Last Saturday morning, the doctor removed what little was left of the meniscus, poked little holes in what little remained of her cartilage to help the new stuff bond in and build, and then pumped the joint full of the replacement stuff. Just before noon he sent her home with dire warnings about how she had to stay off of it a minimum of four weeks and the fact she would be in much worse pain than she had been for a week or more. We were told she had to start using the joint flexing machine, CMP, the same day no matter how much it hurt to prevent the formation of scar tissue and to get the new stuff to go everywhere it should go in the joint.
The picture above is from this morning where I am starting the machine for her first session of two hours. She has three sessions a day where the machine pushes her lower leg back in order to bend her knee. Every day she goes up by five degrees on the machine. While strapped into it, Sandi sews, watches TV, and even manages to sleep. Pain is very minimal so far as she has had to take one pain pill twice since Saturday.
Sandi is happier than it appears because she got her first post surgery shower last night after managing to navigate up and down our inside stairs. She is doing so well, she can't wait to try and walk on it.
That is forbidden!
So, she waits, grumbles, and we shall see if the doctor can pull the stitches out late next week as scheduled.
Kevin
Me too...though it does make me nervous.
ReplyDeleteGod, Kevin, no one should have to suffer this much.
ReplyDeleteShe has been through it, Patti.
ReplyDeleteI loved my CPM after my knee replacement. While I was on it was the only time I could sleep. I hope Sandi likes it, too.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a huge help, Kaye.
ReplyDeleteShe loves it except for the fact she keeps getting some sort of cramp in her upper leg after she has been on it awhile. Does not always happen, but she got a fairly significant one last night when she was finishing the final few minutes for the day.
Oh, that looks medieval. LOL But glad to hear it's not hurting much. Go, Sandi, go!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jan. It does look a little bit medieval.
ReplyDeleteShe moved up another five degrees of bend today and had some pain in the first session this morning. Both in the knee as well as elsewhere in the leg above and below the knee. Hopefully this is just temporary.
Hope the healing goes well! At least the machine is doing the exercising for her. 8-) Happy thoughts to you & Sandi.
ReplyDeleteThat it is, Jody. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSince this is suddenly hot tonight with 46 page views, I thought I would mention that since January the knee has been hurting her again on a nearly daily basis. It seems to have lasted about as long as the doc said it would at time of surgery. Nothing more can be done on it now due to the cancer.
ReplyDelete