Back to the Drawing Board

I felt like I was working at this recovery as well as I could.  I was exercising every day, even rising at 5 am so that I could get all the exercises in before I left for school at 7:10.  I was getting almost completely off the narcotics, moving down to taking only 2-3 a day, and most often taken for pain rather than for physical need.  Over all, the pain management plan I was working with my MD and Naturopath was working.

But then something happened.  I was no longer bending even as far as I had been a month earlier and I couldn’t get this old leg of mine straight at all.  I went into the physical therapy twice as hard, increasing my exercises longer, harder, increasing the weights.  Nothing seemed to work.  I was having extra pain again and walking with a poor gait.  I had an appointment with my surgeon on Tuesday.  He agreed with me that something was no longer working.  My body was healing by producing excess scar tissue.  As the scar tissue built up, my range of motion became worse.  The scar tissue was blocking my ability to move.

Friday I went back into surgery; the doctor rotor-rooted out all the scar tissue, made a few repairs and sent me on my way.  Unlike the knee replacement, I had to stay off my leg almost completely for the weekend.  I again slept downstairs.  We again rearranged the furniture.  We again got all the goodies that help me sit well or move well when I can’t yet sit well or stand well. 

I am actually doing much better than I thought I would be doing at this point.  I saw the doctor Monday, who was pleased with the job.  I got to see pictures of what he took out and where.  The scar tissue looked like a glacier moving across the mountain called my knee.  Only time will tell if this will halp.  If my body continues to heal by creating scar tissue, there is nothing we can do and I will always be a gimpy walker (without the arthritis pain).  If I stop producing all this tissue, we are home free.

Meanwhile, I am home watching Perry Mason at noon and continuing physical therapy–not exactly starting over but backtracking just a bit 🙂

There is a related story about my nurse grandgirl on the pollyanna site 🙂

peace~~