Day fourteen

Yay! It's been two weeks. This is what my knee looks like today:

Obviously I am still very swollen and looking very un-knee-like. Several of my little tape bandages have come off which is good (I think). I've been dying to see what's under there.

My day was typical and went something like this:
Up around 730 and two hours on cpm machine (I always fall back asleep while on it)
breakfast
about an hour of exercises
two hours on cpm machine
lunch
about an hour of exercises/ tv (this is the time of day there's a 4 hour block of the original CSI! yay!)
nap
hour of exercises again
dinner
last hour of exercises
two hours of cpm machine before bed

Soooo exciting. The interweb and television keep me nice and distracted and it's rare that I do all my exercises straight in one hour. Plus visitors are usually in and out. And my parents of course.
Tonight just for fun I laid on my stomach and had my mom bend/stretch my knee as much as I could tolerate, bringing my heel toward my bum. I just wanted to get an idea of how I was progressing....I could only get to what looked just under 90 degrees. And it hurt like hell. So I won't be doing that again until someone makes me.
I will leave you with a picture of the tool I have used most in my recovery.......

 

It's a grabber and it's the best invention ever.

Days eleven-thirteen and the puffiest knee ever

I can't believe I haven't posted in three days!! I'll try not to let that happen again... I also can't believe that tomorrow will have been two weeks since surgery. It feels like it was a month ago. The human body is amazing. I cannot get over how much stronger I get every day. I wonder if maybe I am just extra dedicated to doing my exercises or what, but I can really feel my strength coming back in my quads and calves. My exercises/ stretches feel easier and easier. I am slightly concerned because a few days ago, I felt like I could totally straighten my leg with little pain, but today some pain came back. And it just didn't feel like I was getting it as straight as I had been. We will see....
Sleep is getting better and better. And by that I mean I'm sleeping for longer than 3 hours at a time. Last night it was 4 and a half. Tonight I'm hoping for 5!!?? Fingers crossed.
I still am not putting much weight on my leg, per doctor's orders. Today in the shower (yes, the shower!! yeah!!!) I couldn't stop wondering what would happen if I tried to put more weight on it so when I got out, I tried. And it hurt. And didn't feel very strong. So now I know.And the bathroom floor after a shower probably wasn't the best place to try this out.
I was sitting up more than usual today and even moving around on the second floor- I guess I was feeling extra energetic. So tonight as I was sitting here with my leg out in front of me, I noticed it was way swollen. Like I could barely make out my kneecap swollen! I was warned that the more I moved around and less I elevated, the more swollen I'd be. So I guess that was the case today. Here's a picture, because I knew you all would enjoy:

I mean, does it even look like a leg??? I have never seen anything so swollen everywhere. So...tomorrow I will take it a little easier, I guess. Or wear longer pants so nobody has to look at this business.
I can't wait for my little bandages to fall off so I can see what's underneath. I am so,so tempted to pull them off! I don't even know if I have stitches under there or what.

On a non-medical, personal note, today was a good day mood- wise. Yesterday was the first day of school for my students and my wonderful assistant was given a totally useless sub. That's no good for two classes of 16 three to five year olds with special needs, some of which had never been to school before. I know she hung in there, but I got several calls and texts from others in the school who were helping her saying it was a zoo. I mean, at times I could hear screaming in the background ! And I guess the sub had his back to the kids and was on his phone most of the day???? Needless to say I was upset, feeling powerless and frustrated. I had to email my principal for help and turn my phone off by the end of the day.
I heard today that my principal and awesome office staff asked the guy not to come back and got someone more appropriate for the population in my classroom. Those poor kids. And my poor assistant! I send her a huge bouquet of flowers- I know she needed something stronger than that by the end of the day, but at least maybe I made her smile.
I got no calls today which is a great thing. And I got some good pictures of my kids which is an awesome thing. I cannot express how badly I want to get back to work.

bests

I have the best friends and family ever. Today I had visitors all day long. People would leave and like 10 minutes later someone else would come. It is the best feeling to see people from the outside world that care about me. So to all of you that came by today: you made my day!! xoxoxo

sleep, please

I'm really starting to think I may never get a full, good night's sleep again.

Days nine and ten

So I woke up Friday morning really excited to start all my new brace-free exercises. In addition to the three exercises I had been doing, these were added:

This one feels so good (but it hurts). I just lie on the bed and let my legs dangle. The doctor said not to add weights to any of these yet because of my fractures.The worst part is I have to do at least two ten minute sessions three or four times a day. This one takes a lot of time!

This is easy and it doesn't feel like it does anything. I still do the same exercise with the large foam block four times a day for about ten minutes and I feel like that gives me a more intense stretch.

This is my favorite exercise to do because I really feel it working immediately. And my quads look and feel like shit and I hope this will strengthen them up again quickly.

This is the worst. First of all, I thought it was a joke considering on Thursday it took everything I had to just raise my leg like the picture shows. One time. But in addition to lifting it, I need to try to hold it out for five to ten minutes!! The first time I did it Friday, I was able to hold it for about thirty seconds while my quad shook like crazy. This morning I did 2 minutes in my first session and by my last session tonight I was able to do four minutes. It hurts but its great to feel and see progress!



