Tuesday knee news

I was looking forward to a nice lazy day today, after yesterday at the office and gym. It started well - we didn't get up until 7:30 am and by the time we did the usual round of exercises and treatments etc, it was mid-morning. I thought I would walk along to the shops and get my paper but Jo had to go to the supermarket and get some fuel, so I just stayed at home and did some work.

So far so good. I received a couple of very helpful exercise tips from Scott and we decided to try out one of them. They were similar to those given to me by the Banchory physios, but with one major difference - Scott recommended minimum periods for bending and straightening of 15 minutes, compared to just a few by the locals. Additionally, Scott was recommending the exercises be done under more stress - using weights for example.

After lunch, we tried one of Scott's leg straightening exercises, using cans of food as weights. I then moved through to the front room to listen to the radio and read my paper, whilst Jo drove to Inverurie to pick Luca up. I fell asleep for about an hour and a half. When I awoke, my knee was throbbing and my body temperature had dropped dramatically and I had no feeling in the end of my fingers.

I popped some more pills and have now started to heat up again. Just when you think things are getting a bit better .......

We're keen to carry on with Scott's recommendations, but I'll need to increase the meds again to do it.

Last night, I received a phone call from Margaret Weir, who I worked with when I was training nearly half a century ago. (Margaret gets a mention in Renshaw's Chronicles - Part IV 1965 onwards (4)). I haven't spoken to her for years. Nice to hear from her again - she's retired now.

To close, a little piece of artistry from Friday's wedding - place names:

Julie's hair is the correct colour, but I guess Kieran's Mohican/Mohawk wasn't part of the plan.

Back at work

The start of the week and it felt like it was almost back to the old routine again - with the exception of the preparation time - awake at 6:30 am, meds, breakfast, exercises, showers, massages, tights on, then off to work at 9:15 am.

I'd arranged 3 separate meetings as part of our preparation for Auto Enrolment next year (mandatory pension schemes for all workers). In the end, only one of the meetings was worth attending - the last one was a complete farce, which left me fizzing, wishing I'd stayed at home. I suspect one of those making the presentation to us may now lose their job, such was the incompetence.

Anyway, Jo picked me up again at 2 pm and we both headed down to Bannatyne's, where I intended to try out the static bikes. Regrettably, I failed miserably - my leg isn't yet ready to do a complete revolution, no matter how much we tried to adjust the saddle height etc. Disappointed, we headed down to the pool instead, where I spent most of the time walking up and down in the water, whilst Jo ploughed up and down the lengths.

By the time we got home, it was after 5 pm - it felt like a full day's work. The car journey wasn't too pleasant either - not Jo's fault, just too long at rush hour. By coincidence, I'd picked up some of the papers that I was given on discharge from hospital and noticed that one of the instructions was no long car journeys. I know why now.

Kelly and I missed each other on FaceTime again today, so we've scheduled a call tomorrow morning, when we've got nothing else planned.

Wedding weekend

We made it down to Airdrie OK on Friday - an hour before the 2pm start - just enough time to check in and change. With hindsight, however, it hadn't been a great idea to do the trip in one, as my leg was sore and stiff after sitting in a bent position for the duration.

Anyway - the wedding itself - Julie had purple hair but was otherwise a fairly conventional bride, and Kieran was also dressed in a traditional kilt outfit, but surprised a few with his pretty outrageous Mohican - probably one of the longest and tallest I've ever seen.

Luca was on best behaviour and was an exemplary pageboy. He posed for me afterwards sitting on the stairs:

The ceremony itself didn't take long and soon we gathered in the lounge for drinks and sandwiches:

The professional photographers spent the next few hours getting the wedding party to pose endlessly in different places. We finally managed to find out that the meal wouldn't start until after 5 pm, so this gave me a chance to retire to our room to get my leg up and stretch the knee a bit.

