New Knee Day 20: In the grind now!

 It's been 10 days since the last update on life with my new knee.  

Brian came over to watch Argentina take down Croatia and during halftime on Day 13 he removed my 27 staples.  This turned out to be mostly a non-event (with the exception of one spot where there was a matt of clotted blood and superglue).  Since then, the incision has continued to look better and better--I'll update with a new pic at some point.

With the staples out I was cleared to submerge my knee beginning on Day 14, which meant that baths and swimming were back on the menu.  I've been taking a warm bath each night, which helps with sleeping and I even went swimming on Day 16--just a 1,000 yds, which took almost 19 minutes, but it was good to actually do something quasi-aerobic again!  I'll probably swim a few more times before the end of the year but plan to get into a regular swim routine in January.

I've also been cleared to begin riding my bike trainers at no or very low resistance.  I tried yesterday, Day 19 for the first time on my recumbent and it's still a no go--too much swelling and resistance as my knee gets close too my body on each rotation.  I plan to check my Wahoo Kickr tomorrow but expect that I would be regularly on the bike before the New Year.

I still elevate for lengthy periods of time each day and spend about 2 hours on my Game Ready ice machine each day.  I've found it difficult to do 6-8 cycles of all 3 PT exercises and 5-10 minute walks each day without my knee swelling and suffering a set-back the next day.  I have to take it easier than is my nature but I'm really trying to listen to what my knee has to say about what I put it through each day and right now it's telling me to slow down a bit.

I still wake up from the pain around 2 or so in the morning (after a 10pm bed time) but have recently been able to get back to sleep for another 2-3 hours before dawn--still not enough sleep but a definite improvement.  

As my swelling has subsided my knee has started to "click" a lot which is annoying and a bit disconcerting.  But it appears to be fairly common and the hope would be as I continue to improve my range of motion the clicking will diminish and hopefully go away.

The other issue I have is first thing in the morning (especially at 2am) after a fuller day of PT the day before, when I get up, my knee is very tender and not super functional so I have to baby it a bit until it wakes up.  This also tells me I have to go slow on the day's activities.

I'd say my knee is at about 20-25% of the functionality of my good knee so still a long ways to go.  for reference, I'd say my left was at about 50% before the surgery so I'm hopeful I start moving ahead of where I was over the next month or so....

Trying to be a patient Patient!  Onward and Upward!