Recovery Day 49-50

I had great news at the PT, yesterday. My flexion was 130 degrees. Without pain, it was 125. My extension, with me trying to straighten my leg was 0, which is great. Without me making any effort, it was about +1.5. I'm not mad at that.

I went on a nice hike.

Day 50

I had a bad night last night. I woke up in the middle of the night in pain and did not get a lot of sleep. Yes, I'm still not getting full night sleeps. Today however, I feel great. By my own measurement, my flexion ROM without pain is about 130. I hiked a couple of pain-free miles tis morning, as well. All of my exercises were easier. I'm off to PT soon.

Day 36

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

 I haven't updated for a while, because it has been a wild couple of weeks. I woke up Tuesday, 6/27,  morning in tremendous pain. My stomach was cramping. My stomach had been hurting for days, and I had felt nauseous as well. I thought that the lining of my stomach was inflamed from using NAISDS. The "googler" said that the only thing to do was take antacids, stop taking ibuprofen and get on a regimen of Pepcid. I had my kid bring home some Pepcid, but the package said to take it on an empty stomach in the morning, so I asked my husband to bring home some Tums. My intent was to wait until the next morning to see how it went. When my husband got home, he said insisted that we go to the emergency room. I was in no condition to protest. I had been in pain in a fetal position all day.

When my husband called the ER, they said that it would be a short wait if we came immediately. We got there very quickly, but the wait was incredibly long. We got there at about 8:45PM, and we weren't seen until after 2AM. I was in a lot of pain. At some point I went in the car so I could curl up, while my husband waited in the ER.

The experience of waiting in the ER was horrible. People were sitting for hours, moaning, obviously in a tremendous amount of pain and no one even checked their vitals. Once I was actually in a room, everything went very quickly. The staff was attentive and made me comfortable. They gave me fluids and offered me pain medication. I told them that I had been having such a hard time with the pain medication that I'd like some other option. The doctor listened and gave me Benadryl to help me sleep. They took test after test, including at CT and came up with a definitive diagnosis. I have diverticulitis. It's an infection in the intestine. It almost certainly happened as a result of being constipated after surgery. It is very painful, but not difficult to treat if you catch it quickly enough. The doctors gave me a dose of antibiotics intravenously and sent me home with an antibiotic and anti-nausea medication. I also needed to stick to an all liquid diet for two days.

I left the hospital at about 6AM. The cramping was completely gone. I just needed to deal with weakness of lack of food. I had eaten nothing the day before and probably very little the day before that. Now I had to go two more days on very few calories. The hardest part was staying hydrated. If I drank big gulps of water, I would start to get nauseous. I could only drink sips at a time. It was just hard to remember to do it.

Thursday, 6/29, I felt better, but I had been doing too much to try and straighten my leg, so I had a set back.

Today, was the first day of my 6th week. I went to the PT and got ROM measurements. My flexion unassisted is 127. Assisted its 130. Extension is -3 1/2. I have been feeling a lot of pain the last few days, but I took yesterday off and felt much better today.

Week 4: Days 22-24 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Wednesday, June 21, 2023

My PT session was earlier than usual, so I got an early start on my own PT. I always start with 5 minutes on the bike. This time I moved the seat down to its normal position. I wasn't able to get around without lifting my hip, so I basically just went back and forth. I did some upper body stuff, ab work and the hip routine before settling into the PT knee exercises. I ended with 5 minutes backward, uphill on the TM and about .75 miles forward.

PT was at noon. I like to get measured every week. I was measured at 121 & -5. -5 is a big disappointment because I have been working so hard to straighten my leg. For example, in addition to my normal PT exercises, I spent an additional 55 minutes in some kind of passive stretch yesterday. I worked very hard last week with zero improvement. It is disappointing. I spend a lot of time scouring the internet for exercises to help me with extension. I found a new one that I'm hopeful about, so I'll be adding it into the routine.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

I didn't feel good. My knee hurt and I was nauseous. I'm barely taking any medication. I can't figure out what is going on.

Friday, June 23, 2023

I've come to the conclusion that the Tylenol is making me nauseous. I did not want to take any medication at all, but my husband because everything seems to make me sick in one way or another. My husband insisted because my knee was hurting. I took ibuprofen and did not have any ill effects.

Of course, I did my morning exercises, including a hip routine abs and upper body. I took the dog on a short 1 mile hike. I went to PT and went on a 1.76 mile hike in the early evening. I slacked a little bit on straightening my leg. I only did exercises about 6 times. Usually, I get it about ten different times during the day. I can honestly say that all the work on this one thing doesn't seem to be making the slightest difference. I would bet if the PT measured me, I'd be -4 or -5. All I can do is what I'm doing. I am working as hard as possible.

