Jo had gone swimming and I decided I had to try another short walk. This time, I headed west and walked through the Tor-na-Coille Hotel car park, and out the far exit, then back along the main road to the Lodge House and back home again. It took me about 40 minutes in all.
I watched some TV and waited for Jo to come home. By that time, the pain levels were pretty high again. Jo urged me to phone the hospital and ask if I could increase the dosage, as it was pretty obvious by now that the pain and the swelling were hampering my attempts to do the required exercises.
I wasn't at all sure about this - from the various patient records and discharge papers I had, it looked like I was already on maximum daily dosage of the Opiate - Tramadol. I was taking one 50 mg pill every 5 hours - a total of 4 per day, amounting to 200 mg, which my patient record said was the maximum daily dosage.
In the end, I relented and I spoke to the room nurse, who advised me that, in fact, the maximum daily dose is 600 mg! Now obviously I didn't want to go to this level, particularly as I only have a few days left taking Tramadol - I should be winding down a bit now. However, I was fairly regularly taking two 50 mg pills at a time in the hospital and the nurse OK'd it for me to carry on with the occasional additional "breakthrough" pill, should the pain level be severe.
Result! I was advised that these breakthrough pills would be best taken first thing in the morning and last thing at night. If I did that, and left the lunch and teatime dosages as is, I would still only be taking a total of 300 mgs a day.
I then chanced my arm a bit further and asked about using Ibuprofen to help reduce the swelling. I hadn't been using these at all - only Paracetamol - because the statins I take for my cholesterol/heart don't mix well with Ibuprofen. The nurse again re-assured me and said that as long as I used these only occasionally, there should be no problem.
On hearing this advice, we immediately changed my daily schedule to accommodate these extra/replacement pills, and last evening, watching the football on TV was the least restless I had been and the least pain I had been in since I had left the hospital.
Today, we were getting new carpets fitted upstairs and the men started banging and bashing away from about 9 am. This encouraged me to consider a longer walk this morning - along to Tease for mid-morning coffee. I made it OK, but was pretty tired by the time I got there and I couldn't get really comfortable on the seats there, so we didn't stay all that long, and Jo eventually walked ahead and picked up the car and brought it along to take me home.
Nonetheless, a pretty successful 24 hours, which has helped pick up my spirits a bit. I can now begin to think about the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel.
My toilet habits are far from back to normal, however. I'm definitely not passing enough water, although I appear to be consuming enough. Perhaps one day, I'll just explode!
Today's leg measurements were roughly the same as yesterday, but the legs don't feel quite as "full" and tight as before. The knee bend is similar, but more bruising is coming out now:
Here's the knee from behind:
So that's the end of today's knee blog. I'm under pressure, particularly from some of our "remote" family to keep this going - I'll try my best.
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