Follow Up Appointment 8-05-2014

I went to see my doctor today, Dr Wilmink, the one who did my surgery.  It's so nice to have an appointment and wait only a few minutes and you get called in.  Kev looked at me amazed.  See my old knee doctor had horrible office practices. There were times I would wait any where from 45 mins to 2 hours to see him.  I kid you not, 2 hours for my appointment.  And never less then 45 minutes.  I just could never understand how he ran his office like that.  I liked him and he did great surgeries on me, Kev and Alicia but you always had to wait.  I know Dr Wilmink is a new doctor for me, but the few times I have been to his office I've gotten in within 10 minutes of my appointment time.  In fact today my appointment was at 11:00, I had an X-ray, talked to the doctor for a while, made a new appointment, walked to the truck and was on our way home by 11:40. It was awesome.  But back to what happened at my appointment.

When I first got there I got called back to my appointment room and a guy came and got me for an X-ray.  Kev and I sat there for a few minutes and the doctor came in with his transcriptionist.  He checked out my leg, the incision, made me bend and straighten.  And said this looks great!  You have hardly any swelling, your incision is nice and clean, you have great range.  You're bending at about 120 which is really good and you're really really close to a full straighten.  He checked out my PT report and said that all looked good as well.  He asked what she had to say and I told him I was an amazing patient!!  He chuckled.  We went over the fact that I only had 2 more PT appts but then he wanted me to continue with PT for 4 weeks at 3xs a week.  Then I would have a follow up with him and he would decide from there based on how everything was going and what new PT had to say as to what will be needed from there.  He also asked about how my pain had been and I told him it's really been pretty good.  The worst is after exercising, and at night I sometimes get spasms.  I got a refill to use when needed.  Always good to have.  

So then I asked him if we could talk about some stuff.  I think he wished he had said no.  lol I right away said "how come you never came and saw me in the hospital, after my surgery."  And the conversation went from there. I said your PA came in everyday, and the hospital doctor came in, but you never did.  He was a bit surprised, it was pretty funny.  I told him it was fine if that's how it normally is for him but I just wanted to know.  He said he was sure he saw me and I must have been sleeping.  In his defense too, I went home early on Friday so if that was a day he came by I was already gone.  Kev called bullshit lol, but it's ok.  I really liked him the first time I met him, he did a great surgery, and he knows now I didn't like that he didn't come see me when I was awake.  

Then we talked about the other things that I had questions about:

My CPM machine.  I asked him how long I should be using it every day and what range should I get it up to.  He said I could stop using it if I wanted to.  He said it's really needed to get patients up to a 90 degree angle.  I told him I was at 120.  And he was like, if you like using it go ahead but you have definitely reached what I wanted.  So much for my 135 goal.  I checked the machine and 120 is as high as it goes.  I am going to keep using it until next week when the scrip on it runs out.  It can only continue to help my recovery.  

Swimming.  After one of my knee surgeries I did my PT in a pool and I loved it!  So I would really like to add that in with my other exercises.  Especially since it is so hot out.  But he said to give it one more week.  He'd like the incision to have a little more time to heal up.  I'm ok with that, it will go by fast.  And by then I'll be at a new PT office so I'll be doing new workouts there.  

Bike Riding.  He said that I could ride a stationary bike now.  But not a regular bike for at least another 6 weeks.  And that's for safety reasons etc.  I totally get it cause I did fall off my bike in May and it was bad, so if something like that happened now with my new knee, I'd be screwed.  

Icing.  I have my ice machine til tomorrow :(  I am really glad I rented that thing.  It has been awesome.  It's electric and does ice and compression on my leg on a 30/30 schedule.  It runs cold water through the whole pack with compressions for 30 minutes and then turns off for 30 minutes.  And then resets etc.  It has been great and I am sure has a lot to do with how my swelling has been really good.  Anyway, he says to keep icing.  A few times a day if possible but it is really good to keep the swelling down and relieve any pain that may come up.  

So my follow up appointment went great.  Dr Wilmink says I'm probably 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  Pretty awesome huh?  I'm anxious to continue my PT and then start my new PT and see how much more progress I can make.  

PT Butt Kicking 8-04-2014

Oh man.....am I sore.  Karen came for PT today and again we did a lot of resistance exercises.  In my mind I am telling myself that I'm going to show her just how strong I am and that she can't stop me.  lol  It's a good thing it's in my mind cause it doesn't really happen that way.  She says I'm doing great and she can totally tell that I am trying very hard to push through her resistance but it's still not happening.  But it will, I know it will cause I can tell there has definitely been improvement.  So we did resistance exercises and some quad exercises and then some walking exercises.  They were actually taking big backward steps, so not really walking.  I did a lot of these all around the pool table.  It's a whole different stretch on my knee.  It stretches the back of my knee as it straightens.  And it's funny because these exercises do not last very long but they give me the most pain.  It's good pain, Karen reassures me of that, but I'm looking forward to being able to do these with no pain.  She did remind me that some of the quad exercises that we do used to hurt me real bad when I first started them and now they are still difficult but they don't hurt.  So that is progress.  Before she left she gave me a report card to give to my doctor at my follow up appointment tomorrow.  It's all good news, I've been an excellent patient.

