layed up

Well, I am back at home after the surgery. I wish I could say it was everything I expected it to be, but unfortunately it wasn't. My initial expectations was to go in, have the surgery and be able to be weight bearing on my leg a few days after the operation. There were some complications.

It turns out that my patellar tendon is quite long. It was something like 15 mm longer than what the Dr. expected, so he was not able to screw in the 'bone to bone' portion of the tendon into my femur. He said something about using the sutures to pull the tendon through the femur, and using some kind of washer and wrapping it around to secure, or something like that.
The advantage of having bone to bone contact is the fact that the tendon is better set in place, allowing for a somewhat faster recovery. Being that only half of my tendon is screwed in as expected, I am not allowed any weight bearing on my leg for 4 weeks! So I basically am going to be layed up in bed at home for the next few weeks as the graft adheres into place. Good thing I am able to work from home, or I would be SOL. Right now I am in my CPM machine, which is bending my leg from 0 to 40 degrees of flexion. I am able to add 5 - 10 more degrees each day, until I max out. I have to do this about 5 hours every day! There is no way I could perform these exercises and go into work. Also, the fact that I am required to be immobilized whenever I am moving around, pretty much limits what I can do effectively. On top of that, I also have to do my physical therapy exercises, which are supposed to help keep my leg atrophe at a minimum while I can't actually use my leg.

At least I have my Percocet!! Boy, that is some good stuff :)

My incision from where they harvested the tendon is stapled shut right now, and I can't get it wet until I get them removed, which won't be until next Friday. You know what that means! Sponge baths!