After my first day (Friday) of these new exercises, I was exhausted and had the worst night's sleep ever (how many times have I had the worst night's sleep ever??? They just keep getting worse and worse!). I slept last night with the brace on but unlocked. I woke up and as soon as I saw my dad, I started crying. I just felt terrible, like nothing was ever going to get better and like I'd be forced to be a prisoner in my parents house forever!! I really miss my own place and freedom!!He gave me a great pep talk (he's the king of those and they always work!) and the day got better.

So now as I am strapped to the cpm machine for the last session of the day, I am feeling better mentally (except that it's Saturday night at 10pm and I am in bed with a cpm machine). I am really working on being more self- sufficient. For example, today is the first day I was able to 100% put myself on and take myself off the cpm machine and position myself and do all my other exercises (even put my foot on and off the big foam block which is really hard!). So I feel really good about that because I hate, hate, hate having to have people (namely my parents) do things for me. The doctor really wants me to keep weight off my leg, so I haven't been downstairs except for the time I went to my appointment Wednesday. It's nearly impossible to get down stairs without any weight bearing, plus as soon as I would get down there, I'd just have to turn around and come back up to do my exercises. I am not exaggerating when I say I get like a two hour break a day or else I fall too far behind!!
Physically, I expected my quads to be sore, but my glutes are too. Maybe I am doing something wrong or maybe I am just starting to use them again. Also, the most pain I have is on the front inside of my knee. I wonder if there are some fractures there? Its right next to the bottom front incisions. More on that tomorrow.I am going to try to sleep tonight without the brace on. I am a little worried I might tweak something but anything has to be better than the sleep I have been getting.

Some more random info: Today was a perfect pool day and I was really jealous of my pool friends. How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days has been on I think every day since my surgery. That and Sweet Home Alabama, both of which I have seen like a million times each. I know everything about the hurricane (and hope/ know all my friends will be safe) thanks to the Weather Channel and am so sad for my friend Mary who has been looking forward to her trip to the shore all summer long!!! I am hooked on the DIY channel and HGTV. I love that Ahmed guy who meets people at home improvement stores on Yard Crashers. That's my favorite. Also, Esther Price's (like Fannie May) new milk chocolate covered butter twist pretzels are the best thing ever.
Good night.

Days seven and eight

I have not been in the mood to write these past few days but today I am going to make myself! Here's a quick rundown....all week I continued to have problems sleeping. It sucks. I cannot get comfortable at all and tossing and turning isn't really a good option since my leg feels like it weighs 100 pounds lately. So Wednesday was a bad day (day seven). I had been taking my pain meds only at night for a couple days and Tuesday night was the first day I didn't take them at night so that may have contributed to my crappy sleep.
I was so, so incredibly excited for Thursday to come because I got to go back to the doctor to open up my brace and unwrap my leg. It really sucked getting down the stairs but I didn't care! It felt so good to get out of the house and into the sunshine (even if it was just while I hopped to the car). So doctor came in (I saw Dr Nitz's physician's assistant for this appointment- she also assisted in my surgery) and I was all smiles! She said something like "I am never greeted like that by patients that had acl surgery 7 days ago." Anyway, both she and I were amazed at how good my leg looked:

My usually shapely calves are dwindling down to nothing and my quads feel (and look) like they are gone! But no bruising at all!! And I still have a bit of my great tan......just kidding- it's fading fast. Anyway, it felt so good to let my leg breathe. Good news is that I only have to wear my brace when I am out of bed. The doctor said that I don't have to wear it when I am sleeping but I am a little nervous I will turn over and hurt it so we agreed that I would wear it to bed unlocked (meaning I can bend it if I need to ).  Okay bad news is that my leg still felt so heavy. Lifeguard/ swimmer friends: remember having to go down to the bottom of the deep end to pick up that huge brick? That's what my leg felt like Thursday. It was really scary. But it was great to get onto the cpm machine without a brace on. I felt like I was getting so much more of a bend. Same thing with my other two exercises: I felt so much less restricted and therefore got so much more out of the exercises.
I want to tell you guys about the new exercises I'm doing and how Friday went but I'm going to do that later today...in the meantime, here's a picture of really pretty flowers my mom got me to brighten up this room. Neither one of us is a fan of roses, but these are cool:

Mr and Mrs Holbrock gave me this vase for graduation and it is one of my favorites! Greg, if you are reading this, tell them thanks again!!

Day Six

Last night was another rough one. It's so hard to get to sleep for any longer than like three hours. I always wake up and have thrown all my pillows all over the room. Pain-wise, I feel pretty good. I bumped the cpm machine up to 85 degrees today and it feels great. I will get a picture on my next session. I've been doing all my flexion and strengthening exercises, flexing my quads and calves like crazy and keeping up on the Kardashian/ Humphries wedding (I cannot wait for this week's gossip mags to come out Friday so I can see all the pictures!).
Several good things happened today: I can put more and more weight on my leg with less and less pain, I washed my hair using the shower chair that my mom passed down (she had a double knee replacement in June) and I took a semi-shower! I told my mom several times today that the hair washing/shower made this the best day since the surgery and I'm not lying! I feel pretty good and hope that my mood and knee keep getting better!!!!

*on an unrelated note....my favs, Anna, Jason and Sid went back to school today. I have been thinking of them all morning because I cannot believe Sid is in 4th grade and A and J are in FIRST!! It's crazy and I'm sure they are all loving their new teachers and learning lots.

football

It was great to watch the Bears game with my family last night (even though they didn't look great) but disappointing to see Terrell Thomas of the Giants tear his acl. In his contract year. I am by no means a Giants fan, but I have to feel for the guy.