Six days after surgery

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Slept better last night. Also there were fewer interruptions by nurses. All my vital signs have been very normal so I think they have cut back on checking me out so often.

My roommate has been quiet except to complain whenever a nurse comes by. He says he's leaving tomorrow whether or not he gets officially discharged. He's ex-Navy and had his hip surgery at a naval hospital nearby. Then he was sent here for physical therapy -- which he refuses to do. Somebody came by our room today and told him if he doesn't do the therapy at this stage of healing he could end up in a wheelchair forever. He didn't want to hear that and didn't.

Hearing his lecture made me want to do my P.T. and I did, twice today. Both sessions were productive. I have two main things to do -- straighten my leg and bend my knee as far as possible. At the hospital couldn't straighten my leg at all and the bend was about 65 degrees. This is not good. I need to bend it at least 120 degrees when I have recovered. Right now they would like me to reach 90 degrees in the next three weeks.

In addition to physical therapy I get occupational therapy too. I thought O.T. would be somehow job related, but it uses another and quite different meaning of "occupational." The wiki says that "the primary goal of Occupational Therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. For instance they give you helpful tools and show you how to put your socks on when you can't reach your feet. And many other things.

The only time I get to remove the leg brace is for a few minutes when we do the knee range of motion (ROM) exercises. That's when I get to see how swollen my leg and left foot is. The foot is discolored from the betadine and the swelling and looks very much like a giant papaya -- orange, yellow and brown with flecks of green. My knee is swollen but fine and there's little pain. At least when P.T. is over.

Early evening I had a visit from the rehab center's house doctor's P.A. we spoke about medications. She said I could stop taking the blood thinner at the end of the week. I thought I needed to take it for ten days, which would be a week from today. She will check on this for me. I find there is little agreement when it comes to doctors, nurses and dates.

I saw Jack at dinner time and he says it's going to be very cold tonight.