Thursday, November 1, 2012

Two Weeks After Knee Surgery

I'm quite excited. Today I will go to the doctor's office and get my stitches out. They have been catching on my pajama pants and it is too cold to wear shorts. In fact, we had snow yesterday. Yuck!

This was my second knee surgery and it was to fix a torn meniscus. Today I will also find out what they did during the surgery and will hopefully be told how not to tear my meniscus again. 

The bruising is mostly gone from my knee and has now moved onto my calf and shin. I love the colors of brusing - browns, greens, yellows, purples and blues. It is like a little rainbow on my leg. 

The swelling has also gone down and I am starting to see my knee cap again. I am walking without a limp and my knee only hurts when I stand for too long.






Update: 

My stitches are out! The doctor said my range of movement is good and my knee will take atleast 6 weeks to heal. I cannot jog until then. That should be NO problem since I am not much of an athlete. I found out that they took out most of my back meniscus since it was beyond repair. You can live without a meniscus but most likely arthritis will develop in the empty space. Since I still have part of mine, this isn't a certainty. But, if I wear to tear it again, it would be "bad news" (these are the doctor's words). 

The muscle above my knee is weak and I can no longer lift my leg to a 90 degree angle. The doctor said this will take time and exercise. I can only lift it about 30 degrees. My left thigh actually measures 1" LESS than my right due to the lack of using it over the last year. After a full year of knee pain, I am just so thankful that my knee is now able to heal correctly.

3 comments:

  1. That is awesome that you're now back on track to getting your knee back to normal. When I met with my surgeon a month ago before my surgery I told him I just want to be normal, forget about the exercise, being athletic, I just want to be able to kneel, to play with my kids, to be normal. It's the little things we take advantage of before we realize what a gift it is.

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  2. Knee surgery is a difficult and painful surgery but it is good that you are healing quickly. Normally it takes 2 to 3 moths to completely recover from this injury.

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  3. Don’t worry, Mellissa. After the healing process, your knee will look and feel as it was before. Still, you have to take some precaution. Try to exert less pressure on your knees and avoid any strenuous activities that might strain the part that underwent surgery. But mobility of your ankles, hips, pelvis, and lumbar spine should be maintained.

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