Day 33 - More Milestones/Accomplishments

I know it doesn't sound like much to those with two "working" knees, but the following are MAJOR milestones for me....

Yesterday, for the first time since the surgery I was able to:

1) Sit down on toilet without holding on to walls, window sills, etc.
2) Walk down the stairs one foot on a stair at a time (rather than one foot down, bring down other foot, proceed to next step). It wasn't fast, but it was something I haven't done since Feb 15th
3) I didn't take any Darvocet all day yesterday or last night.

I'm also pretty consistently going up stairs regularly - Michele (my PT) gave me a new exercise that really helps with this - you put your new (knee) foot up on the bottom stair, then (no hands), slowly bring up your other foot, then slowly put it back on the floor. I do this 10 times, take a short break, then 10 times again - twice a day. Once I've done this, I can almost run (I said almost) up the stairs!

I did wake up however with both knees swollen - my left (the one scheduled for surgery on 4/13) is swollen more than normal, and my right is really tight (the skin) - So, I've been using my little EBIce machine for both of them alternating!

My scar is getting less noticeable - I've been putting vitamin E on it every day (advice from the PT folks), and rubbing it - they said that will help break up the scar tissue. JD told me to remind Dr. Chris to make the left one symmetrical to the right - it will be like two out facing parenthesis'.

I've been working about 4 - 6 hrs a day pretty consistently for three weeks now - broken up by my morning & afternoon PT sessions at home, and M-W-F at PT Plus down the road with Michele Gould. She's been pushing me hard, adding more and more exercises, and it's paying off. Not only am I now at 116 degrees flexion, but I'm really close to zero degrees (flat) extension. And, when I weighed it at Weight Watcher's yesterday - I'd lost 2.2 lbs making a total of 4.8 lbs since I had surgery - for a total of 28.6 lbs total.

So, All in all, I'm feeling pretty good with myself. I'm still working from home so I can do the PT on my schedule, and ice when needed - even while working. I'll probably keep this up til after the second surgery, so if you're a co-worker and wondering if you can contact me, please don't hesistate - AIM works best - watsonjl28....