PCL recovery

Hopefully when this shapes up into something, it will help other people going through a similar surgery... not much out there on PCL's, and I think there should be.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Yay me!

One of my favorite things to do in the mornings when I have nowhere else to be is lie in bed, watch TV and drink tea or coffee in bed. But, being that I'm now non weight bearing, my hands are occupied by crutches and I couldn't think of how to carry my tea in the mornings. If my parents or boyfriend were here, they would bring it for me, but right now, I'm home alone until my best friend comes over later. So I thought about it, and then I figured it out. I have a small cross body bag, went into the kitchen, made the tea in my spill proof travel mug, put it in the bag, and crutched back to the bedroom. I am proud to say I made it without spilling a drop. The bag is also handy for carrying my nook, my phone, pain pills, and all other doodads around the house. And this took me all of one week to figure out! I'll feel silly if other people figured that out sooner, but oh well. At least now I feel like I have some more independence.

My wonderful sister went to a specialty shop yesterday and bought me needlepoint and a huge hunk of yarn. I used to knit scarves, and that was the only thing I knew how to knit. I never needlepointed before, but hopefully it would keep me occupied. I started it last night and it's coming along. It's actually very easy, I don't think I'm doing it completely right, but it looks nice on the "good" side.

I'm now going to take the time to complain about this parasite attached to my leg, aka the knee brace. Since I had the PCL repaired, they don't want my tibia to sag after the surgery since this could stretch the graft, so they put a bunch of those OR towels behind my tibia to keep it forward. Those towels are starting to annoy me so much. They itch, they rub against my leg, I'm ready to go crazy. I put some soft padding at the edge where it's the worst, but I can't really lift my leg very well. I've also got some burning at the incision under the steri strips. The other incisions are teeny tiny, I have just one or 2 stitches keeping those closed, but under the steri strips, it's a bigger incision. And it is burning like crazy, but the rest of the leg doesn't look inflamed, it doesn't feel hot, so I don't think there's an infection. I feel fine otherwise. I'll just mention it to my OS on Thursday's followup.

3 comments:

  1. You sound like you're coping very well and being very resourceful. I hate to think of you being alone though! I was shocked at how dependent I became on my mom (she's a nurse after all) after living alone for 10+ years.

    That burning sensation seems to be kind of common so while I'd tell your PT about it I wouldn't be too concerned. Once your stitches are out and they start massaging the scar more it may subside some.

    My PT had a pad that he cut for behind my leg that was pretty comfy. Maybe your therapist has something else you can use? OR towels sound most annoying.

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  2. I haven't started PT yet, I just saw a therapist post op to learn how to use the crutches, but the formal PT I was told to hold off on until I saw my doc for the post op visit. I'm glad that burning sensation is common, even though it's really annoying. I'm generally a very independent person, and it's so strange for me to rely on other people. I also hate staying in one place for too long, so that bag is very handy. I'm usually not home alone for too long though. Either my best friend or boyfriend come during the day when my parents work, but worse comes to worse, my grandparents live right below us. I just don't want to rely too much on my grandparents because it's hard for them to take the stairs to our apartment, and my grandma doesn't see too well anymore.

    That pad sounds good, hopefully the surgeon will have something on Thursday, if not, then hopefully the PT will have a pad. I never realized how scratchy OR towels are until I had them behind my leg for a week.

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  3. The funniest thing on my first day of PT was when the therapist said, "Ok, now flex your quad," and stared at me, looked down to my quad, and then back up to me expectantly. My response, "I am." I had absolutely no movement! It made me laugh though. He was in his last clinical rotation before graduation PT school and had never seen a PCL patient before. We're a little different than ACLs!

    Don't be shocked at how quickly your muscles will atrophy in just 1-2 weeks time. You can't even believe it until you see it for yourself. 6 days to lose it, 6 weeks to build it!

    I look forward to reading about how your therapy went.

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