Quote from: StrydeNailChallenge on September 19, 2020, 10:06:18 PMI have done quite a few trial and error practices based on which I made several recommendations in my journal here. I just tried to summarized them for DLL, one of our new CLL'ers. I am also posting them here, just in case anyone did not check DLL's diary pages:
Recommendation to better manage the post-op days:
1) Whenever you feel pain, try to do stretching no matter when (even middle of the night).
The best I found is to straighten your legs while sitting on bed and then bend your body towards your knees. The next one that helps me is to lie down on your bed, or sit up a bit with your forearms on your side on the bed, while straightening your leg, then lift one leg at a time, doing two practices: one keeping both legs straight and pulling one as high as possible. The other practice, is to try to bring one close to your chest, even if both legs start to bend. Another helpful one for me is to have floppies on (which adds about 1.5cm to my height), stand straight on the floor and then bend to try to touch the floor. Recently instead of keep pushing my hands down to touch the floor in one shot, I have to frequently push and let go many times and each time
getting closer to the ground and usually in about 30 seconds to a minutes, my fingers finally touch the floor. Ideally every time you have pain you would want to repeat your PT sessions. However some of our folks here suggest that it is a good practice to avoid those exercises that create nerve pain. I do not know which exercise would give me nerve pain, therefore every time I experience pain and also before and after every distraction session, I try to repeat my PT routine which is about 10 exercises.
2) Use BIOFREEZE Cold Therapy Pain Relief [pack of 3] (Costco, Sam's Club, etc.) and roll it on the painful area with a bit of pressure to not only apply the gel, but also massage your legs with the roller. This is the best ointment I have been using.
I also got Capzasin Arthritis Pain Relief, Quick Relief Gel 1.5 oz (42.5 g) [pack of 2] from Amazon. This has one problem. After the few hours at some point it would make your leg fired up! You'd feel that your legs are on fire 
If you try to wash it off your legs, your legs would burn real bad! you better wash them with fairly cold water (and body gel/soap).
I have tried some ointments from European and Asian countries, and since you'd not be able to find them here, I don't mention them. However as I said BIOFREEZE is the best of them, and I would say just having that as an ointment for local pain relief would be sufficient.
3) If you cannot sleep, watch a movie on TV or your computer, while you are set in a nice sleeping position. There is a high chance you'd go to sleep quickly. I typically watch Friends on my computer. I typically fall asleep as early as a couple minutes, and as late as an episode or two later.
4) I put on skiing under pants to get warmed up and also tight jeans and they both somehow help me manage pain! I know it sounds crazy but I think skiing under pants warm up your legs so they act similarly to local pain relief ointments. Tight jeans, most likely put pressure on your legs, and help you forget the pain I guess.
5) Eating/drinking may work like a distraction from pain. I notice that most of the times while eating or drinking and a while after, my pain goes away.
6) Try all sleeping positions including face down, side, face up with a pillow or two under your knee or without any pillows, with or with blankets, etc. frequently. Body preference may change, so hopefully you would find the optimum sleeping position every night.
I hope these help,
SNC
7) I think cause of the painkillers that I take I feel unusually cold. I'd like to add that I recently have started wearing double clothes at home or outside. It helps me better manage pain and discomfort! I wear jogger/track pants and then on top wear jeans! I also wear a t-shirt, and a shirt on top and sometimes a jacket as well when I am in a colder area.
8 ) I recently tried an air and heat massage device! the first time I tried it, I thought I discovered the utopia of free pain I could live in all the way till 8cm! but after I was done with my first try, I felt like my legs were lazy, and rather painful. The second time I tried the air and heat massager, I could not handle it for a long time and I felt like I should not use such devices, as they may make my legs lazy and even more painful! In any case I thought I share this and let you decide whether you'd wanna try it out and see if it works for you.
9) I recently got the following massage devices and I think they are "sometimes" helpful.
A) Get this one, or something similar to this one and give it a try:
Tiger Tail The Long One 22" - SS20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FCGDAE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
B) Similarly try this one, and if it does not work for you, then return it. Make sure you get this and the one above from a place, where you could return, in case it did not work for you:
TriggerPoint Foam Massage Ball for Deep-Tissue Massage
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016L9K7X8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
