Aster Update
Today is a vastly better day in the world of surgical rehab.
I didn't set a middle of the night alarm and slept in well past the time when the percocet wore off. I think I'm declaring myself done with the heavy painkillers, and I'm psyched about that. I woke up feeling rested and good. Finally, no fever! After a week of being this restless impotent swollen feverish patient-thing, it's like I'm suddenly person again. A person who can't really use one leg, sure, but otherwise fine and healthy.
The swelling in my leg is down far enough I can find all my muscles and bones by touch. There's still a big patch of numb skin on my knee and shin. (Did I mention all the skin around my knee was numb from where they cut nerves during the surgery? That happened. It's apparently normal and unavoidable, but it's a creepy feeling; I have to watch very closely when I wash the incisions because I can't feel what I'm doing.) But it's smaller than it was and some of it is tingling promisingly. I haven't peeled off the bandages in over a day, but none of the incisions feels bad.
Had some friends over last night and managed, with a hi-top stool and a couple assists, to make them a simple pasta dinner. Basil plant was way out of control so there was homemade pesto. It was nice to be able to sit up and talk and interact. Even though I was very careful about my leg, I was worried I'd overexterted myself and would be paying for it this morning. But apparently not. How cool is that?
I have a post-op checkup tomorrow afternoon (a helpful schoolteacher friend is getting me there) and I should get stitches out, a PT regimen planned and scheduled, and a new brace for my knee.
I'm wildly excited about the new brace, because the current one is pretty crappy. The surgeon told me she didn't like any of the braces they had on hand at the hosipital, so she was giving me this thing as a temporary measure. It's a foam sleeve with three stiff bones and six velcro straps, and it just doesn't feel like it's doing everything I need it to now that I'm up and moving around. I mean, it keeps my leg from bending, which is good. But unless i cinch it until my foot goes numb, my knee wiggles in some distressing ways, and more pressingly it doesn't offer much enough support to make sitting in regular chairs a workable thing. I need either high things like our counter chairs, which I can kind of sit/lean on, or something, like the couch or floor, that supports the whole length of my leg.
The biggest practical impact of a no-chairs policy so far is that working from home has to be done on our itty bitty netbook instead of the real computer. It works, but damn, outlook and nine inch screens do not play nice, and tmy giant meaty hands were never meant to work on a child-sized keyboard. I will be expecting a medal of some kind if I do not smash this thing in frustration before this is over. Oh, also I'm thinking about buying a laptop.
Speaking of, though, I should get back to work. Those Tibetan radio programs aren't going to FTP themselves to the subcontractor. In other news, I think I might be a fan of Tibetan folk-rock.
Big post of pictures later today, once I've knocked out some professional obligations.
I didn't set a middle of the night alarm and slept in well past the time when the percocet wore off. I think I'm declaring myself done with the heavy painkillers, and I'm psyched about that. I woke up feeling rested and good. Finally, no fever! After a week of being this restless impotent swollen feverish patient-thing, it's like I'm suddenly person again. A person who can't really use one leg, sure, but otherwise fine and healthy.
The swelling in my leg is down far enough I can find all my muscles and bones by touch. There's still a big patch of numb skin on my knee and shin. (Did I mention all the skin around my knee was numb from where they cut nerves during the surgery? That happened. It's apparently normal and unavoidable, but it's a creepy feeling; I have to watch very closely when I wash the incisions because I can't feel what I'm doing.) But it's smaller than it was and some of it is tingling promisingly. I haven't peeled off the bandages in over a day, but none of the incisions feels bad.
Had some friends over last night and managed, with a hi-top stool and a couple assists, to make them a simple pasta dinner. Basil plant was way out of control so there was homemade pesto. It was nice to be able to sit up and talk and interact. Even though I was very careful about my leg, I was worried I'd overexterted myself and would be paying for it this morning. But apparently not. How cool is that?
I have a post-op checkup tomorrow afternoon (a helpful schoolteacher friend is getting me there) and I should get stitches out, a PT regimen planned and scheduled, and a new brace for my knee.
I'm wildly excited about the new brace, because the current one is pretty crappy. The surgeon told me she didn't like any of the braces they had on hand at the hosipital, so she was giving me this thing as a temporary measure. It's a foam sleeve with three stiff bones and six velcro straps, and it just doesn't feel like it's doing everything I need it to now that I'm up and moving around. I mean, it keeps my leg from bending, which is good. But unless i cinch it until my foot goes numb, my knee wiggles in some distressing ways, and more pressingly it doesn't offer much enough support to make sitting in regular chairs a workable thing. I need either high things like our counter chairs, which I can kind of sit/lean on, or something, like the couch or floor, that supports the whole length of my leg.
The biggest practical impact of a no-chairs policy so far is that working from home has to be done on our itty bitty netbook instead of the real computer. It works, but damn, outlook and nine inch screens do not play nice, and tmy giant meaty hands were never meant to work on a child-sized keyboard. I will be expecting a medal of some kind if I do not smash this thing in frustration before this is over. Oh, also I'm thinking about buying a laptop.
Speaking of, though, I should get back to work. Those Tibetan radio programs aren't going to FTP themselves to the subcontractor. In other news, I think I might be a fan of Tibetan folk-rock.
Big post of pictures later today, once I've knocked out some professional obligations.