Week 3: Days 20-21 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Monday, June 19, 2022

I peeled off the last of steri strips to completely reveal the scar and I got another rash. It seems unlikely that the rash is related to any medication. I didn't take any medication at all yesterday or today.

I had a doctor's appointment, today. The doc seemed very happy with my progress and told me to keep doing what I'm doing. I did my normal exercises in the morning, but not much after I got home from the appointment.

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

I got up early and did a pretty extensive workout. I'm still trying to work on ROM every hour. About midday, my husband and I went on our first real hike. I used poles because there is a pretty steep part that I don't think that I could have done without poles. The hike was about 1.75 miles.

My second workout was something that I found on YouTube.

In the evening, I went on a .85 mile walk.

The doc gave me the OK to start using ointment on my scar, so I started using Scar Away gel today.

When I went to bed, my foot was hurting. I did a lot today. I may have over did it.

Week 3: Day 19 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Sunday, June 18, 202

I got up early and did an early session workout. My husband and I went on a short midday hike, and back to the house for a little more ROM work. I ended up doing 40 minutes in total on the bike (4 minutes at a time) and 50 minutes of extension work (5 minutes at a time).Every couple of hours I tried to do some ROM work.

Week 3: Day 18 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Saturday, June 17, 2023

I woke up with a headache and pretty tired, so I took some ibuprofen and Tylenol with breakfast, but besides that I didn't have any more pain medication the rest of the day.

I'm really trying to work on straightening my leg, so I decided to do a passive 5 minute stretch, 10 times during the day. Five time, I sat with my legs out in front of me on a second chair with a 15 pound weight on my thigh; and five times I laid on my stomach with my knees off the table with an ankle weight.

I did a long extensive workout in the morning, I went on a one mile hike (no elevation) in the afternoon. Normally, I would do one more workout and take a second walk, but today I just rode the bike five minutes and did a passive extension stretch.

Week 3: Day 17 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Friday, 6/16/2023

I woke up way too early, but I was able to get in a workout before PT. PT was very productive, today. I had a different therapist, because mine is out of town, and she gave me some good tips. Probably the most important thing that she did was give me a different way to cue walking (in my mind). I think it allows me to create a much more normal gait. She also told me that I need to get to 0 degrees pretty quickly. I'm planning on really working on it this weekend.

I didn't take any pain medication at all, because I wanted to have wine in the evening. The pain wasn't too bad.

Week 3: Day 16 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Thursday, 6/15/2023

Today is supposed to be a sort of rest day. My PT told me to only do ROM exercises and to limit my walk to 15 minutes. It ended up being a pretty weird day.

Yesterday, I didn't take the Celebrex. I took ibuprofen instead. I think the Celebrex gives me a headache, so I was experimenting. I took the Celebrex, today and promptly got a rash. The rash is near were I use the e-stem, so it could be from the drug or it could be an allergic reaction to the stick stuff on the e-stem unit. Who knows. I think that I'm going to stay away from Celebrex for a while an try to get a prescription for ibuprofen.

I got some X-rays today which gave me an up and personal look at the hardware. It's pretty interesting

Pain today was really weird. It was basically moderate with strange waves of acute pain every now and then. I did get a good night sleep last night.

I tried some new exercises. One I thought up on my own. The other, I found on the internet. The one I thought up is very hard. I lay on my back and put a strap under my hamstring and pull my thigh up to a 90 degree angle. I let gravity pull on the bottom part of my leg creating an angle. It's quite excruciating actually. I did it in the morning, and in the afternoon, I made a complete rotation on the upright bike. I thought I was so far from ever being able to do that just hours before I did it. I was so happy that I shed a tear. There were real wet eyeballs involved. I doubt that the progress on the bike was due to the new exercise but you never know.

Week 3: Day 15 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Wednesday, June 14, 2023

The day started off tough. I had trouble sleeping, as usual. Everything seemed more difficult. During my morning exercises, I usually take a measurement of my heal slide, but this time I felt a stinging along my incision, so I stopped.

I did leg extensions using my monkey feet attachment, and it was way too heavy. I won't do that again. My knee hurt all day. My physical therapist told me to take it easy tomorrow. We did some measurements today.

My flexion has improved 30 degrees. And my extension improved some as well. I would love to be at 120 by my next measurement, but that seems so far away. I was also able to make a complete revolution on the bike, today for the first. Honestly, I think that I was seated a little further away than I usually am, but I'll take it.

Week 2: Day 14 Patellofemoral Joint Replacement

 Tuesday, June 13, 2023

I did two workouts today, both including an outside walk. One walk was 1.5 miles and included 4 minutes of backward walking up a hill. The other was 1 mile followed by 4 minutes of backward, uphill walking on the TM. I found an app that measures ROM. It says that I'm at 113 degrees. I am going to have my PT measure it tomorrow, to see if the app is accurate. I think that is probably about average. I am working as hard as I can. Improvement is steady, but slow.