…and Home

So after a pretty good sleep, the first day of rehab was relatively uneventful. The physio was back to show me some more exercises and to try me out on the stairs using crutches. Going up and down stairs using crutches proved to be a lot easier than I had anticipated and wasn’t too painful at all. I was pleased with this as I was keen to have as normal a time as possible when I got home and didn’t want to have to sleep on the sofa in the living room if at all possible.

The exercises I have been given seem, on the face of it, to be really mundane - bending the knee to 90 degrees, lifting the leg up and straightening the knee, flexing the foot etc etc - but boy do they hurt…a lot!!! The advice from the surgeon and the physio has been very consistent - do the exercises and take the pain relief so that you can do the exercises. The biggest danger in the early stages is to not go for it with the physio as it hurts so much.

Day one of rehab was deemed a success and everyone was pleased with how my movement was developing and so I would be allowed to go home the next day...HOORAYYY!!!

After an even better night’s sleep it was my last morning in hospital. After the usual round of checking my vitals and a fair amount of paperwork, my discharge papers were ready and I was good to go. I was handed my meds to take away with me - codeine and paracetamol for pain relief, aspirin to prevent blood clotting and some anti-constipation tablets (side effect of codeine), - climbed into a wheelchair and off I went.

My wife and son were waiting for me right outside and I got the biggest, bestest hugs ever. Getting into the car wasn’t too arduous, the seat was back as far as it would go so I could stretch out a bit, and we were off. After two and a half days I was on my way back home.

It was a great feeling to be home but with it came a sense of helplessness. When I was in hospital I could potter around, lie in bed or move around as I wished without feeling any guilt. Pretty much as soon as I got home I felt like I was a burden - furniture needed to be moved around, things carried in for me - which I didn’t like. Normal life was carrying on around me and had been carrying on without me while I was away and now I was back and not being any help. My wife still had to work and my son was gearing up to go back to School after Christmas as well as worrying about me and making time to come and pick me up. Also my daughter came home from a birthday party in Oxford she had attended the night before - she looked worse than me to be fair!

After an hour I so I felt a bit more settled although it took longer to work out whch was going to be the best seat for me to use for the time being, my usual armchair was too low and made getting in and out tricky. In the end I settled on an office style swivel chair which fits the bill pretty well and allows me to do my knee stretches at the right angle.

It was nice to get back to a sense of normality with family dinner and watching some telly together. Later on I got myself up to bed and settled in for the night. I woke up at around 2am in need of the loo (I am drinking sooo much water at the moment!!) and, as I went to swing my legs out as I had done many times in the past few days, was hit by a massive wave of nauseating pain from my knee. What I had forgotten was that, while in hospital, I had been given a slow release, long lasting pain relief tablet at around 10pm each night. I didn’t have these any more and so the pain relief had worn off during the night. It was easily the most intense pain I had encountered so far during this process. I took some deep breaths, did what I need to do, took a tablet and got back into bed. Luckily the pain subsided pretty quickly and I was able to rest. I then slept through until the morning routine began for my wife and son. I was brought a much needed cup of tea which I thoroughly enjoyed and then I fell asleep again until around 11am this morning!!

Which brings me up to date so far. I am sat in my swivel chair writing this blog on my iPad as family life goes on around me. I will have weekly physio sessions planned in but now it really is up to me to make sure I manage the pain situation and carry out the exercises to the best of my abilities no matter how sore they make me.

I’m not out off the woods yet and will keep recording my progress and thoughts here.