Sunday, March 6, 2011

Three Months after Surgery

I am now 3 months post surgery. As recovery from this surgery is now very gradual, I will post future updates on a monthly basis.

Sleep problems seemed to have abated. For the past 10 days, I have not taken the ambien sleeping pill to fall asleep. I am falling asleep normally. I am hardly aware of my surgical leg at night. It is beginning to feel normal when lying in bed.

I have now recovered sufficiently to resume all activities that I did before the surgery. This includes workouts on the stationary bike, 2 mile walks, and 30 minutes on the eliptical machine. All this at the same resistance level that I did before surgery. On the stationary bike, for instance, I am using position 9 for the seat adjustment to achieve a 90 degree bend of the knee, and I am using resistance level 11 and 12 to exercise the quadracep muscle. The video below depicts this:


I am also retiring the cane. I have not used the cane much since early February. I have kept the cane in the trunk of my car just in case I needed it. I am now fully confident in the strength of my knee to retire the cane to the attic with the crutches. Below is a picture of me using the cane at the Detroit Auto Show on January 20. This was the last day where I significantly depended upon it for longer walks and prolonged standing.


After activity, my knee feels a bit stiff and slightly swollen. So I have not achieved the benefit I had hoped for as my knee (pre-surgery) would also swell and become stiff after activites (e.g bike riding, long walks, etc.). I suspect that as I continue to recover over the next several months that my knee will become less prone to swelling and stiffness after activities. I have noticed that my knee is responding better to exercise as time transpires. Increasingly, I am finding myself less aware of the knee as I walk and do errands about the house. This is in contrast to the first six weeks after surgery where I was thinking about every step my surgical leg took as I walked or navigated stairways.

The picture below shows both of my knees side-by-side after 3 months. Unlike the left knee, the right knee (the surgical leg) still does not show the outine of my quadricep muscle, but it is almost coming into view on the inner side of the knee.