ruin your night.
14. Keep yourself busy with work or something else –the days will fly by. You may want to watch movies or TV if you are that kind of person.
15. Use this time to reflect upon what’s happening to you, your dear ones, and life in general. If you live in a rat race, like most of us near large cities do, this time can actually be a good medicine to slow you down.
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