Kneedy




I have been the caretaker for Linda for the last 7 days as she has been recuperating from the left knee replacement.   As you can see, she is getting around well, but she is still using the walker to support the knee joint. 

We have been going to therapy daily at the local hospital and it is quite painful and exhausting, but it is critical to get the rehab completed.   After the daily sessions, it is usually ice, a pain pill, lunch and a little nap or rest. 

Yesterday we actually tried to capture the  recovery "Progress" over time by recording the daily events that are improvement from the previous day as the healing progresses.  It is amazing the speed of recovery when you start at Day 1 when you are bed ridden to Day 2 walking on the steps at the hospital!!   Go home Day 3 and get out of bed by yourself on Day 10.  It is a very interesting list of daily accomplishments.  She has made fantastic progress and I am really proud of her.   Her attitude is great and she really puts the effort in PT. I went in one day to watch and it will cause tears to come out on some of the leg work.  It hurts, not way to sugar coat it. 

We are developing a daily routine for  laundry, showers and eating.  But, as you can tell the speed of rehab will soon change the routine as we will eventually start to go out a lot more.  Currently when we go to PT,  she sits in the back seat of the car with her left leg extended across the seat.  Getting in and out is getting much easier, but the bending of the knee is still the painful part of the loading and unloading process.  When she can bend the knee enough to sit in a seat and be comfortable, I think we will be about town a lot more. 

Getting a knee fixed is a big deal.  We read the surgeons description of the actual fitting process as he described how the new parts are fitted and attached.  There is an amazing amount of little details that is required to get the knee to work properly.  They actually test the knee in the OR and when they are satisfied that they have it done properly, they put in 4 layers of stitches and staples and roll you out to recovery.  The technology is just incredible on what actually goes into getting a new joint. 

I still have healthy knees and that is mostly due to my Mother's insistence that I not play football in high school....  it was the world's quickest arguement.  Thanks Mom, you were on the money with that call.  I did running sports in high school and that were not as hard on the knee and that is a major reason I can still run around the track today without having to fight issues with my knees. A lot of other problems, but the knees are hanging tough.



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