The dinner tables had island themes - we were Barra and were seated next to Barry & Helen, John and his daughter and son, and Dawn's friend Rona and her partner Ian Miller (whose son Lee is a professional footballer - ex Aberdeen). Kieran and Julie were clapped in and posed in front of the cake - all Dawn's work:

The top table was right behind us - here's a few shots:

Jordon, best man, Dawn & father of the bride

Mother of the bride and Michael

Michael and bridesmaids - Julie's sisters

The speeches were all done before the meal and then the floor was cleared for the dancing. There had been little bubble makers on each of the tables and Luca had made a friend, and the two of them spent half the evening running around together blowing bubbles everywhere:

Soon it was time for dancing - for most. Here's a fine rear view of that wonderful Mohican:

Later in evening, in between visits to my room to pop some more pills, we took a couple of posed photos of Gary and Carole, plus Jo and I:

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed over to Dawn's for a cup of tea, and were joined by Barry and Helen - and Luca, who we were taking back to Banchory, whilst Gary and Carole went horse-hunting locally:

When we did finally get back home to Banchory on Saturday afternoon, I had to go to bed to rest and stretch my leg, which felt like it had regressed by several days after the two car journeys. Luca came up to see that I was all right and then brought up a photo of himself to put beside my bed "in case I was missing him"!

Luca went back downstairs and then brought me back a pack of grapes. His next trip was a "special" glass of water (tonic juice actually) to go with my cup of tea, and his final bedside gift for me was something to remind me of Jo - a metal lady in a long dress, which doubled up as a bell ring - Luca said just to ring it if I needed anything. Here they all are:

Last night was not a good night - I didn't sleep at all well, and this was despite taking more drugs on Friday and Saturday than I'd taken for a few days.

I've had 2 exercise bouts today and one round of massages, plus I managed to walk along to the High St. to buy my paper - and all the way back, via the golf club, all without a break. So far so good. Bath tonight, plus some more of Jo's torture treatments, then tomorrow I'm going in to the office for a few hours for meetings.

Thursday physio

It was back to Banchory today for more torture with the local PT. She showed us a new - and very painful - stretching exercise, which Jo is going to enjoy inflicting on me.

Generally, however, she is happy that I am now back on track and she doesn't need to see me at all next week - but I must keep up the discipline of the exercises.

I walked from there - with two sticks - to Tease, where I met up with Colin Kilgour, Richard Simcox and John McWhinnie for a coffee. What have we come to? The bar across the road is open and here we are sitting in a coffee shop, like old crones.

I walked home from there and we had lunch, did my exercises and then Raymond and Myra Orr arrived, so that was the afternoon gone. It's dark again - nearly 6 pm - and this is me just catching up with my daily knee blog.

Tomorrow, of course, we head south for Kieran and Julie's wedding. I'll be the sober one then.

Wednesday - back to work!

Slept not too bad. Sat up at 7 am and took my meds, then Jo brought my usual breakfast, after which I did my exercises and then showered. Then it was time for massage and further knee stretches. Jo oils my scar daily and also massages my hamstrings, part of which are stiff and gnarled. She then exerts pressure on my shin and thigh to try to get my knee to straighten out - she takes it to the point where I can't take any more pain and then three 10 second holds.

After that, it's time to put the compression stockings on, then the frozen peas are applied to my leg.

All of this takes 2-3 hours every morning.

We set off to Aberdeen for my physio appointment at Albyn at 10 am. He seemed reasonably happy with my progress so far, and he showed Jo how to do some more massage on the fluid on the front of my knee. I had to tell him we would only be coming back in to Aberdeen if we couldn't get sufficient appointments with the Banchory physio.

It made sense then to pop in to the office at Bridge of Don, where we picked up Jo's new laptop and I said hello again to a few of the staff. We didn't hang around however and soon we were back on the road to Banchory. Lunch then a snooze and before you know where you are it's 4 pm already - and I haven't done any exercises since the early morning ones. Must crack on.

Tuesday addendum

The downside of my early morning physio appointment was that I missed our usual FaceTime call with Kelly, but she sent me the photo she took as she called us:

Tuesday Physio

Early morning blog post today. Just back from physio. Fearing the worst after last week's telling off, I was pleased to get a little pat on the back today. She measured my knee bend, which had only been 50 ° last week when lying on the bed, and it had improved to 75 ° this week, so she seemed quite pleased at my progress.

When sitting, my knee bend is better than 75 ° - or so it seems to me anyway - but it's much harder when lying down to bring your knee up.

Her primary focus today, however, was on knee straightening. I can't get the back of my knee down on to the bed - but then again, I haven't been able to do that since I had the original injury back in 1970. She did feel I need to get more straight however and thought that my inner hamstring was way too tight, so she did some massage here - and showed Jo how to do it at home.

