In addition to the patella break, I damaged muscles. They restrung bits in that area to accomplish the repairs. It's complicated; however, not impossible.
I fell September 7th. For repairs to heal properly I won't start physical therapy until early November. I wear a brace and have been admonished not to bend my knee because the healing muscles are the ones that allow me to walk.
PT will last 6 weeks. The first two they'll try to bend my knee 30%. The second two weeks will hopefully bring it to 60%. The last two shoot for 90%. Then I go back to my surgeon's office where they will do x-rays and "see" if all is well.
I also tore upper arm muscles when my right arm took one for the team to heroically break the fall. I ache on occasion.
Emotionally, I'm adapting and enduring. It's only been 4 weeks. It appears I still have 10 weeks of cruel convalescence to contend with. We'll see if the good Colette can keep the bad Colette in check for that long. I'm giving it the old college "try." No promises.
In summary, I have three modes during this recuperation.
- I lay on the couch with my right leg extended. (lay, lie? Come on Robbie, help me out here).
- I hobble hither and thither with my walker.
- I sit up in my rented wheelchair with the leg extender
 |
| My grandson and husband decorated my walker for me. |
You forgot fourth mode: muttering curses under your breath. Wish I was there to entertain you. One gets stir crazy fast when you can't move normally.
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten to that point yet, altho I suspect I will. Irrespective of pain and inconvenience, the convalescence has been a long, grand, bizarre vacation. One in which I am not tempted or expected to go places and do things.
DeleteGood. Behave and listen to your body and the medical pros. Hugs!
DeleteJust read your older posts. I'm so sorry for what you've gone through. You've been to hell and back! Hope you mend well.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, CraveCute. Happy to have you on the page, and to know of your blog.
DeleteYou were even more seriously injured than I thought. Your husband and grandson did a marvelous job of decorating your walker. I hope you heal quickly.
ReplyDeleteThanks. That would be nice.
DeleteYou'll be amazed one day in the not too distant future about what you have accomplished. I know full well that writing this does nothing for you right now but just you wait.
ReplyDeleteI believe!
DeleteI am so blown away by your strength and perseverance. It's one day at a time, and you're doing a great job of it. Your grandson and husband did a grand job on that walker. Love is the best part of healing. Thinking of you.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Robin. You are right when you say "Love is the best part of healing."
DeleteOh, dear Colette, I feel for you, but I can't reach you, as my mother sarcastically said. It's only been a month, but half way to PT now. Consider, they actually reconstructed you! Keep pushing that racer, er, walker. On to the finish line.
ReplyDeleteI do so like to win. And there really is a finish line.
DeleteAn injury like that certainly alters reality, doesn't it? Sending love as the combination of your patience, your body's ability to heal, and physical therapy do their good work. The colors of your decorated walker would be good for a mandala. Your husband and grandson did a beautiful job. That's a memorable photo!
ReplyDeleteYou know, it HAS altered my reality. That's been one of the good things about all this. I've slowed way down and, for now, that feels real good.
DeleteIt's amazing what we can do when we don't have a choice. Your grandson and husband did a good job on your walker:)
ReplyDeleteThat's the crux of it. I don't have a choice.
DeleteI've been absent from blogger but decided to peek tonight. You've been up to mischief while I wasn't paying attention! That's an awfully long time to sit around counting your blessings. I hope all the P.T. gets you back to your old self much sooner than they're predicting. Think how many books you'll get read!
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying the books I'm reading. I've been watching the Great British Baking Show (is that what it's called?) and that has been wonderful.
DeleteI hear you. My daughter spent the better part of the summer of 2018 recovering from knee surgery. It most definitely is not a cakewalk (speaking from one with a ring side seat).
ReplyDeleteHang in there.
I will. Did your daughter fully recover?
DeleteSorry to say, no. She's mobile and able to work. But her kneed does not bend fully. It buckles on her from time-to-time, usually when she's tired.
DeleteBut, she had a delay in a proper diagnosis and treatment. It was nearly five months from the fall to the operating table and as such a cadaver tendon was utilized. I'm sure all that factors into her overall healing.
Yikes! I'm sorry to hear that.
DeleteThe good thing is that with PT, you will get back 90%. There is lots of frustration in recovery and not being your old self is so difficult.. You have hard work ahead of you and good thoughts are coming your way for the best outcome.
ReplyDeleteI would be so happy with 90%. I'm feeling that good thoughts. Many thanks.
DeleteI cannot imagine how disheartening this whole thing must be. At a time when we are trying to figure out this whole getting older thing....to throw in this big ole wrench really sucks! I am so sorry for the injury and the pain you must be experiencing.
ReplyDeleteMy hope for you is miraculous recovery and quickly. And patient and kind help wouldn't hurt at all.
Take good care of yourself Colette♥
I will, Linda. Many thanks.
DeleteI am just catching up with your tragic story. My biggest take away is - doing laundry can be hazardous to your health.
ReplyDeleteI am a person who is looking at knee replacements in the next few years so I can commiserate with your pain and suffering. Well, not really. I can't even imagine how painful that must have been and how grueling the recovery is going to be. Still, I'm grateful that we have such amazing health care and that you have the support of a loving family. So many people don't . . .
Thanks. The good news is that if you are having a knee replacement, they will start you on PT immediately, and you'll be up and walking WAY earlier than my knee repair job. Two of my siblings had knee replacements in the past 2 years and they are really, really, happy with the changes.
DeleteAnd yes, I worry about people who don't have insurance or family support. It kind of haunts me right now.
I'll get around to lay/lie in a moment but here's the thing.
ReplyDeleteThere are others whose job it is to attend to mechanico-Colette and, no doubt, to mulct you - thought you'd like that rarely used verb - of many thousands of dollars. (Bandages, you say? No mere cotton for a big spender like you. We're wrapping you in silk because you deserve it. And we deserve the cash transfers.) Eventually mechanico-Colette - her framework, her stud walls and her brick niches - will be repaired and all will be physically well
What you must attend to is the much more delicate, and ultimately more important, cerebro-Colette: the personality, the intellect, the wit, the willingness to wrestle with language, the lover of grandchildren, the occasional self-mockery. Cerebro-Colette must survive untouched if only to satisfy the the dozens who make their needs known via the comments column of TAFBB. For we are selfish. We greedily consume your three-dimensional projections of yourself.
How can you protect and nourish cerebro-Colette? By viewing the world and all its ups and down with a detached eye and recording it with a minimum of adjectives and adverbs. Concentrate on precise verbs and precise nouns. Which I'm happy to say is happening, but no backsliding. Compris?.
As to lay/lie, come on! I could say hens lay eggs. I could also say that one becomes the other's past participle. You know all this. You were formally educated beyond the age of 15 and I wasn't. Would you condemn me in the deep winter of my life to such sisyphean labours, even though I once did it for money and practised my arts mainly on US academics? And, yeah, I know sisyphean is an adjective but it's also a five-dollar word and good for showing off.
No,I will not now preach grammar, syntax or vocabulary to the US. This is the country that invented "envision" when the perfectly satisfactory "envisage" already existed. That got itself into a horrible tangle with "alternate" and "alternative". I refuse to push that wearisome boulder uphill and watch it roll down, gathering no moss.
But I would point out that "lay" gave birth to "lain" which I always hear as kinda poetic. You see, I have my soft spots.
I'm not quite up to a witty response this morning. Let's just say I enjoyed this prickly comment, and I don't know why. Food for thought?
DeleteI was on a walker after my ankle surgery and just hated it. I don't like convalescing from surgery in general - the useless arms after my mastectomy nearly drove me nuts! Hope you heal quickly.
ReplyDelete