Once the drugs wore off (probably took a full 24 hours) the pain really kicked in. It generally was bearable if I had it up on a pillow - but the second I went to get up pain would shoot all through me knee. I got pretty bored with TV so I figured I'd jump on the PC, hoping COD4 would ease my pain. Wrong. Sitting in a chair with my knee down was amazingly uncomfortable, and it wasn't long before I threw the towel in at that. Basically I couldn't do anything but sit on my ass. Not fun.
I was doing the exercises the physio gave me to do a few times a day. All I had to do was unlock the brace, bend my knee to 30 degrees and repeat 20 times. Surprisingly it wasn't too painful, and I was happy to have a bit of free movement in my knee, though very temporarily.
The next two weeks of the holiday went by very slowly. I was absolutely dreading school in the state I was in. Soon the holidays were up. Something happened and for some reason my first day back at school was the least painful since the surgery. I wasn't really feeling any better than one day it was a hell of a lot better. It was slow moving up and down stairs, through packed corridors to classes - but it was a lot better than I had thought it would be. I was happy to be out of the house doing something.
On the second day of school I had my first post-op appointment with the surgeon. To say he is a man of few words is an understatement. Whether he is just busy or not I'm not sure. But the appointments are always very brief. The nurse came in first and removed the stitches from my scars, they run beneath the skin but eventually they'll desolve into the muscle. She took off the things on my scars, and it didn't look too bad. It was the first time I'd seen them since the surgery, as they were covered the whole time - even in the shower. The doc rocked up a minute or two later. He got me to straighten my knee, which I did - apparently the first goal post-op. He asked what exercises I had been doing, then felt my knee a bit and seemed pretty happy. The news was to leave the crutches on for another 2 weeks (so would be 4 weeks in total) and the brace on till we saw him again in a month.
The next few weeks went by kinda fast. Was kept pretty busy with school. Eventually I started getting buses with my crutches and brace, was a bit uncomfortable but not too bad. Pretty much every man and his dog stared at this ugly thing on my leg when I was out in public, was a bit annoying at first but soon I didn't give a shit.
It was time for me to walk again. I had been sleeping with the brace off for 2 weeks, and had sometimes taken it off to ice my knee - but hadn't walked without crutches yet. It was magical. I had almost forgotten how to do it, but it was barely painful and I was stoked. Such a simple thing like walking is taken for granted by most people, I certainly won't ever again. To be able to walk into the kitchen and get a feed is just so liberating after being dependant on others for so long. It was a little uncomfortable with the brace, and I walked pretty awkwardly - but I didn't care. The following weeks got me even more looks in public as I looked like Forest Gump hobbling about.
I'll leave it there - if you made it to this point, one more instalment should bring us to the present.
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