So tomorrow is my follow up appointment with my surgeon.  I'll have some answers to a few of the questions I have for him and then find out what will be happening from here.  I'm anxious to see what he says as far as all that and also how he thinks I'm doing, how my incision looks, what's to come etc. Big day out tomorrow!!!! 

0-120 8-03-2014

I have reached the angle of 120 on my CPM machine.  I'm thinking this is a pretty big accomplishment, even though I don't know how high it goes or what I should be at.  Just from what the nurse at the hospital said when I first started and my PT has said when she's here, I am doing great on getting to higher angles.  But I do know I had somewhat set a goal for myself to get to 120.  I met that goal this morning. No pain at all and it ran at that level for about an hour and a half.  

When I go to the doctor on Tuesday, the CPM is one of the few things I want to check with him about. When the machine was delivered, the guy told me it had a scrip written for 3 weeks.  So I need to check on how much longer I will be using it.  I actually like it, it stretches my knee and feels good. Plus when I am done my knee is very bendable. The other things I need to check are how long should I be on it each day, and how how do the angles go and what angle degree should I get to.  For now, my next goal is to reach 135.  

My New Assignment 8-02-2014

My PT told me to do something fun this weekend, it was my assignment she gave me yesterday before she left.  So my plan was to do what I do on so many other Saturday mornings and that is go out to breakfast with my friends Meredith & Dave.  This is something we started doing a couple years ago.   We would go to a Weight Watcher meeting and then go out to breakfast.  Or something new has been if we do a morning race like a 5k, 10k or any race we signed up for we will go out to eat afterwards.  

Last Saturday was only one day after I had gotten out of the hospital and I was not going anywhere so they brought breakfast over for everyone.  It was delicious french toast from a great little restaurant that we do go to sometimes for our Saturday breakfast days.  But to do my assignment I decided I was going to go out.  Kev was up north for the weekend so I was home by myself so I thought it would be a great treat.  Meredith came and picked me up and then we stopped back at their house to get Dave.  I was out of the house again!!!! 

We decided for breakfast we were going to one of our favorite places, Kokobelli Bagels.  This is a great bagel shop that was the beginning of our breakfast trips.  We went there every week and then one day we decided to try some different places.  So now we have a few different places that we will go depending on whether someone has a craving or not for something in particular.  The bagel shop was this weeks choice because we like their food and because it's real casual and I knew I'd be able to get in and out easy as well as pull an extra chair yo our table to put my leg up.  

After we ate and sat for a while, I was ready to go home.  I was kind of tired and my knee was a little sore.  So once we got home I sat and did my ice machine.  It was a fun couple of hours, and I had completed my assignment :) 

Leg Massage 8-01-2014

First thing when Karen, my PT lady does is give me a leg massage.  Actually it's the first thing she does after she takes my blood pressure, listens to my heart and then does my oxygen.  (I think that's what that thing is that they put on your finger)  Anyway, we go down to my room and I lay on the bed, (this is starting to sound dirty, but don't go there) and then she kneels on the floor and just rubs my surgical leg all around where my surgery was. She basically gives me a deep tissue massage underneath my knee,  on the sides of my knee and then the rest of my leg. She'll straighten my leg and then work on my knee cap as well, that actually hurts a little.  But overall, it just makes my whole leg feel good and warms me up for the exercises that we are going to work on the rest of the time she is there.  I told Kev how I loved the massage she did I think after the 2nd time she was here and he said that I should have her show him how to do it.  So then the next time she came, she did.  And she told him not to be gentle, which was funny cause then we talked about how you wanted to be able to feel it.  Like when you ask someone to scratch your back, they should draw blood with a good back scratch if you're going to feel it.  lol  So she showed Kev,  and then there were a couple times the rest of the week, like on the days she didn't come, that he'd come over and give me a leg massage.  I told Karen that it was my favorite part of PT and I thought she should do a massage when she got there and then before she left.  So now she does, just not as long and as detailed as when she gets there.

I had a little bit of a break down at PT today while I was getting my leg massage.  I told Karen how I had been feeling the last few days and of course for whatever reason, I was crying.  I tell her how I'm just frustrated that I feel good, yet I'm hurting.  And then I feel like I'm making progress, and I hurt again.  And I can't remember what else came out in between the tears. She assured me once again that I was doing amazing and I need to give myself a break. She also said that the way I'm feeling is completely normal after surgery, having anesthesia and pain pills, all that stuff.  Sometimes people just have to work through it. So she continued with my massage, I got the tears under control and then we started the hard stuff.  On Wednesday when she was over, she added some new exercises and I told you how they were hard and somewhat painful.  We got to those and they were tough again, but I knew they would be.  We are doing stuff with resistance now and she is not holding back.  I lay on my stomach and let my legs from about my calf down hang over the edge of the bed.  She holds my leg at my ankle and then tells me to bend my knee.  I am not real weak, so this is something I should be able to do, but I can't.  I am pushing like crazy and she does not budge an inch.  She holds me back and holds me back and then will ease up just a little bit and then I bend my knee.  Just the bending my knee part hurts so throw in there the resistance she is putting on, it hurts more.  Then we also do the opposite where my knee is already bent and she is holding it and I have to push it down.  In a normal situation, I could take her....lol but like this I really struggle.  But it's all in a good way cause she is really making me work hard and strengthening my knee with what she's doing.  I wouldn't want her to be easy, but I'm still going to admit it hurts.

