Progress!

It's been six and a half weeks since my surgery! The day of my surgery, I thought six weeks would be the magic number of when I would feel almost back to normal. My brace would be off, and I was told that my therapy would just be going for walks without the brace, which seemed like no big deal and I was really looking forward to it. Boy, was I wrong. For being an OT, you think I'd know a bit more about the recovery process. When I was in acute care for fieldwork, I saw patients who had just had surgery, and only saw them for a few days to a week. When I was at an outpatient pediatric clinic, we saw a lot of children with lifelong disabilities, but not necessarily acute injuries and surgeries that were healing. The post-surgery recovery process is a whole new world to me that I didn't have any experience with. 

Pre-surgery, I anticipated healing and progressing quickly, blissfully unaware of what I was in for. I remember thinking "Why does it still hurt so much?!" only one week after surgery. I thought the post-op pain would be gone after two weeks or so, and that I'd be at least walking normally by six weeks, and back to most typical activities with the exception of running and working out by 12 weeks. Nope, nope, and nope. In the past couple of weeks, I have re-defined how I measure progress though, and now I feel like I've progressed by leaps and bounds. 

Now, at six weeks, the pain in my left knee is finally beginning to subside. The right knee hurts quite a bit for over-compensating, but for now, the left one isn't throbbing and there aren't nearly as many sharp pains like there were before and right after surgery. It's definitely achy after using it all day, and sometimes when I move it it hurts, but it's certainly less severe on the pain scale. The pain also comes and goes as opposed to being constantly there--progress!!

I can walk without the brace--progress!! The first 10 minutes I walked around without the brace, I used crutches just to be safe. The rest of the day I ditched the crutches and didn't put the brace back on until I left to go out to dinner that night. I'm still keeping my leg totally straight while walking for two more weeks, but I have to use a lot more muscles than I was to keep it straight since the brace isn't doing all the work now. My leg is certainly tired, but it feels glorious to not have to put the brace on every single time get up. I'm excited to try to walk "normally" in 2 weeks, and a little nervous too because the nerves and muscles in my leg may have forgotten how to. We'll see how it goes. 

Walking for the first time without the brace while keeping my left leg straight.

I can sit in the front seat of a car now--progress!! Gone are the days of feeling like an 11 year old anxiously awaiting the day that I turn 12 and can sit in the airbag protected front seat safely. It takes a little longer to get the brace on and off to sit in the front, but it's worth the extra time. Sitting in the front leads to all sorts of fun things, like having more control over the radio, being able to adjust the air, not getting carsick, and beginning to learn how to drive manually. 

Sitting braceless in the front seat, WOOP WOOP!

Kevin recently got a new manual car that he is convinced I will be able to learn how to drive...we'll see. Ask my parents about me learning to drive an automatic, and they'll both say I took at least 10 years off of their lives. I've been having fun changing gears while he drives though, and once my left leg is healed enough to use the clutch, I'll get to start learning manual from the driver's seat (I'll give a warning when that is because you may want to stay off the road). 

Doing what I can to learn manual from the passenger's seat by changing gears.

Sitting in the front also leads to epic Sonic trips, although technically this could've still happened with me in the back seat. I really wanted ice cream while Jim, Amanda, Eevee, Michelle, Mapes, Megan, Kevin, and I were getting ready to watch the Game of Thrones finale. Amanda volunteered to drive, and we left at 8:30, thinking that'd be plenty of time to get back before 9:00 since the Sonic was a whopping 30 seconds away. Nope, wrong again. We gave our long order, then drove up to the window where the lady looks at Amanda and goes "So you're the shake lady?" at which point we burst out laughing, and she informed us that it would take a while. We said that's fine, thinking it would be 5 minutes, max.

After 5 minutes, she brought out ONE milkshake. Then took about that long on each of the 6 shakes we got. It caused quite the uproar from the cars behind us, and the one directly behind us kept honking angrily in hopes that this would result in quicker milkshake making. Eventually we got them all and made it back to Michelle & Mapes' place, although it was well after 9:00 at this point. Thankfully we could still watch the finale from the beginning since they have HBO Go. 

So many shakes, and yet no boys came to the yard.

The hold-up we caused. You can't see the other 6 cars that wrapped around the back and
blocked us from getting out of the parking lot. Apparently everyone wanted shakes that night.  

I can also take my brace off when I go out to restaurants now, which I've taken full advantage of at Beer Kitchen 101 with Mapes, Michelle, Megan, Jim, Amanda, Eevee, and Kevin, at 4th Street Bar with Hayes, Rohan, Erin, Kevin, Ashwin, and Andy, and at Panera with Erin. It's been infinitely more comfortable to be able to sit out in public without the brace on. Moooore progress :) 

To celebrate being able to go out to eat without the brace, Kevin and I were going to have a date night on Thursday since we haven't gone out just the two of us since the night before my surgery. I was super excited, but unfortunately Kevin pulled his back at the gym, and could barely manage the car ride back to his apartment. Maybe we'll try again when his back is better. He was supposed to go to Nashville for our friend Aaron's bachelor party this weekend, too, but instead we spend all day Friday gimping it up together.

I'm sure we look pretty hilarious together right now, as evidenced by Ashwin cracking up every time he walked into the main room and saw us limping around. Everyone in my family is out of town right now except my dad, who can't do much because of his back surgery, so Kevin and I are kind of taking care of each other at his and Ashwin's place. Hopefully his back heals quickly! It's definitely a change being the one waiting on someone and helping someone else right now since I've been the "patient" for a while, but I think I'm actually the stronger one at the moment. 

Thankfully Ashwin picked up some things for breakfast at the grocery store for us, but we had nothing planned for lunch and not much food at Kevin's since we've mostly been hanging out in Dublin. We decided to order a pizza, which is a rare occasion. So rare, in fact, that this was probably one of only a handful of times in my life calling and ordering a pizza. I don't know how I can be a 25 year old American and not have done this more frequently, but somehow I've managed. It probably started with me being an incredibly phone-shy kid, and then I became lactose intolerant, so pizza ordering wasn't a common occurrence for me. 

Sore back, sore knees, neither of us being able to drive and no food results in
some serious couch bumming with the healthy combo of pizza and brownies. 

Anyway, we enjoyed some Papa Johns and some Reese's peanut butter chip and walnut filled brownies. I originally made them for Kevin to take on the Party Bus to Nashville for all the guys, but they turned into get-well-soon brownies after Kevin hurt his back. Even though we're trapped inside healing together on this gorgeous day, at least Kevin has an awesome comfy couch to hang out on and it's nice enough to open the windows, which is kind of like being outside, right? Who knows, maybe we'll have a crazy night of sitting on the patio for 5-10 minutes, or as long as our elderly back and knees can handle. 

Summer night on the patio.

Some other areas that are progressing: 
+I've spent less time on the couch, and more time sitting outside without the brace.
+I showered while standing for the first time since the day before surgery
+I am cooking/preparing more and more meals for myself
+PT is way easier than it was when I initially began the home exercises 
+My scars are becoming a little less painful, and the scar tissue is flattening out the teeniest bit
+My ROM is continuing to increase a little at a time

During the times when I feel like the healing process is taking forever, I'm reminding myself that I've come a long way since day one when I was in lots of pain, couldn't bend my leg, was using crutches, could barely do anything for myself, was terrified of showering, and spent nearly every waking minute on the couch.

And finally, here is a video of a new game that Little John and I were playing this week since I can't throw him up in the air or play chase with him right now. Happy Friday, everyone! :)