4 weeks out

I am now 4 weeks since my surgery. I have ditched the crutch and am using the brace if I know I will be on my feet alot. Last weekend a group of us went to the Royals game and I cleaned out the gutters which was much needed. My knee was really sore after that. The pain is all gone from surgery but it just gets really sore if I try to do much more than walking around the house or office.

I visited the doc this morning for my 1 month eval. They had 2 months since surgery written on the chart and said that I looked pretty good for 2 months out. When I told them that it had only been 4 weeks, they seemed to be impressed. Must be the therapist. My strength is there in the ligament which I think is what they really wanted to check. I am still having trouble getting full extension. They didn't seem as concerned as I was about that. They said part of that is probably due to swelling and the fact that I have been on it alot recently.

I was able to mow the backyard and do some chores this morning before we hopped on the train for Savannah. I am kind of looking forward to being forced into sitting down for the next 36 hours or so. I will still have to get up and around to keep it from getting stiff. The wedding should be fun and I am looking forward to seeing Savannah. Hopefully it isn't rainy there.

I have been going to PT 2-3 times a week. Danielle is working with me on more strengthening and stability exercises. Both the docs and Danielle have said that the pain should be gone in a few weeks but my quad is nowhere near where it should be. That will probably take 4-6 months to come most of the way back. My knee will be sore if I am up and around on it alot during this time because it will be making up for the lack of a quad.

Well... Off to do nothing on a train for god knows how much longer... I am hungry.

One Crutch McGee

I was at PT MWF again last week. Now that I started this log, I forget when my last post was. I was at PT on Friday and adding some more exercises. I am missing a couple degrees of extension which is really starting to bother me. The flexion comes much easier than the extension. I can bend it back to 130 degrees with some pain. Danielle worked with me on getting me down to one crutch. My leg is still pretty weak but it is a heck of a lot stronger than it was. I know that it is getting stronger and feeling better everyday so that is a positive I try to take away. And... I almost forgot... I have lost some of the steristrips off my knee. One came off of my scope hole and a couple fell off of the incision while I was sleeping the other night.

I was one crutch and hobbling around her office. It is strange because when I am on my leg for a while, my leg does not want to flex back. I don't know if it is a muscle thing or what. All I know is that something feels like it pops inside my knee and then I am able to bring it back much easier. I need to get better at making a conscious effort to walk with bringing my knees up and kicking my foot back. Right now it is looking pretty frankenstienian with one leg sweeping out as I make a stride. My legs get so tired sore so quickly when I am up and around. Last night Danielle and I were at the grocery store. I just used the cart as a walker and left the crutch all together. I was about to throw a hissyfit near the frozen turkeys because I was standing waiting for love to find 1lb of ground chuck...

I am going to try and make it up to the gym tonight. I have a feeling it will be a zoo up there.. :(. My throat was sore this morning and I am not sleeping all that well so I decided to sleep an extra hour this morning.

We leave for Savannah in 9 days. I'd like to be off crutches completely by then. = I probably need to get my ass out of bed in the mornings...

PT and post opp appt

It has been a while since my last entry and a lot has happened. I visited with one of the surgeons on Wednesday morning and I had PT on Wednesday and Friday. The surgeon said that everything went really well with my procedure and they were really happy with it. He checked out my knee and we looked at some of the images they took. I told him what my ROM was from Monday and he said that they really wanted to see that up to 90 soon. They wanted me off crutches in a couple weeks and out of the brace a week or two after that.

My Dad picked me up from home and took me to PT Wednesday night. I worked on the bike a little bit by doing some rocking as well as some other exercises. I felt much better than I did on Monday. I still had some swelling but the big good news was that I got my flexion up to 91 degrees. It was a huge step from Monday.

Friday I was back at PT. Again, I could tell a big difference from the previous visit. I was able to make a full rotation on the bike. My flexion was all the way to 109 degrees. I am still missing 3-4 degrees of straightening which is a huge concern. I was joking with Danielle that I feel like the measurements is kind of like the weigh in on the Biggest Loser... I have put up some pretty good numbers so far.

My knee/hamstring is still painful. I feel more comfortable when putting weight on my right leg. My hamstring feels more secure. Right after I got unwrapped, anytime I over extended my leg, I had this shooting pain through my hamstring. That is happening less and less. I still have a good amount of bruising around my knee and hamstring. I was on my feet a lot on Saturday and I felt like I was paying for it Saturday night. My legs felt like they were going to fall off when I got into bed on Saturday night.

I go in for PT again after work this evening. I hope that this is the last week that I need to bum rides off of people. It will be nice to drive myself around again. I feel better every day. I can't wait till I am able to walk around again with no pain. I can't wait to go ride my bike or go running or do anything. It has been almost 2 months since I have done anything more than hobble around and it has been driving me crazy...

home after the first PT session

I worked from home on Monday. Mostly because I had my PT appt and partly because I didn't know how I would be feeling. The knee was feeling alright for most of the day today. My dad came to pick me up since I can't drive myself. This was the first time I had left the house since Thursday. There's leaves on the trees!

I went into see Danielle. She cut off my bandage and I got a look at it for the first time. I was kind of expecting it to look like a radish or something*.

* my first image insert

The cotton was all stuck to my leg like grampa smurf's leg hair. My shin was all indented from having a hose tied to it for 4 days. I did some light movement on it and we took some measurements. I am missing 5 degrees on my extension and can bend it 65 degrees. Anytime I tried to straighten it, I got this shooting pain up my hamstring from where they took the graph. I do not trust my leg at all without the brace. I can't put weight on it or bend it while standing. I don't know how much of it is physical vs. mental. It is just a little scary.

I am going to be working from home again tomorrow. My ride has a meeting in the morning and it was hard getting into a minivan this afternoon + that my leg is hurting pretty good again now. Off to sleep soon.

