Thank You, God, for Vicodin, ice and Dr. Jones!

My chubs blubs old leg was feeling significantly weird all night and all day today; so I called Dr. Jone's office late this afternoon.  My knee has felt different, for lack of a more concise adjective, today than every other day since surgery last Wednesday.  I've felt what I would consider typical post-surgery quirks-from-tweeks up until last night.  Sometimes I felt the actual incision and it burned like a newly-skinned knee in bath water, sometimes it was muscle burn like I imagine trigiminal neuralgia feels - only on my thigh, and sometimes it was just general wish-this-would-go-away discomfort, but none of it was weird.  Last night, though, it was throbbing deep inside my knee and almost felt like it was strangulating the back of my knee and the lower half of my leg.  You know how it feels if you wrap a rubberband around a finger tip?  Well, that's as close to the feeling I can come to describing the weirdness. 

There could be a cause.  Yesterday we had a short but powerfully windy storm, several called a microburst, ravage the area between 6 and 6:30 in the morning and it wiped out our electricity.  While in the act of it's "wiping," not only did the lack of power eliminate our much-needed, much-desired air conditioning, it also prohibited the use of my PolarCare ice circulating system on my knee.  I had some frozen ice bags that I used, but in the heat of the house, those frozen bags lasted about as long as my attention span.  Mike and I decided to get out of the house close to dinner time and enjoy some dinner in air conditioning somewhere, so we cruised to Lee's Summit and Mr. Sushi's menu fit the bill.  I'm a total clutz when it comes to maneuvering my massivness without being able to put any weight on my right foot, so I'm sure it was not the best of ideas, but when we got home, the electricity had returned (THANK YOU KCP&L POWER CREWS) and my PolarCare was once again, useable.  I'm not gonna lie to ya, it felt great to lay down, get hooked up to ice and get that knee in the air.

Dr. Jones himself, called me back within 30 minutes, to check on me.  (Impressive, eh?)   It was his assumption that being up and not having it iced or elevated yesterday is probably why it's bothering today.  He added, "We did an awful lot of work in there - I wouldn't be surprised if that swelling, bruising and pain didn't last at least 10 days."  But he also questioned if my calf was hurting, stating that, "you've got what it takes for us to watch for blood clots."  His last instruction was, "IF this feeling doesn't go away within a day or so, after continually icing and elevating and staying off of it, I need you to call for an appointment to have a Doppler test to rule out a blood clot behind your knee." 

Needless to say, I'll not be doing any cruising anytime soon and I'll stop going out - even if the house is hot - I will keep the leg propped above my heart and make sure the ice water keeps flowing.  I have no intentions of complicating this recovery with something complex like a blood clot!  Ya know? 

Lots of you have written and called asking if there's anything I need.  Well, basically, the answer has been NOPE  - but THANK YOU!  Now, after some consideration, I'll just go ahead and throw this out there...if you have a freezer full of old ice to spare, if you just happen to be defrosting your fridge or have an ice maker that can keep up with your supply and demand...and if you're in the area, we go through about 25 pounds of ice every 24 hours.  We'll take icy donations - any shape, size or amount, because every little bit saves Mike a trip to Quik Trip or Price Chopper.  LOL

K...Vicodin is keeking inn und im giteng kinda sweepy sew em gonto lay down n take w litwwl mapaahanamp som ee a

Comments

[Marianne]

Bummer! I was hoping you would be up to running a race by now! Just kidding. Wait until physical therapy now that is where the fun begins!
Keep up the great work!

[patti]

Deb---Hang in there girl ! Do exactly what the doc says and you will be fine---maybe not comfy---but,...fine ! Sorry that I can't help with the ice, but it would melt as I drove across Kansas !!