Update on my knee surgery recovery

Strange, but I’ve sort of measured my life the past couple weeks from the perspective of how my recovery from knee surgery is going. I guess that’s because I haven’t been able to really get out and do too much. It’s something of an undertaking just to go out to dinner or to see a movie, since I’m on crutches. There have been a couple days where I’ve “overdone it” - trying to go too far on my crutches. If you’ve never been unable to use one leg and had to hobble around on crutches, it’s hard work! And very tiring. I know my arm muscles and abdominals have gotten a workout, that’s for sure!

Anyhow, so here’s a quick rundown of milestones.

1/9/2006 - the surgery

1/11/2006 - back to work thanks to telecommuting; took the bandages from the surgery off - wanna see? - and replaced them with gauze and tape from home; took a shower, being careful to cover the knee with clingwrap

1/14/2006 - first attempt to ride our stationary recumbent exercise bike - the attempt failed because my leg was too stiff to go all the way around the pedals

1/15/2006 - tried again on the exercise bike and succeeded with some effort; now able to turn the pedals all the way around (without resistance)

1/17/2006 - visited surgeon’s office for first followup appointment; got stitches removed and replaced with “Steri-Strips”

1/18/2006 - took a shower without clingwrap for the first time; went out to dinner (Taigun) and a movie (“Narnia”) to celebrate the 14th anniversary of when Beth and I met; over-exerted myself hopping around at the movie theater on crutches

1/20/2006 - the first day I didn’t take any Percocet at night - until now the pain was enough at night that it would occasionally wake me up

1/21/2006 - removed Steri-Strips - now there’s nothing covering the surgery wounds; first day I didn’t take any painkillers at all (not even Advil)!; knee was flexible enough to move the seat on the exercise bike forward into a more normal position and ride for quite a while