20060408

No pain, no gain?



Greetings from post-op!
The surgery went well. I chose the Total Down Under Experience. Down I went fast, and woke up in Recovery some time later. They put me on the Continuous Passive Movement (CPM) thingy right away, and started flexing me leg up to 80 degrees. Medicine developes, no more rigid cast for weeks anymore. No, gotta get it moving, even if only passively, ASAP. Keeps the swelling etc down.
I spent the night, without any major pain. I used near-record low of morphine, according to doc's assistant, but that's partly due to a fairly new method of injecting me with local, 8+ hour anasthesia in the groin prior to operation...
Andrea escorted me home, and helped set up tha crib for the next few days. So far I've been passively flexin', watching movies, reading, and eating. Not much else to do :) The leg is just fine when resting of CPM'ing, and somewhat sore when moving about. But thus far the lack of pain has been a really pleasant surprise. (Or maybe it's just the Vicodin?)
The first picture shows the CPM. (And I should credit the Lab Walrus for the pic, asper his request! ;) I shall flex about 6h/d! It's kind of relaxing, makes for a good nap-time activity...


The second pic is the brace. Right now I keep it locked when moving, but in the future I can adjust the angle it'll allow the knee to bend. It'll make walking in the city a bit easier, if you're tried walking with a stiff leg you'll know >;)
That's the news. I'll keep on truckin. Drop me a line or Skype me!

mb