Gradually emerging again
After a pretty grim week, I'm now beginning to feel a bit more human. Last week, the weather was gloriously sunny and autumnal, and I was stuck in the flat looking out at it and feeling sorry for myself. The extra week in hospital threw out all my arrangements for friends to visit, with nearly everyone I would have relied on unavailable or abroad, so the only people I saw in the whole week were the district nurses who came to change the dressing. There have also been a few dark dreary wet November days that made me want to jump off a high building, or at least look out my daylight lamp.
Eventually though I managed to get out under my own steam, first to the shop across the road, then on Monday to the supermarket who deliver, so that I could get the ingredients for some restorative chicken soup and yoghurt to counteract the effects of the huge doses of indigestible and weird-tasting antibiotics. Yesterday I made it to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor checked the dressing, saw it was dry, and startled me by saying "well, this can come off now", and ripping the thing off. The scar is a bit startling, but healing nicely, and apart from being a bit behind with my physio, everything is fine. One of the things that had been bothering me most about the knee was the disruption to sleep - in the hospital, I was told to sleep with the leg stretched out flat in front of me, with the knee pointing upwards. This was not only uncomfortable, but meant that I only slept in bursts of an hour or so before cramp woke me up. I remembered to ask about this yesterday, and the doctor said "oh no, that's only for the first week or so. It's not like a hip replacement, you can sleep in any position you find comfortable". So tonight I slept properly and woke feeling much, much better.
Eventually though I managed to get out under my own steam, first to the shop across the road, then on Monday to the supermarket who deliver, so that I could get the ingredients for some restorative chicken soup and yoghurt to counteract the effects of the huge doses of indigestible and weird-tasting antibiotics. Yesterday I made it to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor checked the dressing, saw it was dry, and startled me by saying "well, this can come off now", and ripping the thing off. The scar is a bit startling, but healing nicely, and apart from being a bit behind with my physio, everything is fine. One of the things that had been bothering me most about the knee was the disruption to sleep - in the hospital, I was told to sleep with the leg stretched out flat in front of me, with the knee pointing upwards. This was not only uncomfortable, but meant that I only slept in bursts of an hour or so before cramp woke me up. I remembered to ask about this yesterday, and the doctor said "oh no, that's only for the first week or so. It's not like a hip replacement, you can sleep in any position you find comfortable". So tonight I slept properly and woke feeling much, much better.