7AM - Feeling so great I'm almost wishing that I could go to work tomorrow morning. I did the bike twice and all my morning PT, had a great breakfast, then out shopping, then a great lunch, then a fun time in the pool with my afternoon PT.
NAP
7PM - Feeling SO awful, iced, elevated, drugged, seeing no end in sight.... Sigh.....
No - I didn't do "too" much - really I didn't. This just seems to be how my day goes. I'm fine up until that nap... and believe me - I've tried to avoid the nap but I will fall asleep right in the chair with the laptop open, if I don't allow myself to lay down. It seems as though fatigue and still that swelling and tightness is the worst of it for me. However, the fatigue is getting later and later in the day... maybe in a few months it won't set in until bedtime! The swelling and tightness starts right in the middle of my second PT of the day (even if I'm in the pool I feel the tightening) and I don't want to not do PT. And my excursions out of the house are just more interesting than the mandatory walking every day. So that's why I'm saying I'm not doing too much. It's just the nature of the beast.
I'm just looking for a longer and larger window of feeling good for the day, and when I can last all the way till dinner I'll know I've crossed a threshold. Or at least if I wake up from a nap not feeling like the proverbial "death warmed over." Those naps don't seem to refresh me. I'm less tired, but they also seem to sap me of all the lightness I've felt all day. I think part of it is that my knee really swells and tightens during a nap and so when I get up it's just worse even than the morning. If (ha ha - WHEN) I nap tomorrow I'm going to pack my knee with ice and see if it makes a difference when I get up. I'll let you know!
Meanwhile some news to report: I joined Weight Watchers on-line today. I was a faithful in-person member, but when my knee started getting much worse during the winter I curtailed all my activities and never left the house unless it was to go to work or to teach my classes. That included letting my membership go. I read something this morning that scared the heck out of me: "Loosening (of the cement) is due in part to weight. A second knee replacement to fix this will be far less successful than the first replacement and the the complications will be far worse." OMG - I do NOT want to go through this again. I have ignored everything else: pre-diabetes, a cardiac "incident", frightfully high triglycerides, and even my initial knee problems which lead to this replacement. But the replacement is all too real for me, and knowing that it might not be successful because of my weight was enough to drive me to diet - once and for all. I guess it really IS a new knee - new me!
Have a good week ahead!
Miriam
p.s. If you want to read a great article from AARP on knee replacement please go to the comment on yesterday's post; there will be a link there for you to go to.
I have an idea. Do you know about Bed Buddies? I make my own with tube socks and rice. Fill a sock about 2/3 or 3/4 full with rice, tie a knot in the sock, and throw it in the freezer. After an hour, it is ready to use. When you nap, place a pillow lengthwise under your whole leg (you will be on your back) and sleep with the bed buddy on your knee. It will be effective for 20-30 minutes and will not stay cold enough to cause any damage if you sleep long. Because of its flexibility, you can get cold on the top and both sides at the same time.
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