We are heading out shortly.
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Tag: knee
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Post op follow up
Doctor says the knee looks good. The level of swelling is down to what it would look like two weeks after surgery. RICE RICE baby!
Was talking with my doctor about needing to act my age. His reply:
Everyone acts 20 years younger than they are.
Thoughts for the future of my knees:
Lateral posting orthotics to take pressure off inside of knee.
Some meniscus left but I need to stay away from repetitive hard hits. Aka no more running
Bike or in-line skate
Stretch and strengthen
Rest. Ice. Compress. Elevate.
RICE
These are some of the most important words in medicine. There is a whole bunch of technical reasoning behind why these four actions are so helpful when recovering from an injury, but you don’t need to understand anymore than these four words.
The sooner you can implement these actions the faster you will recover and get back in action. I encourage you to see how far you can go with each of them.
In the shot above I have accomplished all four actions while recovering from knee surgery. My goal is to get movement back to an acceptable range so that I can start strengthening the leg again. Swelling plays a huge role in mobility so ice is critical.
Most ice packs suck. They just aren’t large enough to cover the entire knee and stay cold very long. I prefer a back of ice in a trash bag. It covers the whole knee and lasts a long time. All for a couple of bucks.
Get healed and get back out there.
Well back to where the trailer is parked in Grand Junction, CO anyway. We drove back from Frisco, CO this afternoon after spending another night in the hotel after my knee surgery on Thursday. Kate drove and did a great job as always. Enzo is still panting a lot in the truck. It’s a little annoying but he doesn’t seem overly stressed.
We stopped in Edwards at our friends Jen and Derek’s for some vegan nachos and some sort of margarita thing made with apple cider. I think it’s called a Manzarita and it was delicious. As were the nachos.
Then our mutual friend Nina showed us photos from this crazy river trip she just did in Ethiopia. She’s pretty sure that she is about the 50th person ever to raft/kayak this river which is wild to consider. There were sections of water that they did not float down as it was just too wild.
Then there were crocodiles and that’s when I decided I probably wouldn’t ever do that trip. But I have been known to change my mind on crazy things.
The knee is doing well. It’s still pretty swollen from surgery but it doesn’t hurt. I’m trying to keep it elevated and iced and of course I’m resting a ton.
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Post Knee Surgery Day 1
Had my left knee meniscus worked on yesterday as I have mentioned a few times here. The procedure was really easy this time as I opted for general anesthesia. I recall being wheeled into the operating room. Switching to another bed, laying back and then waking up in post op.
Overall this was my best surgery experience so far. In the past I have always opted for a spinal so I was awake for the surgery. While that was a neat experience it resulted in a long post op wait for my lower body to wake back up. This time I woke up. Ate. Went to the bathroom, and went home.
I think the other thing that made this surgery less traumatic is that they did not repair the meniscus. From what I gather, and my memory is pretty foggy at this point, they simply trimmed a part of the meniscus out. This is a less invasive process than a repair where they rough up the meniscus and then reattach it.
So far my pain and swelling seem much lower than my repair surgery 3 years ago. I am already able to walk on the leg and it is bending at least 90 degrees. The main thing that is preventing it from being more at the moment are the bandages that I am not allowed to remove till my follow up appointment next Monday.