Sounds great right?
It actually was great... but...
Nothing bad happened, just unexpected!
When we arrived to the hospital, the surgeon informed us that he had the parts for the left knee not the right one.
Since I was already scheduled to have both knees done, we changed the paperwork over right then and there to have the left one replaced.
So, how was it?
It wasn't all that bad.
For anesthesia, I went with the spinal block. What I didn't know about this procedure, was that it requires a urinary catheter. I don't know if I ever had one in my life. I mean, I had kidney stones, etc, but... well, nothing that tied my piss production to a bag.
The spinal block went well, and as far as a I can tell was that the catheter was "ok"... rather not a great inconvenience and painful...
That is...
Until the freakin' spinal block wore off.
It went from "OK"
to
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT THINGS HURT LIKE HELL!"Unfortunately, they weren't going to take that damn thing out of my piss pipe, so I wound up waiting for IV pain killers to kick in and work, and taking more oral pain killers.
"GET THIS DAMN THING OUT OF MY DICK!"
They did use lidocaine or similar surface medication to ease the dick discomfort.
It took almost 30 minutes before it got better.
What I hated was that they were going to leave that freakin' thing in there for more than 24 hours. I had to threaten pulling it myself for them to get another doctor's approval to remove it sooner.
See, the thing was... I was embarrassed about the presence of the damn thing up my dick, so I didn't really want to get up and walk.
Actually, the pain was pretty fucking significant, so I didn't really want to get up except for those times I needed to pee, which hurt like hell anyway.
Now, I'm not ignorant, nor did I think I was unprepared, but the spinal block, catheter and type of muscle changes along with the intensity of pain really surprised me.
Putting the spinal block and catheter aside, the pain and muscle changes really, really surprised me.
I expected a great deal of pain, but not so bad that I was on almost 4 times the amount of pain killers as I was prior to the surgery.
Even now, just over 3 weeks later, I need to keep a certain level of pain killers in my system to help me to sleep and keep the pain at bay.
The muscle changes, which I was expecting, surprised me.
I knew that the quadricep muscle was going to be cut & resewn together... but what I was not expecting was for it to bundle/bunch up so much that I really couldn't extend my leg very well. It was bunched up that when I extended the leg, I couldn't straighten it out very good. It felt like I had a bunch of rubber balls above the knee cap, which were allowing it to flex, but not keep it that way and wants to push right back down.
At this point, the range of motion has greatly improved.
I can almost get it 100% straight and bend it fairly close to the range of the right one.
Not too bad for three weeks.
What I really need to do, is work on the entire knee's muscles groups and stretches.
My knee wants to buckle if I'm not careful and concentrate on what I'm doing.
I'm serious!
I needed to concentrate and the first week and a half I had to literally tell my leg what to do. "Get up" "Move" "Bend", etc.
What I am currently fighting is lots of muscle pains around the quadricep and down the calves/shins.
Ice doesn't work on the muscles, so I had to buy another 24" heat pad so that I can have it affect the large muscles groups better than the little heat pads Ellie bought several months ago when my original large one died.
The heat is great, usually.
My biggest concern and complaint that's not related directly to the knee is the freakin' foot!
My left foot feels like it's freezing when I have ice on it, and chilled 80% the rest of the time.
Rarely does it ever feel warm or comfortable, unless I'm wearing these fuzzy slipper/bed socks.
Even then, I need to watch out how tight the socks are around my feet.
It's not the whole foot really, it's concentrated across the top of the foot.
Having pain across the top of the foot isn't new to me, but it's not a great feeling when my leg is messed up and I can't keep the foot well supported unless I'm in bed.
I haven't slept in my bed overnight since the first couple of days home from the hospital.
It was just easier at first to sleep next to Ellie, but then it turned out to be very painful, because I couldn't lift my own leg back into bed. So to the recliner I went.
I'm tired of the freakin' recliner now!
I tried going back to my recliner/couch/etc and it was worse on my legs than the one I've been using.
This morning, just before Physical Therapy, I setup my body pillows the way I normally did. They kept my leg straight and I was comfortable enough to fall to sleep really well.
I'm going to try sleeping in the bed again tonight. With my family gone, it'll be easier to do, because I won't have to dodge around the misses in my bed or kick them out of the bed or off the couch, etc.
They've been sleeping around Ellie a lot these days, which I don't care about, but I do care that I can't just pick up and move from place to place to lay down and try relieving the pain better.
Well, this is really long and rambling.
I'm also pretty damn tired.
If it wasn't for watering the garden, I would go to bed right now.
