Week 1

Below are some thoughts broken down by topic:

Pain: They say no pain no gain right? But actually, I felt little to no pain in my knee the first day after surgery. I didn’t take any more narcotics after the day of surgery and was able to tolerate any discomfort. There was much less pain than the last surgery despite doctors saying that it would be much worse this time around…perhaps my body reacted very well to it. At Day 4, I would dangle my legs over the bed to see what angle they were at and at that time it was roughly at 70 degrees. If I forced it anymore I would feel a slight tightness. So my ROM starting off was fairly high. Meanwhile, I started working from home the day after surgery.

Getting around: I started off by moving around with 2 crutches with minimal weight on my left leg (~20% body weight). Going to the bathroom and showering were definitely the hardest parts. It’s important to get a stool or trash can to keep your leg raised and straight while you use the restroom. For showers, in the beginning I wrapped my entire leg (with my brace) with saran wrap and stepped into the shower. I preferred standing to sitting because bending my knee hurt a bit more. These showers were quick.

Cryotherapy: I made sure that I iced 30mins every couple hours. I had a cryotherpay ice machine for night time so I could leave it on low and sleep. This has done wonders for my knee in terms of swelling and pain. I’ve noticed swelling has gone down towards the end of the first week and I exhibit almost no pain.

E-stimulus: I started using the e-stimulus that came with my brace on Day 3. There were two pads for the thigh and one for the knee. I made sure that it would cause my thigh and knee muscles to contract. I would do this for 20 mins/3x a day.

CPM Machine: I started using the CPM machine on Day 3. The protocol said to do 0-30 degrees and by week 3 reach 90 degrees. I would add 5-10 degrees per day depending on how my knee felt. I would exhibit slight tightness as I angled higher towards 40 degrees on day 5 and 6. My doctor recommended that I do CPM for 6-8 hours a day (although this is an ideal…this is very difficult to accomplish while you’re also working from home). I tried to hit roughly 3 hours a day. My knee didn’t flare up or hurt after using the machine and I felt the range of motion increase every day. By day 7, I was up to 50 degrees.

Therapy Exercises: I saw my PT on Day 5 and we went over standing leg lifts to build the hips. We also went over exercises to engage the quads primarily squeezing the quad muscle. The first few were super weak and it was clear that my muscles had atrophied but after a few rounds the muscle memory started coming back.
Exercises:
5x 5 quad squeezes (leg straight, put thumb and index on either side right above kneecap, squeeze quads and feel the squeeze in your fingers)
3x 10 leg lifts (side/back/front) while standing with hands on the counter for balance
3x 10 weight shift from left to right (practice having 50-75% bodyweight on injured leg)

Diet: This is the cool part – because of this surgery I’ve completely changed my diet. Perhaps after surgery I didn’t have such a great appetite so it was easy to transition into a more plant-based diet. I read articles and documentaries on what to eat to have the speediest recovery and all were pointing towards a plant-based diet. I’ve eliminated all meat from my diet and will only eat some fish/eggs from time to time but everything else consists of vegetables. I’ve also kept my carb intake to a minimum seeing as I am unable to do much exercise. The results have actually been amazing (as I am writing this in week 2) I’ve noticed that I have more energy and I’m not as hungry. Even being at home and laying around I don’t have the need to snack. And instead of gaining post surgery weight, I’ve actually lost a few pounds. The goal moving forward is to fully transition into a plant-based diet.

Sleeping: Sleep has been rough at times, especially if the brace bothers me. Not being able to turn very well onto my sides means that I’m always sleeping on my back. I get roughly 8 hours of sleep per night (in bed around 10pm and am up around 5:30am). As noted above, I have the ice machine running when I fall asleep and turn it off when I wake up in the middle of the night. Another 5 weeks with this brace…

Mental/Emotional: To be quite honest, this recovery has taken a greater toll on me mentally and emotionally. I feel like the physical aspect may be the easiest to recover from. It’s definitely hard to be stuck at home when I used to only go home to sleep. I’ve always done a lot of activities and been social/active so not being able to go out definitely took a toll on me. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t days where I just woke up in a bad mood and grumpy because I knew I couldn’t go outside. Over the weekend, I had some friends visit which helped a lot. It is SO important to have your friends and family visit – this will give you your support system and make you feel like you’re not alone.

Thoughts: Not being able to move around with the independence you once had is difficult but you have to accept that it is part of the process. I saw a dramatic change in how I was able to accommodate myself to my needs from Day 1 to Day 7. It’s amazing how humans are able to adjust themselves to whatever situation they are in. It’s imperative to stay positive – aside from working, I read more and took some online classes. I started journaling my progress just to clear my head and take note of everything that I was going through. This was definitely difficult to accept at first but the future seems bright and once I regain my full ROM I know that I can perform even better than I used to. Remember…trust the process.