Road to Recovery

Well, the last few days have been tough.  I bummed so hard and I stayed in bed all the time.  Today is day 6 after the surgery, and I finally took my first shower today.  It was brief, but awesome.  FUCKING awesome.  No, FUCKING AWESOME.

I also made it out of my room and even went upstairs for the first time yesterday.  I only did it because I asked Dillon to refill my water and he said he would, on the condition that I try to come upstairs at some point.  He told me that the longer I wait to move, the harder it will be.



I tried to take a shower yesterday; I did my usual hobble to the bathroom and sat down and tried to undress myself.  I still had my TED stockings on both legs to prevent blood clots and I could remove them after 4-5 days.  Yesterday was day 5, so I took the one off my good leg.  I undid my brace (frickin' whole leg brace... from my thigh down to my ankle), and carefully pulled down my other stocking.  My knee was wrapped in dressing, and there was no blood seeping through so that was great.  However, I felt really lightheaded and broke out in a cold sweat.  I managed to pull the stocking all the way down to my foot and I decided I couldn't do it.  That was not my day to shower.  I put the brace back on and went straight back to bed to lay down before I passed out or something.

Sexy, sexy stockings... too hot for pics

Dillon explained to me that happened because I'm not moving around much, and that was why I needed to try to come upstairs.  I did eventually make it upstairs, that was so awesome.  I sat in the comfortable living room chair and watched TV with the boys and ate dinner, then made my way back downstairs, successfully!

I woke up this morning, went upstairs, and COOKED MYSELF BREAKFAST.  OH MAN.  Big things, big things.  I watched a little TV then decided to try to shower.  I turned the shower on before I tried to undress so I would essentially be forced to get in there no matter what.  I took off the brace, cut off the dressing, and saw the white tape on my knee.  I cried.  Man, I hated seeing that.  I guess the surgeon made three incisions?  It's not bad looking, but still, it sucks to see.  I was instructed to leave the tape on, so I didn't mess with it.  I used my crutches to get to the shower, it was awkward trying to get in there but not bad.  It's a stand-up shower (no tub) so there's just a small step to get over; I basically brought my crutches almost in the shower to get in haha.

WAAAHHHH.  Knee is wrinkly from the dressing, fyi.

I was only in there long enough to shampoo my hair (yes, it was greasy) and wash myself, probably ten minutes, but it was AMAZING.  I felt like my spirits got lifted.  I'm telling you, I felt so much better after that shower.  I spent the day moving about the house and crushed my post op exercises.  I have three different exercises I'm supposed to start the day after surgery, I did do all three of them but this particular one made my knee hurt.  Dillon said I didn't have to do it, let my knee rest a little before trying it again.  The other two were no problem so I continued doing those.  Well, today, I tried that third one I had a hard time with and nailed it.  Yeah!  It can only go up from here now.

Seven weeks and one more day until I can snowboard again