Weeks After Surgery

Well, once you are home then you can get into a routine of waking, toileting, eating, exercising and napping. It all kind of merges into a blur after a while. It is definitely slow moving though. For 30 days after the surgery the only medication that is required is something called "Fragmin" (a form of heparin) which is something that you take by injection once a day in order to prevent blood clots. That is the hi-light of your day.

There was very little pain, simply discomfort in the leg like a charley horse. I did not use any medication after leaving the hospital, except for some ibuprofen for the occasional head ache. I usually slept well but sometimes I would wake up in the night and be unable to go back to sleep right away. I often woke up with my feet feeling numb which was due to sleeping on my back. I would do bed exercises at this point or get up and walk around a bit. I also did not use the TED stockings once I had left the hospital.

I watched a little t.v. or I read. It would usually be about an hour of activity like this and then I would have to nap. There are two kinds of exercises to do: bed exercises and standing exercises. I also tried to "walk" around on my crutches for at least 15 minutes. I would do my standing exercises and walks three times a day, then I would do the bed exercises intermittently throughout the day.

Everyday I noticed a slight improvement in strength and range of movement, it wasn't much, but it was noticeable. Pretty soon I was experimenting with putting more weight on the operated leg while walking with crutches. Then it was time to try walking with just a cane. It took a little over three weeks to switch over to the cane. This also meant that I felt I had enough mobility to get out and start driving a car. I have a car with a manual transmission and since my left leg had been operated on I decided to rent a full size vehicle with an automatic transmission. This allowed me to start doing some errands and also drive my kids around a bit.

About a week later I was able to go to the gym and start an exercise routine there. I was amazed at how not painful it was to use an arc trainer or even a bike. The physiotherapists recommend using a recumbent bike, but I found them difficult to get into. An upright bike is ok if you set the seat high enough that the angle between your leg and pelvis does not exceed 90 degrees. I also started on some weight machines lightly.

The most rewarding exercise was swimming. I could swim almost normally at about three and a half weeks. A little weak and short of breath but not too bad. The best thing I did was deep water running. That felt absolutely great. I also did some walking in waste deep water which also felt wonderful because I could take normal strides and work on the mechanics of walking.

I would alternate days between the gym and the pool. I would also follow up the exercises with a 15 minute walk around a running track. The work outs were about an hour and then I would head home and have a big nap. This continued for about two weeks, by which time I could walk without a cane most of the time. I would use the cane outside because it was winter and I did not want to slip.