She also showed me a few more exercises designed to improve the straightening:

Seeing the heavy bruising still on my calf, the physio said there was still a lot to come out, and thought that I must be slow healer.

Our next session is on Thursday and she will focus on the knee bend then, but generally this morning was quite encouraging - and it was good to have Jo in there too to see what was required, and it was good too that she has been shown how she can help with some of the exercises and massage.

Tomorrow it's the physio at Albyn. It'll be interesting to compare and contrast.

So, back home now and I'll get on with some work. No more prunes today, however.

Monday Medical Matinee

It's nearly 6 pm on Monday and Lucy and Jo are on Face Time, whilst I lug in. Kelly had been on first thing this morning just after our breakfast.

Today's been a funny day. I slept reasonably well again last night and, when I awoke, I only took half my usual meds and I haven't had to top up since then.

I felt good this morning and started to do some work. One of the complications of taking meds for a while is what it does to your digestive system and I decided it was time to start on the prunes again. Dan Corbett then phoned me and asked if I fancied going for a coffee, so he came and picked me up and we went to the Douglas.

I'm not a regular coffee drinker, and the combination of this and the prunes meant I had to cut short our little chat and get home quickly. Let's just say it's been a fairly delicate afternoon.

That apart, nothing much happening. Three consecutive days of physio coming up.

Sunday

Last night I returned to "my side" of the bed. Since I came out of hospital, I had been sleeping at the nearest point to the toilet, but my constant need to turn during the night had been pulling the duvet off Jo, so we now each had individual duvets. I also needed a pillow for my bad knee to rest on when I rolled over on to my left, and this was constantly falling out of the bed when I slept on that side, so we thought we would revert to norm.

Jo thinks it worked fine - and she noticed that, for once, I wasn't bathed in sweat when I woke up. My leg was still tired and heavy however and so I took full meds first thing today, but hope to stay off them until bed time.

Otherwise, nothing much to report medically. I spent the morning watching the golf from Dubai, then had a couple of hours with the Sunday Times when Jo brought it in after church. I did finally manage, however, to complete another episode of Renshaw's Chronicles.

Freedom!

It's Saturday and I was allowed out of the house again for the first time since Tuesday. We walked to the village, picked up my paper and then headed to Tease for a Latte and a piece of Lemon Drizzle cake. Ross, complete with new haircut, was working:

We walked back home after coffee and Jo was preparing bacon butties for lunch when I received a text message from Gary, offering to come over and take us out for lunch. Nice thought, but just minutes too late. That's the second time this week we've had to turn down his offer.

Gary and Luca still came over and spent the afternoon here. Luca is going through his biking stage:

Today's drug regime is similar to yesterday - no opiates during the day - only first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Today's knee measurement is showing that it's down to within an inch or so of the "good" knee.

Less than a week until Kieran and Julie's wedding. Looks like Jo is going to be driving me down as Ross can't get sufficient time off work. Don't think I'll be doing much dancing. In fact, not sure if I'll even be able to have a beer by then or not.

Friday

It's exactly 2 weeks since my knee op and, for the first time, I feel almost human again. Whereas I couldn't be bothered with anything - especially last week - I feel ready to do things now, even if it's only sedentary for the time being. A sign of things improving?

The real tests come next week when I have 3 consecutive days of physio - one at Albyn sandwiched by two in Banchory mid-week. I need to keep up the exercises and get some external confirmation that I'm back on track.

I'm home alone this morning as Jo is at the West Church coffee morning - she bakes for all the "waifs and strays" as she calls them. Jo would normally then head off to Westhill for swimming and a Costco shop, but she didn't want to leave me on my own all day. I told her I would be OK, but she's not having any of it.

Kelly and I FaceTimed again this morning. She and Chris had just returned from a (quiet) night out at the cinema and a meal, with Chris' Mum babysitting. Kelly's still in a bit of a quandary about what to do for Christmas presents this year and she asked my advice. Who me? Haven't a clue, I'm afraid - I was less than helpful.

