After surgery, I went home with a brace on my left leg and a Polar care machine (ice machine) that will pump cold water intermittently. I had to keep all of these on my leg for a week or two. The first night home from surgery was the worst. When I got home I was so hungry so we ordered some sandwiches (Potbelly). Then, I started to feel really sick and nauseated and threw up. I did not even want to take my pain medicine coz i really felt sick to my stomach. In return, I was in so much pain later that evening. I could not find a comfortable place in my bed coz I was so limited in my movements. It also felt like my leg was gonna explode coz of the pain and swelling. I was tossing and turning. I finally took my pain medicine and was able to sleep that night.
Day one: The next day was pretty much the same. I still can't move my leg, but it usually takes up to 16hrs for the femoral block to wear off. By this time all the pain meds and the anesthesia from surgery wore off. I was taking my pain meds every 4 hours as needed. And believe me, I needed it. It just gets me so drowsy and sleepy after I take it. But it takes the pain away. Then later that afternoon, my friend Charmaine stopped by to visit and brought me some apples. I open up the velcros on my brace once in a while to let it "breathe" for a little bit. I had a lot of help at home: my sis, bro, mom and boyfriend all helped out the first day and then next few days.
Day two, three, four and five, six and seven: I can't really remember how I was doing during these days. My memory is all scattered and it already sucks in the first place, so I'll just put everything together. The next few days after surgery my leg was still swollen and stiff and felt like cement. My doctor actually wanted me to move my leg from 0 degrees extension to 90 degrees flexion. It was just impossible to do it the first few days. So I decided to take it slow. At this point, I was using 2 crutches to get up to the bathroom and partial weight bearing on my left leg. Two days after surgery (8.29.2010) I removed the dressings as ordered by my doctor, but left the steristrips on. At this point, I was kinda bummed that I still can't even do leg raises. But I really just have to be patient, every person is different during this recovery time. Then, one day while I was replacing the ACE wrap on my knee, I noticed a lot of bruising behind my knee and it was really dark too. It scared me a little bit, coz I forgot to ask my doctor about that and I can't remember if he mentioned it. So, once again, googled it and found out that it was expected. So the bruising was normal as long as there's not other pain behind the knee (which is a sign of blood clots usually). I did have some pain on my calf and behind the knee,but it went away the next day after elevating it a lot (or should I say, ALL THE TIME) and keeping the polar care ice on it. By day 5, I was able to shower. And this was a challenge coz I had to keep the left leg outside the shower door (I didn't really bother on wrapping it with something). I actually can get it wet at this time, but I really didn't want to.
Week two: By this time, I switched to just using one crutch. I was actually doing it wrong coz I kept it on the left leg when it should be on the right. No wonder I felt so unstable still and walking really weird with one crutch. I was feeling good around this time and was even able to go get a haircut at Chinatown. The bf took me. I stopped taking my Norco about one week post-op. I just really don't like that stuff. I went to see the doctor on Sept 13 for my first post-op follow-up. He checked my incision and removed the steristrips and his nurse removed the sutures. She then applied new steristrips on so the incisions will be well-approximated (heal together well).
So far my recovery is doing well. Not as fast as I'd expected, but I'm getting there. Still gotta take it easy.
At week three, I started physical therapy. I went back to the place I had therapy before surgery. So far it's going really well. One week of therapy completed and I'm going into its 2nd week. I'm also 4 weeks post-op. Able to walk without crutches, but with a brace. I still just keep one crutch close by just in case. I have to go to physical therapy 3x a day for 4-6 weeks. Oh, I forgot to mention about the CPM machine (continuous passive motion). I had to do it 6 hours a day. I split it into 2 hours each time, but it's still very hard to get all the 6 hours in. My most was 4 hours a day.