Saturday

Just a quick entry this morning. Pain is still pretty bad. I do not feel any more nausea at all which is a good thing. I would almost rather have knee pain than be worried about how I am going to be able to roll over to puke.

I am heeding my grandpa's advice and hitting the fruits and veggies pretty hard. I am waiting on the first post op #2. I have set that as my goal for the morning. Mrs. Weatherly made us Chicken Spedini last night which was awesome. It was my first legit meal in a couple days.

Grandpa and Tony came by yesterday which was nice. It was good to get out of bed and have someone to talk to. I slept alright last night. I woke up in the middle of the night last night when the meds wore down. I was up and around for about 30 mins replacing my ice cooler thing too. It is a nice thing to have but the ice honestly doesn't last as long as I thought it would. I am a little scared of what my leg looks like. I am sure it looks pretty shrunken and bruised. My quad keeps on tremoring. Last night I had this weird dream that somebody was doing a flyover of my leg in a spaceship. The camera panned out and there was lightning flashing everywhere there was a little leg twitch. It was kind of... strange.

The door people from Home Depot are going to come out today to measure for the door between 10-11 am. That is a much better time frame than the 8am - noon window the cable company would give you or something.

pre and post op 4/23

I was going to post something on 4/22 the night before surgery but I think it just kind of slipped my mind.

Wednesday morning, I went in with Danielle for a pre-op visit with Dr. Rasmusen. The visit seemed to go well and I think he was happy with my progress. My strength and ROM looked pretty good.

I wanted to do some yardwork for the last time in a while. I mowed and put down some more grass seed and mulch around the yard. Danielle and I were able to take Russell for a short walk which was really nice. The weather is finally great out. I started feeling a little sick Wednesday with a runny nose and headache. I didn't want to take any Advil or anything. I wasn't running a fever. I was glad because the last thing I wanted to do was have to reschedule this thing after taking off work and everything else. I slept pretty well the night before.

DOS - Yesterday, Danielle and I drove to the clinic and got there at 8:30. I got all checked in and prepped. Buddy, the equipment guy with Hangar said the cooler thing would only be $22. They had me sign off that I would like to receive the cooler since insurance would cover most of it. If I get an invoice for a penny more than $22 from Hangar, I will absolutely blow up on them... They have been my least favorite people throughout this whole thing.

I got shaved and prepped by the nurse and hooked up with my IV through the top of my left hand. The anesthesiologist came by and gave me a nerve blocker in my right hip. It was funny because I was able to raise my knee using my hamstring but my quad was dead because of the drugs.

I was carted off to the OR and the standard nice lady was there talking to me until the drugs kicked in and knocked me out. I remember telling her about Yellowstone and our honeymoon in Cabo and that was it. Surgery began at 10:15 and I think I was out of there by 12:3o. I woke up in a different room with my clothes back on. I guess I kept on asking Janet, the great nurse who was there, the same few questions over and over again. I asked her if Xavier Henry had signed with KU. I think she finally looked it up after I asked her for the 6th time. He's coming to Kansas!

Danielle came in and I was still a little woozy. I had some water and crackers and got wheeled outside. I felt a little sick on the way home and was just sprawled out in the back seat. I was home and in bed by 2:30. I was able to nap and sleep pretty well.

I woke up and ate a sandwich and some ritz bits. I immediately started feeling a little cruddy. It was funny because danielle came in at 6:00 to check on me and kiss me and I reached for the puke bucket and yakked in front of her. I felt much better after that.

I slept pretty well last night. I woke up a few times but nothing too bad. I woke up around 7:00 this morning and ate some oatmeal. Danielle left for work and left me with some food and water. I am in bed and plan on watching some LOST today on the laptop and napping. I think I have Tony and Anna on call today for me.

I am still bandaged up and have my ice pump thing and knee brace over the leg wrap. I started having this burning sensation down my shin just a few minutes ago. I think my numb thing is wearing off because holllllyyy shit I am having some serious pains right now. Son of a bitch that hurts. I may double up on the pain meds next go round in a couple hours. F--- that hurts....

month after injury

I am at a month after injury. I have been going to PT 1-2 times/week. I am only using the crutches/brace if I plan to be on it a lot. I think it is probably about as good as it is going to get before surgery. I have lost a degree or two on my extension. my PT says this is probably a result of being less diligent about my home exercise routine. I can almost bring my foot all the way back to my butt if I wince and hold my breath. It is a little painful. I am going to the gym and working on a lot of leg strengthening stuff but doing less around the house.

The knee hurts at the base of my kneecap which worries me a little. I am afraid to extend my leg all the way because I get some pretty good shooting pains up and down my leg.

It is crazy to think that this happened a month ago. It means that I haven't walked properly or jumped or run or done anything active outside which is depressing. I am going to mow and bag the yard tonight which I am actually looking forward to.

Surgery is next Thursday (8 days). I wish I already had the operation behind me and I could work on getting back to normal. Danielle said that she will go to my pre op visit with the doc on Wednesday which is good since she knows 100x more about this than I do.

On a sidenote, I got a ghetto looking invoice from an orthodics place for my brace. They want $250 out of pocket for that effing thing. The person came in and fitted me with a brace moments after the doc told me I wouldn't be my normal semi-active self for over a year. The punk neglected to mention that I would be invoiced a few hundred dollars for the brace when he put it on me. I am pretty heated over this. I guess I will call my friends at BCBS to see why this wasn't covered. If that fails, I plan on calling the sneaky brace bastards and complaining. There is a reason the employees at the grocery store don't walk around dumping items in your cart. You don't see the cashier scanning extra packs of gum for you. I may have bad breath but that doesn't mean I want to pay for gum. What the hell!?!?