This was the last day of my first week of PT.  I have one more week which will be Mon, Wed and Friday with PT coming to my house.  I see the doctor on Tuesday to discuss what happens after Friday etc.
But before Karen left she tells me I have a new assignment for the weekend and that is to have some fun. Forget about my knee and do something other then my CPM, my ice machine and my exercises.  No she didn't say don't do that stuff at all, she said do something fun as well.  She made me agree that I would.

It's That Big? 7/31/2014

That's what Kev said when we took the bandage off my cut.  He was like....OMG I didn't know it was going to be that big.  I laughed.  Seriously?  What part of he will cut me from here to there made you think that I wasn't going to have a surgical cut and scar that big?   I didn't even know I could take the bandage off.    I had taken a shower and one part of the bandage was basically not sticking anymore so it got wet underneath.  I called to check if I should do anything special or what, and the nurse said just go ahead and take it off.  She said I really only had to keep it on for 7 days and this was the 8th day.  So I started taking it off little by little.  Kev said to do it like you do a band aide and just do one quick pull.  Umm, no thank you, this is going slow cause I'm kind of scared of what's underneath.

I got this far and then it started to get a little tougher to pull off.  It was really sticking.  Between the glue that they seal my cut with and then the glue the use for the bandage to make it waterproof, this part was stuck.  

But then I was down to the end.  And this is when Kev started to really look at it.  At first he was just taking pictures as I peeled the bandage away but now it was time to check it out.  

So there you have it.  It starts just above the knee and goes to just below it.  There are no staples or stitches on it that have to be removed.  The ones that are on the inside will just dissolve and then it was sealed with some heavy duty glue of some sort to keep it from opening up.  It's really pretty amazing.  I can leave it unbandaged and can still take a shower, I'm just not supposed to sit there and let the water just hit it directly for a long period of time.  I really wasn't shocked or overwhelmed when I saw it because it's pretty much what I was expecting.  Kev on the other hand couldn't believe it was so big.  

Walking 7/31/2014

I have been walking around the house pretty good, and most of the time it is without my walker.  I really only use the walker when I do my laps.  I have a lap circle around the kitchen and then one around the pool table.  I like using the walker for these because it helps me to stay centered.  And what I mean by that is that when I use the walker I walk in between the two legs on it and in order to do that I have to walk in the center of the walker.  This keeps me straight and doesn't really give me the room to favor one side or the other or to limp. I have to think about taking normal walking steps and walking straight.  The walker is my physical conscious that will get in my way if I don't do it right.  It's really easy to get around doing things the right way since it may hurt a little, or may take more effort etc.  But I want to take it slow and do it right, I don't want to start any bad and lazy habits that will end up hurting my rehab instead of helping.  So aside from the laps I do, I still have the exercises that the PT showed me to do that I work on as well.

I am feeling a little better today and part of that may be the fact that Kev and I went for a walk this morning. We talked about it last night and decided we would go once I woke up before it got too hot out.  I was asking him if he wanted to go to the mall since they open that up early so people can go walk there, but he said that we should just do what the PT said which was to walk a couple of houses on the block and then just keep adding to that before I try to do too much or go too far that I can't get back.

So we set out to walk on the block for a few houses.  I used my walker because like I said I want it to help keep me centered but also because it was my first time being outside of the house and I was going to go a little further then some laps around the room.  It felt good just being outside, and it felt good to be walking outside as well.

I walked to the end of the block where our mailboxes are and then turned around and then went past our cul de sac and went to the other end of the block.  It was a very slow and thought out process.  But Kev just walked with me at my pace and a couple times he even said how awesome I was and how great I was doing.  It was really cute.  And part of that is because he walks super fast and I have a hard time keeping up, but he never went ahead of me and just walked right with me and made sure I was feeling ok.  By the time I got to the end of the other block I was tired, but still had to walk back to the house.  Which was fine, I made it, but it's just crazy how much that little bit of walking took out of me.  But I felt good.  I got out, my walking was good, my knee felt good, everything was good.  Now I was ready for my ice machine.  

                                       

Kev wanted me to show everyone how I kicked that walkers ass!!  It won't be long before I'm not using it and with the way things are going, it won't be long before I am walking down and around and back around the block even faster.