Knee op - bandage off

Further to http://www.sherlock.co.uk/blog/2009/06/knee-op.html my five days of struggling in the heat (well struggling generally actually) should be over so I settled down to remove the bandage from my knee.

As you can see it is still very swollen compared with the left one. I also notice they had managed to cut me while shaving my leg and there was plenty of iodine around (that had scared me when I first saw my foot because I thought jaundice must have set in - the nurse had a right old chuckle when I hit the panic button to ask her about it). Plus, there is a very helpful arrow so that the Consultant knows where do to his thing. The iodine has come off but the arrow is being quite stubborn but it's now covered by the tubigrip I have to wear during the day - at least that gives me some movement, and feels cooler.

I also removed the dressings to see the puncture wounds and it's amazing how small they are. They also bleed when you look at them too long so I quickly replaced the old dressings with new and tried not to think about it.

It's five days since the op and I seem to be having more pain as the days go on, which is not how I envisaged things at all. I can take small doses of about 10 minutes before pain sets in and I have to move, whether that be lying down, sitting down or standing/walking. It means I'm having to snatch sleep when I can because I'm not making it through the night - even the tennis isn't numbing me enough to sleep longer than 10 minutes or so. The drugs help a little for the really sharp pains but don't help at all with the throbbing and aching. Beer is needed I think, but that interferes with the drugs so I'm not sure just yet.

Plus, now the bandage is off I have no excuses for not doing the few physio exercises that I couldn't do before because of the padding. Six times a day I am supposed to put my self through the torture. At least now the bandage is off the ice pack will make a difference - I don't see anybody until next week and figure a bit of pain now will be better than a lot of pain then if I've not been doing them right ...