Kelly's World

My knee/leg 7 days after surgery

First off – I don’t think my leg looks very glamorous lying on the couch. It reminds me of a chicken leg haha. Also, the keyboard, mice and iphone cable were in the picture since I took the photo sitting where I work during the day *grin* The cable was being held my knee while I took the picture.

Compared to day 2, there is more blood in the top wound, and the blood has dried in all 3 (hence the dark colour). The bottom left wound has amazingly spread out a fair bit, but as you can tell there’s not that much blood in that one, it was more just seepage than anything else. It’s also the most itchy of all of them, so perhaps it’s scabbing over already.

You may be able to see the bruise extending up my shin as well?? It’s a slight yellow colour.

Other than that, same ol’ same ol’! This time next week I’ll be posting a picture with the patches off, and all scars revealed…stay tuned!

In only 6 days, 16 hours and 50 minutes I will be meeting with the surgeon to get my stitches out, not that I’m counting. I also believe that’s the day I will be off the crutches, and regain the use of my hands. I hope. I might not be able to walk properly immediately, so I may have to keep the crutches with me – I’m not sure. Fingers crossed for the best possible outcome anyway (no crutches). We’ll find out next Monday anyway.

Not much has changed under the bandages – there’s a little bit more blood perhaps, but other than that it still looks like the same old skin sewn together. Boring!! I should take another picture so you can see the difference after a week; I’ll remember to do that tomorrow. It just looks like it’s all spread out within the patches, so when they come off it’s going to spill everywhere!! I’ll have to remember to wear shorts to the hospital so I don’t get my jeans caked in the stuff.

Today started off absolutely terrible, but ended up pretty great. First thing I did this morning was swing my leg out of bed, as if it was completely normal. I would say it had to do with habit, and it actually didn’t hurt until it hit the floor and the blood trickled down my leg. My shin and calf muscles have become increasingly painful to walk on, and my calf has even begun cramping a little. This is probably due to the fact that my leg has been elevated SO much, and iced so much, that when I put my foot down to start walking I don’t really give my muscles a chance to get some blood in them. I’ll just have to make sure I really focus on stretching out my leg tonight.

Anyhow, after I got out of bed and did my morning ritual (ex-shower, only loo, wash face, and let Turbo outside) I went back into the bedroom to get my water bottle. Putting the top in my mouth (my attempt to “carry it”) I headed to the kitchen. Just as I reached the tiled surface, BANG. I dropped the water bottle, it cracked (it was a hard plastic) and water went EVERYWHERE. Mat hadn’t gotten home from poker until midnight, so the last thing I wanted to do was wake him up. Instead I got a towel, slung it over my shoulder and went back to the kitchen, then used the crutches to mop up the mess.

I also had a killer of a headache, which I had associated with sleeping wrong. It turned out later it had a lot to do with the setup of my “workstation” in the living room. Lying on couch with my foot up I was spending every day looking to my left to the computer monitor so I could work. In hindsight it wasn’t the greatest of ideas. I’ve now switched position to the chaise, and will alternate it during the day so I’m not constantly looking in the same direction. I took some panadol, then during a phone conference I had this morning, laid down with an ice pack on my head. I don’t know if I was still tired, or it was the fact I was closing my eyes to block out any form of light lest I irritate my headache any more, or (more likely) the technical babble during the meeting was as boring as batshit, but I’m pretty sure I dozed off during the meeting. It would have only been for a few minutes at most, and what they were discussing was way over my head. I’m pretty sure no one missed me. The most amazing part of it all was that I was able to pick it up at the end, make some amazing points and summarise the outcome to my boss (who was also in the meeting – perhaps he fell asleep too). One of the other staff members who works from home skyped me to tell me she’d almost fallen asleep as well, so definitely not only me.

During the meeting I received a phone call on my mobile from my chiro – apparently I had an appointment this morning but they were half expecting I wouldn’t show. They thought it would have slipped my mind because I’d had a big week – CORRECT. We rescheduled for 11.30am, as I was desperate to see her to sort my neck out. When I arrived, she found the trouble spot on my neck and CRACK, instant relief. Headache was almost gone although the remnants hung around for a few more hours, possibly due to the muscle strain in my neck. Nothing a good massage can’t fix. It also turned out the receptionist at my chiro played netball on a Wednesday night at the same centre we do, and was actually in the opposing team when Mat went down with his shoulder dislocation! She hadn’t realised it was me until I left for the hospital with him. Small world.

