When Good Knees Go Bad

@Ragman,

She is considering the other knee before year's end. She went to rehab today and is having the toughest day since coming home. But the end result will be well worth it. The rehab guy told her they have to get the leg to be straight by a certain point in therapy or it will never work right. I think she will get it.

0 Replies

The mrs got up for her second therapy just now. She says the first session helped her greatly. She is leaving the walker behind, more and more.

0 Replies

The doctor removed the original dressing today and went back with a simple band aid type covering. She continues to do well. I bought her a new heating pad today (nearly t-boned a motorcycle that was driving between the cars at the same time traffic parted as a courtesy to let me turn into the neighborhood) but she says the amount of heat it produces is ineffectual. I'm thinking of suggesting the hot water bottle, but I worry she may get burned.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

Perhaps try a towel between the water bottle and the skin?

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Yeah. I will suggest it when we get back from today's therapy session.

As an aside and a note of caution to others, I picked up a bug, likely in the hospital cafeteria, and I had a great deal of chest congestion out of it. During the treatment of it I developed a bit of diarrhea. At the end of the day, I realized I was not ingesting much liquid at all. After knowing most of my life the importance of remaining hydrated and even telling myself I could never be so dumb, here I was dehydrating myself.

0 Replies

How are you both feeling?

0 Replies

She's energized and ready to get on with it. Improving daily. I am fine, but worn down from so much activity. The weekend should be the medicine I need.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

I hear that!

0 Replies

Glad your wife is healing well.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Thank you. She hopes to do the other one before year's end.

0 Replies

In pre op class, we met a woman scheduled for surgery the same day as mrsedgarblythe. Same doctor. We met her in the doctor's waiting room yesterday. Her surgery just preceded my wife's. She's riding a wheelchair and still unable to use a walker. I don't see how she can avoid becoming a lifelong cripple.

0 Replies

mrsedgarblythe said the pain of childbirth is less than the pain she has suffered from the operation. But, the end is in sight. She needed virtually no therapy when both of her arms were operated on. And she has full function. I was somewhat surprised that she needs so much therapy with the knee, but grateful it is provided.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

Sorry to hear that she's so uncomfy. I hope that pain meds are helping ease the pain to what is manageable.

I'm not sure what sort of surgery was done on her arms, but with knee surgery the knee joint has to support your body weight plus the both back-and-forth activity as well as lateral. That is a lot of physical pressure as opposed to what a shoulder joint is expected to support or sustain. The good part is that all of the tendons and supporting muscles will help get stronger and help support the new knee joint.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

She has been taking the pain med every six hours as per the instructions with the prescription. The other day the doc told her she could take it every four hours. This after a few weeks.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

well, the good part of where pain mgm't and medicine is now is that the docs are very on-top of this healing process. At least they should be. Of course, with both of you providing feedback to the 'team' you should be in good shape.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

She gets the staples out Wednesday.

0 Replies

Mrsedgarblythe is in much better spirits, now the staples are out. Plus, she has started driving again.

The woman I mentioned in an earlier post, the one in a wheelchair - We saw her again and it turns out she is doing much better than I imagined. She kicked her leg up pretty high. One of her big problems has been no home support, for whatever reason. She has been staying in a rehab facility. I think she may be going home in about a week.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

glad to see that progress is happening. Keep up the good news.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

She had me hide away the walker a few days back. Mostly when she walks it looks almost normal. She drives without me having to accompany her. She takes two or three pain pills in a day, which is considerably less than she used before. She has one last trip to the doctor in a few weeks and a few more weeks of therapy. We've both been able to relax considerably.

0 Replies

Mrsedgarblythe is going to ask the doc to sign a work release next week. She would continue therapy in the afternoons.

0 Replies

When Good Knees Go Bad

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know