September 2, 2018
A Gratifying Response
Since the operation last Monday, Dodie received very many notes of support from both family and cycling friends. They were responding to this blog and also to various email exchanges. I thought I had described the situation in this first week after surgery reasonably well. But we ventured one more email update today, thinking family might appreciate a bit more detailed and candid presentation.
I did the update, claiming victory in scheduling and dosing with all the meds.
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But I did concede that the pain often got the upper hand, and observing that the leg looked swollen, felt hot, and did not want to flex much. OK, I also described going to the local clinic to try to make an appointment for today, which failed because it is holiday time in British Columbia until Tuesday. So I mused about dragging Dodie back to the hospital emergency. I thought I worded all this fairly conservatively. But not!:
Sandra, Erika, and Karyn all more or less jumped into their cars to see what in heaven's name was going on. Family from three countries sent notes, urging action. It was very gratifying. I even got this photo, that allows me to say that everyone and their dog checked in on Dodie, like this:
Erika, old friend, cyclist, and nurse with years of orthopedics experience, came and had a close look. She reminded us that less than a week ago a surgeon had attacked the leg with saws and screws. We should expect that it would react to this a bit. Importantly, there was no fever or infection, and swelling is within limits. Keep calm and carry on, was the conclusion.
And hey, after that, with encouragement from Karyn, Dodie was able to flex the knee (with the help of a strap to pull it with) more times in a row (10) than ever before. That's where things sit. We should have lots more info next Thursday, after xray, surgeon, and physio have weighed in!
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5 years ago
Looks like things are on track, great.
David and Maun
5 years ago
I realized that when you are doing things for yourself, your brain is issuing a similar constant stream of requests to your body - just think of all the moves required to make toast and butter it. But that is invisible within yourself. When you have to ask someone else for every thing, it's cumbersome.
The version of the ice cuff we got is the manual or "gravity" one. That means raising and lowering it from time to time. The motorized version might be more convenient, but on the other hand manual allows us to decide when to do it. One trick is that as the ice melts the pressure in the cuff grows, so we will empty melt water, or disconnect the cuff from the bucket. Perhaps the motor version does not have this weakness. Anyway, ice has helped a lot!
5 years ago