Day Seven

That's my leg in a contraption that flexes my knee while I just lie there.  You know how I feel about exercise equipment that does the work for you?

Tim, my smart-thorough nurse came and took out my staples.  I think that was the most painful thing about the surgery for which I've been awake and the first time I'd regretted having both knees done at the same time.  One staple wouldn't have been bad but forty seemed to go on forever.  Some stuck and pulled but most of them didn't so that was good.  I tried to keep screaming to a minimum even though Tim said I could scream as much as I wanted. It felt like 200 degrees in the house.  I signaled for Tim to 'hold off for a second' while I scrolled through our CD collection until I found "Run Around" by Blues Traveler, turned it up until the windows rattled and gave him the 'GO' signal.  That worked.
 
Physical therapy came.  She told me to keep my movements slow whether it was exercise or household routine....no problem there.  Added standing-at-the-kitchen-counter exercises and up an down the stairs to my laying-down routine.  My right leg flexed at 96 and my left leg flexed at 95 so I'd progressed when I was positive I hadn't.  I crutched around the outside of the house five times.


I ate more than my maintenance calories.

Pain and fever are still monkeys on my back.

My blood is still too thick (clotting risk) so I increased my Coumadin level again. 

Picked up the neighbor's rocking chair (another knee replacement survivor).  Vin glued it in a few places and now I can work on flexion without thinking about it.