Rest of the afternoon was uneventful. I played in the backyard with Turbo for about 5mins. Basically I picked up his toy hamburger, threw it down the lawn which he raced after, then I slowly crutched over to him. He ran away, I followed, he ran away again, I followed again. Went like that for a few minutes until he tired of how slow I was, and laid down in the grass. Fine – I can take a hint!!!

So now you know how exciting (not) my days are, I think it’s best I post blogs just weekly from this point; unless you’re really fascinated by my “keep leg up, sook a bit about how sore I am, get bored, blog about it” stories??  I’ll be sure to add some more pictures once the stitches are out and we’ll see just how awesome my scars are going to be!!

Late last night Mat got home with a ticket to a poker event being held in Tweed Heads, roughly 2 – 3 hours drive. Technically it was a QLD event, but because players could buy into the event, and the prizes were cash, it had to be held in NSW (QLD law prohibits the ability to buy in for tournaments other than in Casino’s – or something like that). It was a huge opportunity for him, given first prize was $20,000. A friend of ours had won the entry ticket, but as he wasn’t able to go he offered it to Mat. Mat accepted, but told him he’d have to check with me to make sure I would be alright by myself for a whole day. When he asked, I laughed and told him to go – there was no way it would be fair of me to hold him back, and besides, I’m able to do most things for myself at the moment. I told him as long as I could get out of bed, go to the loo, and make a cup of tea then I would be fine (silly me). Props to him for being worried about me though, it’s nice to know the extent to which he cares.

Overnight was a disaster. He couldn’t sleep, he was nervous and excited and was like he had ants in his pants. I don’t think he managed half an hour of sleep. I had managed to go to bed without taking any painkillers because I was feeling good, but Mat woke me up at 1.30am to tell me he couldn’t sleep (I had moved my arms in my sleep and he thought it meant I was awake). From when I woke up I felt my leg aching, and couldn’t get back to sleep. After a little bit, Mat offered to get my painkillers which I reluctantly accepted. 20mins later I was dead to the world again. Not so for poor Mat – he spent the night trying to listen to music on the ipod in bed, getting up and watching tv, and purely lying in bed, but he just could not get back to sleep.

Mat left at 6.30am as he had to be at our friend’s place (he was going in a car with them) at 7, and they had to be in Tweed Heads by 10 (11am NSW time – we lose an hour when crossing the border). He kissed me goodbye and left, and still feeling a bit drugged up I soon fell back asleep. That was pretty much how my morning went – wake up, stare for about 5mins, go back to sleep. I eventually got up and moved into the living room, where I found Mat had set up an additional chair at the home PC for me, so I could “mix it up” and play some games during the day.

I started the home pc, while I made myself some vegemite on toast. Using the path of kitchen > desk, I managed to eat breakfast while playing on the computer. However, having one leg up on another chair meant that I was slightly twisted towards the computer, and it wasn’t very comfortable for long periods of time. I lasted an hour at the desk, then moved to the couch again. From there, the day purely existed as sleep – twitter – read – sleep – drink – twitter – read – sleep and so on. Very uneventful.

At one point I was concerned about the bruising on my shin, and a slight swelling of my foot, but upon googling it it appears it’s a common symptom post surgery. All I know is my shin is damn painful to touch, so I might start icing that area as well over the next few days. I’ll be phoning the hospital tomorrow as well just to confirm they’ve booked me in to see the surgeon and get my stitches out, so if it’s any worse tomorrow I’ll just mention it on the fly to the person on the phone and see if they think there’s any cause for concern. Otherwise it can just wait until I see the surgeon next week.

Up until dinner time, I’d managed the day fine by myself. I wanted to wash the dishes though, but I was having problems standing for long periods of time today (making a cup of tea was bad enough) so decided it would just have to wait for Mat. I”ll apologise like mad, but I really just didn’t feel like I was up for it today. Even thinking about cooking dinner I felt defeated. I discussed it with Pauline, and given my options were corn chips (my “easy option” lunch which I’m ashamed of), toast, or some pasta that I wasn’t sure how to cook and would require a fair bit of getting up and down, I decided I would wave the white flag and call my mother.

I rang and asked if she would mind coming over to cook me dinner, and immediately wished I hadn’t. I think I was tired and just wanted a “sure I’ll come over now”, and for her to come and just make it. I didn’t want to have to think about it. Instead, I was bombarded with questions of “what did I want” and “what shops were open” and “what food do you have in the house”. When she suggested making me scrambled eggs I gave up and just said not to worry about it – I would just make myself some toast. I guess I just felt that for her to come all the way over and to just cook scrambled eggs was a bit of a let down. Very unfair of me, but I blame it on the fact I was spoilt earlier in the week when she brought over her amazing lasagne *grin* Speaking of which, Mat had eaten the rest of it about 11.30pm last night.

