A morning of chaos! Yesterday, there were some communication problems with arranging physical therapy. So this morning is spent resolving them. I finally get downstairs and settled on the couch for breakfast around 11:00am.
The day consists of walking around the house (mostly to the bathroom and back), resting on the couch (sometimes sleeping), and checking email on my iPad.
I don't remember my other leg hurting quite so much as this one does. But also, I don't remember being able to walk this well at this point last time. I barely need the crutches. When I went for my outside walk, I walked about 250 feet. I will have to go back and check, but I am sure I didn't go that far on Day 3 before! And I made two trips down and up the staircase in the house.
Ice and pain pills helped a great deal. For exercise I wrapped a band around my foot so I could assist leg, and gently moved the knee joint back and forth. My therapist had told me on a phone conversation that in the past few months they have discovered that forced compression of the knee is not a good thing for partial knee replacement. (This reinforces my opinion that the rehab process for a partial knee replacement needs to be different from a full replacement.) so my focus is to gently move the joint back and forth within its current range of motion. I know that the range of motion will increase as the intracellular swelling goes down, and as I move the joint to the edge of pain. (Not IN pain, but to the edge of it!)
(Intracellular swelling is the collection of extra water within the joint capsule, which is a natural side effect of the trauma of surgery. It's the same thing that happens when you sprain your ankle and it swelling.)
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