Day 4: Swelling, Green Bruising? Is it Normal?

While in the hospital, I had a drain in my knee, that had this little bulb on the end - about the size of a grenade. The nurses emptied it several times a day - of blood, and the day before I went home (Wednesday) Dr. Casscells removed the tube. I asked what I should expect - since it had been a fairly prolific producer - wondering what would happen to the blood that wasn't coming out any longer. He didn't think I would see any difference.

Well, I'm wondering if the swelling I'm now experiencing right behind my knee and in my thigh is a result of the draining since of the knee area. I've described it as feeling like my thigh is an overstuffed sausage. It's also kind of green, like an old bruise....

We've called (and left multiple messages) for both Visiting Nurses and for Dr. Casscells office just to set our minds at ease that this is normal. We started calling at 1pm, and just finally got a call back from Visiting Nurses at 4:30pm. In the meantime, I've done my PT, and iced my knee twice - trying to keep it elevated to reduce the swelling. She (Lisa) took all of my info, and is coming out to check on me, just in case.

More later.....
P.S. Deborah - these photos are for you.... You asked for the gory pictures!

Sunday AM: Turns out my Aetna coverage is only for PT visiting Nurses, not real Nurses.... So, she didn't come out after all. We talked, and she said that what I was experiencing was "probably" normal, and if the swelling increases tomorrow, to give my Dr a call, and see if he'll write a script to have the nurse come out.... So, JD did some research on the web (we should have done that earlier), and found that we can expect the swelling to slowly diminish over the next six months. Yikes!!!! I guess it (the swelling & bruising) is normal!

The swelling is down some from yesterday, and doesn't feel quite so tight. Yeah!