After we hung up, she rung back twice to make sure I’d managed to make the toast. I was actually still on the couch watching the QLD Roar match, and told her I hadn’t even attempted it yet. I assured her that I would be fine making toast (as I’d made it earlier), and relieved she hung up. She also said that she had been thinking of calling me and seeing if I wanted to go for a drive just to get out of the house, but given how sore and achy I was today it was probably best that she didn’t.

Now I’m on the couch writing this post, having just taken some painkillers before bed. It’s the first time I’ve written my daily summary on the actual day, and I’m not sure what inspired me to write it now. It’s 1020pm, and Mat’s just rung to tell me they’re finally leaving Tweed Heads. He should get here around midnight or a bit later, so in essence he’s been awake for about 36 hours straight now. He’s going to be SHATTERED when he gets home. Since I’m so comfortable on the couch now, I think I’ll just sleep here until he gets home. Actually, I think I can feel the drugs starting to kick in, my entire leg just feels hot like fire, and my eyes are starting to close. Beats the usual dull ache I guess!!

Time to lay down and snooze for the 10th time today – night all!

Today was when my body thermal management system broke down. We had the air con going all day, but I just could not cool down!! Ice pack on the knee, countless drinks of water and other cool beverages, and just would not cool down.

Mum also came over for a cup of tea in the morning, and we chatted for a bit. She bought over some mail for me which was the first bill from the hospital, damn they’re quick! I’ve got to call medicare and see what the process is, whether I pay outright and they pay me back, or if I can claim through them first then pay the difference etc. I’ll have to wait until Monday to contact them however.

I also decided today that I would make Sunday my productive day. I’m going to have to blog some ideas on things to do when you’re stuck on the couch (or bed), since I seemed to really be struggling for ideas. At the moment my “activities” range from sleeping on the couch, watching tv, reading a book, and incessantly checking twitter.

Other than that the day passed normally. No pain, a little bit of aching but nothing that required painkillers. I managed to shower without getting my patches wet, so that was awesome. Mat tends to think there’s a little bit more blood within the patches, but it’s not much so I would assume at this point there’s nothing to be concerned about. It looks as though I’m really starting to fall into a pattern with my leg – laziness!

This morning I woke up at 1.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. The ache of my knee was horrible. I just wanted to bend it, or sleep on my side, or anything. So as you can tell, I was a bit sooky at that time of the morning.

And once again, hero Mat comes to the rescue. He wakes up and realises I am sitting up rubbing my knee. Without a complaint, he went and got my painkillers for me, made sure I had everything I needed, then went back to sleep. I took a painkiller and attempted to read rss feeds on my phone but before too long the drugs had kicked in and my head started drooping. I put the phone away and settled down to sleep for another few hours.

Today was also an important day work wise. We were trying to get a beta software version built so we could release it to some customers for testing over the Christmas break. My particular role was to make sure the release notes were done, and test the install once built. Let me assure you, they were both extremely hard tasks to do with a fuzzy head.

About mid-morning after release note writing, I excused myself from the staff meeting and had a sleep instead. My head was spinning, I felt a little nauseous, not good. I slept for an hour or so, and felt so much better afterwards.

That’s pretty much how the day went. Work, get tired, nap. Work, get tired, nap. I have also found it’s easier for me to get flustered with work – I can only focus on one thing at a time. It might be environmental though, working from a couch doesn’t really encourage productivity. I’m sure it will pass when I return to the office in the new year.

Today I really suffered from boredom as well. You can only really sit in the same spot on the couch for so long. I passed the time by stirring Mat and sleeping, but really struggled when I was working. Motivation wasn’t there, and I just wanted to see something different than our living room. My prayers were answered when my mate Adam rang to see if Mat and I were interested in coming round and chilling at their house.

Mat hadn’t driven a manual since doing his shoulder, as it was his left that he had injured – his gear shifting arm. But since we wanted to go to Adam and Chere’s, we would need transportation and he decided to give it a try. He was able to change gears, and although it hurt in the beginning his arm seemed to free up more and more. It was still aching when we got home later though, so we immediately put some ice on it.

So tomorrow, being a weekend and no work to do, will be a challenge in finding exciting things to do to keep myself occupied. My sister’s mate came through with a suggestion I should finish rating all my music in iTunes, which Is a killer idea!! Stay tuned for my announcement when I finally do it (600 songs to go so probably within *checks watch* 8 hours?? Yes that’s how bored I am!).