Post Surgery Week 9: Everything But the Kitchen Sink

Saturday, July 20

The eight week anniversary of my surgery came and went last Thursday.  I was hoping to write a celebratory blog post about getting to eight weeks and turning the proverbial corner, but my entire left leg had other thoughts.  Instead of sticking with the roller coaster trajectory - some ups, some downs - the leg went on a downward spiral and I was back in super-depressed mode.  Multiple nights of increasing pain and decreasing sleep had me on the verge of tears.  Again.  It’s not like I’ve ever been all that stoic - heck, I tear up when I hear that someone somewhere is getting married - but I’ve never before felt like such a huge crybaby.

So then instead of a celebratory post, I started a super-depressed downer of a post.  I mean, really:  what is up with pain that just won’t end?  But I depressed myself so much that I couldn’t bear to finish it.  Some things are better left unpublished.

And so, pretty much out of desperation, I started into Everything But the Kitchen Sink (EBTKS) mode.  After eight weeks, I’m just no longer going to take this pain crap lying down.  And, oh, did I mention that my cheerleader/coach/drill sergeant of a husband started prodding me hard to do something instead of just feeling sorry for myself, and like the world was against me?

The first stop on the EBTKS train was a call to Heather, the Friendliest-and-Most-Upbeat PA in the world.  No, what I’m going through is not normal.  No, having this much pain this far out is not the expected outcome. No, I shouldn’t expect to be in pain like this.  But, it happens. 

Heather’s addition to the EBTKS quest was a new anti-inflammatory, Diclofenac Sodium.  Heather says this is the strongest anti-inflammatory she can prescribe, so off we went to Walgreen’s to pick up yet another prescription.  I’ve tried to stop reading the warnings that come with prescriptions;  if you read them in detail, you’d never take another dose of any medicine again in your life.  I glanced at the flyer and then filed it away.  Who says that knowledge is a good thing in all instances?

Heather had a bunch of other thoughts for the EBTKS.  Don’t do any of the PT exercises after 4 pm.  Ice.  (Duh.  If nothing else, I’m an icing machine.)  Keep going to PT, and yes, seeing a new PT at this point (aka Karen) may just help shake things up.   Another new idea:  use a compression knee brace or ACE bandage to give the knee some support and to help keep down the swelling.  I’ll spare you the details of how the knee brace I bought a few months ago has disappeared into the ether despite tearing the house apart looking for it;  suffice to say that the trip to Walgreen’s was not wasted on prescription drug retrieval only.

My first dose of Diclofenac was Thursday night, and I slept marginally better, with at least a bit less pain.  Friday morning was definitely less pain, but on the down side, the new drug put me in loopy mode.  Well, then.  No driving me for again while on this drug.  

But never mind, Ed took me to my PT appointment with Lindsey.  Remember Lindsey?  She’s my on-again, off-again PT.  The EBTKS policy means that we take on new but don’t necessarily throw out the old.  My biggest concern about Lindsey is her ultra-conservatism.  She is so insanely afraid of doing (or approving) anything that she thinks might spike the inflammation that I end up feeling like I’m in a cage.  Dr. Miner and Heather had suggested that PT massage might help, but Lindsey was afraid of making things worse, so no massage.  While we were talking about this during the Friday morning appointment, Ed asked about TENS, and you could see the light bulb go off in Lindsey’s mind.  “That’s a great idea!”  So just like that, I got an introduction to TENS, and was on my way to getting my own at-home unit.

The person who handles getting the units, Ariane (I may have butchered the spelling of her name), was on it.  She got the prescription processed, contacted the vendor who supplies the machines, and had it ordered and ready for delivery.  But since it wouldn’t get here until next week, she magically pulled a unit out of her hat and personally delivered it this morning, describing how it works and how it will benefit me.  She showed me how to set it up, and then gave me a primer on how to use it. 

Even more, she’s also a therapist, and when I described how my recovery had gone haywire, she got it.  She said, yep, that makes sense - as you ramped up your activity, you were no doubt walking oddly, and your IT Band and outer quad muscles got inflamed.  They are like playground bullies, and they pretty much took over everything, and the VMO (inside quad muscle) - the thing you need to stabilize your knee - just shut down.  She pointed out how you can see how much my quad muscles have all atrophied. 

So the cool new tool that came is a NexWave:  based on the manual for the thing, it’s a multiple-mode stimulator that allows IFC (interferential current), TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and NMES (neuromuscular electrical stimulation).  In essence, it uses electrical stimulation to promote healing by reducing inflammation and swelling.  It works on releasing endorphins and somehow messing with pain messages to the brain.  Ariane explained all the stuff, and there’s a booklet that explains some of it;  the important thing is that it’s just one more thing I can use from the EBTKS arsenal of things.  And the tingly feeling it gives my knee:  far better than any of the pain feelings.  It’s worth a try.

Onward and upward with EBTKS.  If these new things don’t get me completely around that next corner, then I am making a mental list of where to go next.  Acupuncture?  It has helped me for other stuff in the past.  More laser?  Sure, why not.  Massage?  Sign me up!  Meditation?  Time to get going with that.  I have contact info for a medical intuitive in case all these more physical-level things don’t work, maybe metaphysics will.  As Ed keeps telling me when I get cranky and whiny and teary, I’m actually getting better, day by day, even though it doesn’t seem that way to me when the pain takes center stage.  Really.  And with my new EBTKS mantra, I’ll get there.