Arthroscopic Knee Surgery: 12 Days Later

by Bryan on 2/15/2009 at 1:55 PM in Health and Fitness

Time has really flown by this past week! My knee is looking and feeling a lot better since my last post. I can sit pretty normally in a chair, and under the right circumstances, I can even get up and sit down without using my arms. I am walking much better, though how well depends on how much I’ve been doing already. Since the surgery was on my right knee, I’ve still not driven since the surgery. As you can imagine, I’m very ready for things to get back to normal. To help out with that, I have my first physical therapy appointment in the morning.

Of course, I’ve been doing some exercises, though not quite as regularly as I should be. And they definitely help. I’ve found that the simple exercise of tightening my quadricep and pressing my knee towards the floor (while laying on my back), makes a huge difference, not only in straightening my leg, but also in how far and how easy I am able to bend my leg. I am extremely hopeful that PT will get things rolling along much faster. That said, I am looking forward to tomorrow with a little trepidation—I know it’s going to hurt, but I also know that PT can be a no pain, no gain endeavor. I’m very eager to get back to being active.

I very carefully tried to ride my bike this morning, but I couldn’t quite get the right pedal all the way around, at least not without standing on the pedals, so I’ll try again in a couple of days. Instead, I took our dog for a walk around the block (1/2 mile). The walk felt pretty good, and I think I’ll do it again later this afternoon.

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures, to show how things are progressing. The first picture is from Friday, February 6th—3 days after surgery, and right after taking the bandages off for the first time. The second picture is from today, February 15th—12 days after surgery.

Day 3	Day 12

A couple of things immediately jump out, at least to me: 1) The swelling has gone way down, and 2) Not only has there been quite a bit of atrophy in my right leg, there’s also been some in my left leg, too.

I’ll write my next post after PT tomorrow—wish me luck!