Changed the dressing again this morning, so this is how the wound looks now:

Discovered a new app for my phone today - Our City Radio - it plays local bands and it seems to be a global thing for most big cities. In Scotland, Aberdeen, Glasgow & Edinburgh are featured. I would imagine there might be one for Adelaide, although I suspect the nearest to Lucy would be Portland or SFO.

Enough for now - I'm off back to watch the golf from Dubai again.

Thursday

Jo was heading to the hairdresser's first thing so we had to get up and get me ready before she went out. I had thought it was time for me to venture out again and I thought I would take this chance to go along and get my morning paper whilst Jo was at the hairdresser, but I was very swiftly put in my place and told I wouldn't be going out at all.

My compensation came from Dick Taylor, who very kindly brought along a latte and empire biscuit for me.

Apart from doing my exercises, all I've done today is snooze in front of the fire and try and read a chapter of my book - I failed, but at least I'm showing some interest again - last week I couldn't be bothered with anything.

I also took a cold call today and, for once, agreed to see the rep "who just happened to be in our area today". It was Penicuik Windows and Doors and it was a timely call as we had been discussing doing something about the doors and windows in our house that haven't been replaced/upgraded in the 30 years since we moved in. So we've now ordered new front, back and garage doors and new windows for the kitchen and the downstairs study (formerly Ross' room). This probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been at home recuperating.

No more news for now.

New regime

The visit to the physio yesterday certainly gave me a jolt and I'm trying hard to do the exercises she recommended - all 10 of them. It's tough - the swelling round my knee is still restricting movement and when I try to stretch the knee bend in particular, the whole joint heats up dramatically and, as a side issue, it makes me feel sick and queasy.

We're trying to get ice on the joint as often as possible to aid the process. This morning, Jo and I did my exercises in bed together after breakfast and drugs. Jo must be knackered running around after me - she's tending to my every need, but I do need to try and do some things myself or I won't progress.

Gary and Luca came around yesterday afternoon - Gary's off all week and Luca was on an In-Service Day. I think Gary had plans to take me down to Tease for a coffee, but he caught me in one of my down moments and I just wasn't up to accepting his offer. We had scrambled eggs on toast instead. When they were gone after dinner, I had my first bath, which felt pretty pleasant - and I discovered that the bath is not too bad a place to be doing exercises.

Jo changed my dressing after the bath. This was how the leg looked last night - a lot better than the previous photo taken in the hospital over a week ago:

You can still see the blood blister from the first theatre dressing.

So that's it for today. No walking again - perhaps tomorrow. The Banchory physio reckoned it wasn't important anyway at this stage - she felt if I could walk 100 yards that was more than enough.

Jo's at swimming for a couple of hours - she needs the break.

NHS or private?

Last night wasn't too bad. I managed to stay in bed until 6:30 am, albeit still waking every hour to check the clock. The fresh supply of Tramadol must have helped.

Colin came round to see me this morning, after which I headed off for my first physio appointment with the local NHS Practice in Banchory. I could tell immediately that she wasn't too impressed - particularly with the lack of knee bend I have. She measured it at roughly 50° and said that normally they wouldn't release folk from hospital until they had at least 70°. I seem to recall that the physio at Albyn had said I was virtually at 70° - although it didn't seem that much to me at the time.

The Banchory physio understood that the swelling was restricting my movement and said that I should ditch the cool water knee collar that the surgeon preferred and instead revert to the good old-fashioned frozen peas treatment.

I have to do my exercises every day half an hour after taking my meds - that way I should be able to force more bend in my knee, which seemed to be causing her some concern. She thought that, 11 days after the op, I should have a lot more flex by now. She suggested sitting on the side of the bed (or a suitable chair) and pushing the right leg back using the left ankle and heel to force it. (This was what Scott had said too). She warned it would be very painful but I needed to get on with it - now.

An alternative way of doing it would be lying in bed and using the wall instead:

She also said that, as an alternative to using the sliding board that the hospital had shown me to slide my knee up and down, the same effect could be achieved in bed by using a cheap supermarket plastic bag on my heel.

She wasn't too impressed either with the shaped handles on the walking sticks I had got at Albyn and asked me to try out more conventional curved handles - and she was right.

On reflection, I'm glad I arranged this NHS appointment. If I hadn't, it would have been another week before I went back to see the Albyn physio.

I have arranged 2 more appointments with the NHS physio next Tuesday and Friday.