I thought it would be relatively easy returning to work, I have a desk job "pushing paper" after all, so I didn't think it would be too difficult. In fact I have felt like a fraud for the last week and half. Because I felt quite well in myself, I thought I ought to be back in the office.
This morning was semi ok, though I did struggle because I couldn't get my knee comfortable, and consequently it started to ache, badly. I don't think I was overdoing it, one of my staff went to great lengths to ensure I was well supplied with tea, bless her. Not elevating my leg did start to take it's toll and by the time Mark was ready to finish work, I had had enough, so I came home with him.
Apart from feeling like a wimp because i couldn't manage a full day at work, the issue I have had this week is that my calf muscle feels sore, like I have strained it. It's quite scary because it is making it difficult to rest my foot flat on the ground, and it has felt really sore this afternoon to a point it had me in tears. I want to be off crutches in six weeks, and I'm scared this is going to set me back. How can I get off crutches when I can't put my foot flat on the ground in order to start weight bearing?
I have had my leg up on the settee all afternoon and this evening I have had a hot water bottle on my calf. I know that warmth doesn't ease the problem and that if it's a strain then I need to ice it to alleviate it, but it felt so painful earlier, I just wanted it to stop.
I guess this weekend is going to be a case of resting it as much as possible.
When I changed the dressing yesterday I took another photo.
It seems to be healing ok. Something I was a bit surprised at when I got home from hospital was the patches of bruising that I had on my leg, and more specifically round my inner ankle.
This photo of the bruising was taken yesterday, two weeks after the surgery, and the discolouration looks like it is in the final stages. I couldn't work out why on earth I would have bruising round my ankle when my knee was the source of the surgery. Then when I thought about it, I realised it's like the ripple effect, where you throw a stone in a pond and the ripples travel outwards. The surgeon drilled the femur and the tibia in order to insert the graft and I guess the impact from the drilling into my tibia must have dispersed along my tibia to my ankle, showing as bruising.
I had this mental image of the surgeon with the heel of my foot resting against his shoulder, drilling into my knee with a Black & Decker drill!
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