Two days after surgery

Saturday, January 31, 2009
Slept fairly well until somebody woke me at 3:45 for a blood test. Then at 4:20 A.M. the lights came on and the night nurse tells me she needs to change my dressing. There's another nurse on hand to help.

Before they can change the dressing on my knee they have to unwind lots of Ace bandages and break through the rigid foam cast. It breaks apart quite easily and soon they are down to the knee incision. It is surprisingly small -- a single, vertical cut about seven inches long -- and very clean. They count the staples and there are 26 of them. They also remove the drain from the wound and remove my catheter. Why couldn't they have done this at 10:00 A.M. instead of 4:20?

The nurse dresses the wound lightly with gauze pads and then she and her helper install the leg brace. It is much longer than I expected. The photo is my view of the brace. It was taken the day after the staples were removed.

At 11:15 the physical therapist shows me how to get in and out of bed with the brace on. We then go to the P.T. room and I learn to use a walker, how to stand up and sit down and, with the brace off, some range of motion exercises. I was told to take extra painkillers an hour before this one.

Back in the room my surgeon's P.A. stops by and explains the surgery (he was there) and why the ligament repair requires the brace. The knee replacement recovery is generally six weeks. But the ligament recovery is two to three months.

In the afternoon I had another light P.T. session and it went well. On the walker I walked a quarter of the way back to my room.

Lunch and dinner were both from the alternative menu -- deli sandwiches. Kim came by for a visit. I seem to remember I was very talkative from my drugs. Jack brought a Subway sandwich to eat while I had my hospital turkey sandwich.

I went to bed early and my neighbor had beeping problems through the night. The poor man has been in the hospital for something like 28 days. He has multiple problems. He came in after his feet were crushed in a car accident, then several pre-existing conditions got worse and now he has had prostate surgery, a hip replacement, several foot surgeries and a couple additional procedures. He has more surgery on Monday.

I learn all this because he has many family members visit for long periods of time. They are quiet and it's no problem for me but they stay and stay. He must be exhausted by them. At one point this evening there were eight of them in his room. OK, I'm nosy -- when they announced they were leaving I counted as they left.