End Of Week 2

It’s now been 2 weeks since the operation and what a roller coaster the past couple of weeks have been. Some lows (pain, lack of sleep) but a lot of highs too. Sometimes its hard to lose sight of the progress that you make when you are in the the thick of it day in day out so, every now and again, it‘s good to take a look back and see how far you’ve come.

I am definitely in less acute pain than I was - I would describe it now as extremely uncomfortable rather than scream inducing agony.

I have much better flexibility and movement in my knee and can walk easily with one crutch now.

I am still taking codeine tablets but less than half the amount than a week ago and am slowly phasing them out altogether - don’t try to cut them out straight away though as it can be a rude awakening!!

On the downside, I am still not sleeping great and wake up every 2-3 hours and I still get really tired after I‘ve spent time up and about.

The pro’s definitely outweigh the con’s and I can now see the light at the end tunnel but I am under no illusion that there is still a lot of work to be done.

I has a positive physio session yesterday - my range of movement is at least where it should be if not slightly better and it was agreed that I don’t need to use 2 crutches anymore and should be off them completely pretty soon.

I had a 2 week follow up with the surgeon today where my wound dressing was removed. To be honest I was a bit nervous about this for 2 main reasons -

1) The potential pain of removing the large adhesive dressing and,

2) Seeing what was going on underneath the dressing. The dressing did have some blood stains visible through it so I was kind of expecting to see a bit of a mess.

As it turns out, the dressing removal was pretty painless - I was asked to remove it myself and do it very slowly - and the wound itself looked in pretty good order. The surgeon came and had a feel of the joint and took a look at the leg and my movement and was really positive.

Now that the dressing has been removed I can shower normally - no more faffing around with cling film for me - but I can‘t have a bath or go swimming until the scabbing has disappeared. I know that the dressing was only there to protect the wound but since its been removed I have an irrational fear that the wound will split open while doing my exercises!!! I have been assured that this will not happen.

So looking ahead, the routine remains the same - rest up , elevate the leg and ice it, take the meds as required and keep up the physio routines. The good thing is that slowly but surely the pain is reducing and the movement is getting easier.

Anyone reading this who may be in the first week of recovery or even getting ready to have the op, be assured that the intense pain you will experience in the first few days does subside. There may be some dark times in the first week or so but it does get easier.

One other thing to be wary of is what you do to pass the time while resting up - I discovered the joys of Challenge TV by accident while flicking through the channels one day. Challenge TV shows old re-runs of classic British game shows (Bullseye, Play Your Cards Right, The Price Is Right, Wheel Of Fortune etc etc). The problem now is that I am addicted to watching the horrendous fashions, terrible prizes and causal sexism of 80’s and 90’s British prime-time TV. I was warned that Codeine may be addictive but nobody warned me about Challenge TV!!!! Take heed of this warning my friends lest you too get sucked down this bizarre rabbit hole…