Day 10: Life with the new knee...

 The last three days since my Day 6 post have been all about settling into a routine of sorts.  My knee continues to progress, albeit at a slower rate and with steps backwards mixed in with the advances.

Dr. Galinat came by late on Day 6 (Wednesday 12/6) and changed out my dressing for me.  The wound looks good--healing well with no signs of infection:

As you can see, my knee still has quite a bit of swelling (although well down from its cartoonish-peak!)  My range of motion is within the target range but hasn't materially changed over the last 5-6 days.  I can bend to 90 degrees (as you can see above) but its not easy and a bit uncomfortable.  I can't quite get all the way to 180 when I straighten it unless I push it down.  90/180 are my targets for these two exercises until the staples come out.

With the swelling comes a modest bit of pain that unfortunately manifests itself at night and is leading to low quality sleep.  I seem to sleep pretty solid for 2-3 hours and then as the Tylenol begins to wear off, the pain is enough to make me uncomfortable enough to only get little bits of sleep here and there.  My docs both warned me that this second week would probably be the hardest with respect to sleep.  I'll try to muddle through.

I took a PATIENT PATIENT day yesterday as I felt like my knee swelled a bit form a full day of rehab (with my longest walks) on day 8.  Today, I'm going to be a bit cautious again and will walk 4-6 times vs. 7-9, which is a full day.  I've also gone back to limiting the duration to 5 minutes.

My staples will come out early next week and a day or two after that I'll be cleared to swim/take baths again.  I may wait until January before starting a regular swim program but I'll be all over the baths in hopes of helping sleep better.

I've started driving again which is good for my spirits and takes some of the burden off of Judy.  I'm not certain when I'll get cleared for low-resistance cycling but maybe not too long after I get the staples out if I can keep the selling down.

All good!  Onward and upward!