Week 2 K/R – Stitches are out
It’s been 2 weeks since the surgery, so I returned to the hospital today to get my stitches out. As I’d previously mentioned, I’d been worried about blood clots etc, but everything seems to have settled in my leg. I’m 99% positive it was just a really bad, painful bruise. Unfortunately I forgot to mention it to the Surgeon when I was there today, so I guess I’ll just have to hope my assumption (and googling) was correct. Otherwise, if I die from a blood clot in my lungs/heart, we’ll know I was wrong.
Another thing I’d been worried about (rather foolishly) was the possibility of having already damaged my leg to the point the ligament was already torn again. When I was there today, the surgeon tested the ligament by pushing my thigh down and pulling my shin up. Previously, it was really easy for him to do and he was able to separate the sections. This time, it was rock solid proving the ligament was implemented and healing well. Good sign!
When the patches came off I was really pleased to see how thin the scars were. Typically, my scars remain pink/purple for a long amount of time, and can have small lumps in them. I have a scar on my knee from approximately 10 years ago that’s still pink in the centre, and one on my arm from 6 years ago (from getting a mole removed) that has lumps in it, and is still bright purple. It’s only just begun to change to skin tone colour around the edges. I’ve been told that I am a mild keloid scarring person, and based on the wikipedia entry I can agree mine are very mild! My scars look absolutely nothing like in the articles! But back to the hospital, the nurse cleaned up any remaining dried blood and applied fresh dressings to the area. They can be removed for good tomorrow, when I’ll be able to post a picture.
I was told I was free to begin putting full weight on my leg again, and to start walking immediately. I’d actually started limping around in the morning, so had a good idea of how I’d be able to move. That way I wouldn’t look quite so retarded in the hospital in front of others! I received a few more instructions, and the nurse gave me some ointment to put on one of my wounds. Unfortunately it looked like it was slightly infected (nothing serious) so I would just need to rub that on for a couple of days. We then headed out the front where I made an appointment to see the surgeon again in 3 months for a progress check, then I was free to leave.
On the way out I stopped in at the gift store and bought some chocolates & flowers, and dropped them off to the nurses in the ward where I had stayed 2 weeks earlier. One of the nurses identified me immediately when I came in, and said “hey Kelly! How’s the knee!” Very impressed with her memory. We chatted about it, and I handed over the gifts. I thanked her again for taking such great care of me when I was there, told her nurses were under rated, wished her a Merry Christmas and left. I felt really good for doing that, hoping I made someone’s day *grin*
I then stayed at home for an hour, before getting ready to visit the physio. It’s only around the corner from me, and normally takes 10 – 15mins walk to get there, but today I left with 25mins to spare. I was determined to walk there to celebrate my newfound freedom from crutches, and I had timed it perfectly. I arrived just in time for my appointment. I have such a profound limp at the moment that it really slows me down walking. As usual, my physio worked his magic and after half an hour I had already managed to bend my leg more. He gave me my list of exercises to focus on for the week, which were the same as when I initially hurt myself. Thankfully, since I’ve been there/done that, it will be really easy to do. The main thing I will need to focus on for the next month will be working to be able to fully bend my knee again.
The difference in my good knee and bad knee
As you can see in the above picture, while simply sitting on the desk my right leg goes only so far. That’s while merely relaxing my legs, and letting them just hang. One of my exercises is to swing my leg back and forth, gradually increasing the amount I can bend it. Easy, non-painful exercises.
So that’s pretty much it for the next few weeks! I’ll post a photo of my scars tomorrow once the patches come off, and perhaps in a month or so I’ll take another photo showing the difference in my legs hanging from the desk to show how much I’ve been able to achieve. At the moment I can’t drive, since I can’t bend my leg enough to switch between the brake and accelerator. I climbed in the car tonight, and could barely get my leg in the door without having to lift myself off the seat to bring my knee in. I’ll give myself a week, then try again. Until then, it’s walking around the block, exercises, and rest!
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