Knee Replacement Part 7
4.5 Weeks since surgery
It’s been four and a half weeks since the surgery. Update:
My knee was very sore for 3-4 days after the last PT appointment. I complained to my friends. One friend said she stopped going to PT because it hurt so bad. As much as I don’t like still having to take some pain meds and feel like I am going backwards, I logically know that if you have no pain, you have no gain in this instance. (DO NOT take this to be the truth in all instances, however.)
After the few days of major discomfort following PT, I began to see more flexibility that I had not been able to attain on my own. This past week I went back for outpatient PT appointment #2. Medicare allows 12 of these visits, and I assert we will complete these by the end of the year and I can seriously take on hiking and swimming.
This visit we used the big ball under my feet and I moved it toward me and away from me to assist with flexibility, extending my leg straight out and bent. This is the first time I had used this exercise and I liked it much better. We also did an exercise stepping up and off the step, using one leg and then the other. I am now sometimes going up one foot on a step, and sometimes taking one step at a time. When I begin steps, I always think of my mother, and “good go to heaven and bad go to hell” to make sure I am using the strength I have in both legs. I long for the time I can go up two at a time.
We had Thanksgiving this past week. My younger son invited me to go to his house this year, but it is six plus hours of driving, and I didn’t think that would be a good idea this time. My older son and his children and I had a somewhat quiet Tday that included his girlfriend, a fabulous gal I really like.
I noticed that I did not require the amount of recovery time from this PT appointment that I had last time. I had much more activity during the last two days than I have had in the last month. I was tired last night, but my knee proved to be much stronger. I have not used my cane all weekend.
I have been attempting to decrease my pain medications. I typically only take pain meds twice daily – in the morning and bedtime. It has been several weeks since I have taken any oxy stuff. I have decreased the amount of Ibuprofen to 400 and sometimes 600, keeping acetaminophen to 1000. I have found that I have sometimes needed more of the medication I take for neuropathy. I have been taking 50 nortriptyline with the other meds and adding another dose during the morning or night if I’m in pain.