On the Mend

So, today I went to my 7 week post op appointment. Where to start?

He had an x-ray of my knee taken again. I swear, I’m going to be glowing by the end of all of this with all the radiation I’ve had in the past year. When he came he said that the x-rays look beautiful and the bone is healing very nicely. He wants me to come back periodically for x-rays over the next year to make sure everything heals perfectly. If I hate the screws next November he said he’ll take them out but he’d rather wait as long as possible to make sure the bone heals as best as it can.

Overall, he’s shocked and awed by the success I had. He actually said he wishes he could bottle my surgery outcome and give it to all his patients that have to have this procedure. At six weeks he thinks I’m way ahead of schedule and that I’m doing extremely well. He checked to see how my patella was sitting in the trochlear groove and said that it sits perfectly now and that it has actually tightened up a bit since he last saw me…which means PT is doing its job! He said he can’t move my patella at all at this point…which was not the case after my last surgery.

He was impressed with my range of motion and said he wasn’t expecting me to have full ROM when I came in today. He said that he’s really happy with that and whatever PT is doing to continue it because they’re clearly doing a great job.

I told him about my calf pain and the pain that I’ve been having in my knee since the train ride. He said it’s not uncommon to develop bakers cysts after keeping your leg bent for a long time. He spouted off technical terms that I lost track of because he was massaging my calf to check for clots. He said he found a small bakers cyst behind my knee that he thinks happened because of the bent knee and joint swelling. He said when that happens calf pain and cramps become prominent because they shoot fluid into the muscles. It should go away in a few days.

He was really impressed with my lack of swelling and was even more impressed when I told him it was actually really swollen today from the train ride. I can actually see the definition of my knee now, which wasn’t the case pre-op.

When we talked about the brace he stated "Well, you’ve been out of the brace, right?" I was like "Um, no. You told me to go to 90* unlocked the week before I saw you…I haven’t gotten rid of it yet." "Oh, well…go ahead. You clearly don’t need it anymore" was his reply! And I was feeling guilty all this time about walking around without it

He told me I could go to working full time when I felt comfortable, and to take it easy for a few weeks still because I’m only 7 weeks post-op and doing extraordinarily well considering the surgery I had. He said sometimes it just happens that way…everything falls in place and the procedure goes smoothly in the OR, recovery is easy, and the patient goes back to normal life. Apparently I’m the perfect textbook case.

I have to continue PT for as long as I see fit, he didn’t put a restriction on how long I had to go. I’m thinking 4 more weeks at 2x a week. My PT office gives out vouchers for the local YMCA so we can go use the pool and gym. I’ll hold on to that for a few weeks before I start using the gym in conjunction with the PT gym.

He hasn’t released me from his care yet. I have to go back in January so he can check the bone again and make sure it has fused more. He told me to take care and not over-do it for a while yet so we can make sure I don’t injure myself and ruin all our hard work. He also said that I should expect good and bad days or weeks over the next few months. If I need more pain meds or if I’m having a bit of pain that I’m concerned about he said he’s only a phone call away and has no problem writing me a script for pain meds or sleeping pills if I’m having some issues.

So, that’s that! So far, so good. I’ve gotten a clean bill of health at this point. I’m really happy that I did the surgery. I definitely feel like it was the right thing to do. My knee feels SO much different now. It feels "right" for the first time in 6 years. I’m definitely dealing with a bit more pain and soreness in the past few days but I’ve been using my knee a lot and bending it for long periods of time. The bakers cyst makes SO much sense. The calf pain has sucked so bad. Still, I couldn’t ask for a better 7 week post-op appointment!