Viewer Discretion Advised...

Warning... here are the incisions. They are not pretty friends. These are the incisions from an anterior and posterior synovectomy for PVNS. As you will be able to tell, the healing will take some time. I had a visiting nurse come to my house today and she said I need to leave the incisions uncovered as much as possible. I am sure that the people who come to visit will greatly appreciate it.

The first one is the front of my knee. The two small holes are from a drain that was placed in there to get the yucky stuff out of there. The drain was in for just over two days and hurt like hell when they pulled it out. The doc that pulled it out was a resident and quite opposite from Dr. McDreamy. He seemed to be working with my main doc because he had to...McDreamy seemed to want to be there, helping people, appeciating the knowledge of my surgeon.



This other picture is the back of my knee...remember folks...my leg is swollen. It is pretty nasty. I do not have any staples. The incisions were closed with stiches that are under the surface of the skin and will dissolve. Then the rest was covered with small bandages that will fall off with time. I am sure that will be a lovely process.

Today I took a giant step. I took a shower! I was not allowed to do so before now because of the risk of infecting the incisions. It felt good to take a shower, but it took a lot of energy. Seems like everything does. It is frustrating, but I know I have to give myself some time.

Meg came to visit this morning, brought donuts and coffee for me and for my parents. She is planning to see me a couple of times a week and is bringing lasagna later this week. I am not sure how long my parents will be staying with me, but I do know that if they were not here to help, I would have had to go to a rehab center...which I did not want to do. I can do some things for myself, like showering, but getting things set up to shower is time consuming and would drain my energy...like getting towels... I would have to take a couple of trips to get them... setting up the shampoo and conditioner at a height I can reach I have to sit on a chair... I am beginning to understand that it is frustrating for the less vertically enhanced in the workd to not be able to reach things up high in he shower. I usually store my hair stuff on the very top... but not now...

I am wiped out... tried to call some people tonight, including Rico, but got a message that the call could not go through tonight. I am thinking of you all and will slowly get in touch with everyone. I am up for visitors, but people should call first because I am napping a lot.... (The nurse told me today I should try to nap a couple times a day.) But it does feel good to see people...and to hear from those of you who can't stop in.

My leg is in the CPM machine. Maybe I will post a pic of the machine at some point... it keeps my leg moving and realy helps a lot.

That's all for tonight bloggers... Me