Tuesday morning and all prepped for bilateral knee surgery, Duane’s smiling, but he is not really ready for this. He is looking forward to getting “the good stuff”. His surgery was the first of the day at 7:15. By 10:30 he was in his room and drowsy enough to say that he wanted to go back to sleep. He had no real pain that day, just an achiness. His iv included some strong pain blocker. In the afternoon he got out of bed, walked several feet with his walker, then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting in his chair. The PT squad helped all the way. When he was inching along with the walker one person was in front coaching and steading the walker,while the other was coming right behind with the chair. Nighttime was a nightmare. The iv kept him awake every 1/2 hr to 1 hour with the urinal.
Today (Wednesday), after breakfast the PT team got him out of bed and dressed, then walked down the hall and back in tandem as explained above. He went to 20 minutes of group therapy in the afternoon. It was a killer because he no longer had his iv or his pain blocker. He had other meds, but not nearly as strong. With the swelling and the wraps, he couldn’t bend his knees so that his feed were flat on the floor, or raise his legs, but had to do 20 reps with each leg in both of those positions. There were others of course, but these were the hardest. In this picture you can see the knee wraps which will come off tomorrow (Thursday). You can’t really see that the left knee is swelled a lot bigger than the right. After therapy he spent the afternoon and evening in the chair except to make trips to the bathroom. This pic was taken after group therapy he is smiling because I told him to do so. In reality, he wanted his ice packs and his blanket and to be left alone for a while with his pain and exhaustion. Just after I took this he was I put on the ice packs and snuggled himin his blanket. He was a happy camper again.
I left for home just after this. I will go back tomorrow morning and spend the day. In the afternoon, barring any problems, Duane will be transported down the road to a physical therapy hospital for another week.
No rest for the weary wicked.
Louise and Duane
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