During the night I started to feel a bit better and have more mobility. I was able to get in and out of bed using my "good" leg to move the bad one without total fear that it was going to fall and hurt like the dickens. So I started the day with some high hopes that PT was going to be easy.
Hah! I got assigned a PT person who worked me hard. (Which is a good thing - I want to be worked hard.) We started off by getting up using crutches instead of a walker and took a lap around the nurses station. Then we hit a flight of stairs going both up and down. I thought that was pretty good but she had more in store for me. We did ankle pumps (easy - yeah!), some heel slides (not too bad) and then she had me lay back in the bed with a roll under the knee and told me to lift my foot up, contracting my quad muscles. Hah! I quite firmly told my leg to do so and it completely ignored me. She then supported my ankle some and I was able to do some lifts that she made me hold for 3 seconds and then repeat. Next was lifting the leg with it straight out. Same issue. I told my leg to lift but no go. With some assistance I was able to but wow, did it hurt!
We finished with me sitting in a chair attempting to get the leg at a 90 degree angle. It couldn't get all the way there but got close. Hanging it from the chair position though was quite painful. I sat in the chair for the rest of the day though and kept stretching it back and forth and it did get better as the day continued.
My quad muscle feels like a hard rock as if I am contracting it all the time. With some massage it loosens up some but never completely relaxes. I remember this from my first knee replacements so I am not surprised but like childbirth, you kind of forget about it.
Still on Percocet which makes me loopy so no idea if any of this makes sense but hopefully so. My kids came by to see me and I wasn't sure what I was saying to them. I think I was drifting in and out and mixing what they were saying with what I was dreaming. They thought it was quite funny to hear their Mom all nuts.
I am slowly being unhooked from items. I no longer have the compression pad on my "good" leg and they removed the drain from my operated leg. I anticipated that hurting but really it just felt weird -- like someone pulling a tube through my muscles. IV is still in but not hooked up except when I am getting antibiotics. The ice machine is hooked up when I am in bed and not doing exercises.
I should be released from the hospital tomorrow. Only thing that might hold it back is that my white blood cell count is a little elevated so that may keep me here to get additional IV antibiotics. We shall see.
Good luck in your recovery. Sounds as if you will be receiving home health next. You may experience discomfort once you get home, this is not unusual as you are medicated differently in the hospital and, many people become more active around the home. Remember and you may have from your previous knee, that the knee is temperamental, it will not let you know you are over doing things until that night or the next day. Good luck.
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