Observations/tips two days ish after LL surgery

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So now even though my legs don't feel like 1000 pounds, they are just constantly a bit sore (a bit like DOMS) which is making clicking painful and harder and take longer

The quad stretches at physical therapy (where they stretch your legs using their arms/body weight while you lie down) are probably the most excruciating part of this journey, maybe 8 out 10 pain. I really did not expect this, but I wonder if sitting down alot on a bed during the pandemic made this worse than it would have been otherwise, not sure.

At least quads are one of the easiest muscles to self stretch when you're sitting down/on your back

Second behind that is the hamstring stretches which are maybe like 7 out of 10 pain at physical therapy

And then hip flexor stretches are maybe like 5-6 pain max

Oddly enough, IT band and adductor stretches never seem to hurt, but I wonder if that will change after I lengthen more

I think the issue is that like for adductors and hamstrings at some point when they apply more and more force, it moves your whole body instead of stretching more (though they can counteract thi by holding body down). For quads, this doesn't really happen, their body weight just easily overpowers just the flexion at the knee and they can stretch quads quite alot 

I did get an IT band release I think (?) so maybe that is why IT band stretches never hurt (?)

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Quote from: thankscience on September 26, 2022, 12:26:19 PM
I think they do go to Novotel now because it was one of the options provided.


Will the hospital arranged transport go to Novotel? I would think it would have to given how close Novotel is to the PT center but I don't know

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I'm under the impression that Dr. Giotikas is very busy, has alot of patients, and he is probably bombarded by questions all the time by email and whatsapp

It feels like he and his team are trying to manage alot of patients, I think three new ones are coming very soon and it should be fun to meet them

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So currently I am toying with this idea to make evening and morning clicks easier:

- Maybe I will take the tramadol and two paracetamol before breakfast (I am not sure, but I think they take longer to kick in if you eat them after a big breakfast, anyone know?)

- then after the painkillers kick in, do the clicks

- then I go to physical therapy

- then I get back to the hotel and take another tramadol and two paracetamols before dinner (for the same reasoning as the above in ())

- then I eat dinner and possibly take a nap from exhaustion

- then legs will be stiff after a nap, need to warm them up + stretch them and maybe take another two paracetamol after, not sure

- then do the second set of clicks after the last two paracetamol kick in

Not sure if I should try this or if this is a good idea or not, just toying with ideas, I don't know if this is the optimal plan, if this is bad idea, or if there are much better plans

We can take up to 6 paracetmol pills and 2 tramadol pills they said, I just don't know the optimal timing of when to take them given that we need to do clicks, stretching, and physical therapy at various times

in terms of pain, the physical therapy is probably the most painful part. However, I've noticed the clicks sometimes can be relatively painless after some tramadol

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Quote from: thankscience on September 27, 2022, 01:55:28 AMHow frequently do you have to go to the hospital for check ups? It seems to me that with all the taxi rides it may end up being cheaper/about the same from Novotel.

Thanks for the details about the non handicap room. Have you moved into it yet?

Hope you get some good sleep!

once every two weeks for checkups

taxi rides I'm not sure--- we go to physical therapy like 4 times a week and you save about 13 euros per ride. Oh wait my math was definitely wrong before, so like I forgot to take into account the ride back.

So actually someone will save like 13*4*2 = 104 euros ish per week I think?

So actually the effective cost of montaza vs novotel might be alot closer than people realize

I'm not sure how this will change once the prearranged transportation kicks in though

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How much are you currently spending on food each week?

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Quote from: thankscience on September 29, 2022, 05:53:52 AMHow much are you currently spending on food each week?

Oh hm.. maybe like 55 euros per week ish?

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What do you guys think about novotel vs montaza for internal tibia?

It seems like the nurses will always come to help new patients for at least a week

I just don't have a sense for how easy/hard the transfers are for internal tibia to do on your own

For internal femur, I had difficulty with bed -> walker transfers for maybe like 10 days

So I think maybe the question I need to find out is how hard are the various transfers (bed-> walker, walker-> toilet, etc) are for internal tibias and at what point it is easy to do without a nurse coming to help

I haven't met anyone who is doing only internal tibia yet- only people who are doing both. Well I think I met one guy ?matteo? not sure briefly who was about to leave and I didn't ask him before he left Greece

Anyone who is doing internal tibia only have any thoughts on how long it took to be able to do the transfers reliably on their own?

I think maybe the other thing I need to figure out is how long novotel patients get nurse support before they have to only get it by request 

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It seems like there is the option for internal tibia to stay in Montaza's handicap room for X weeks and then move to Novotel (like the girl did) and in my mind the main benefit is escaping the strip club noise and perhaps there is less car street noise at Novotel, not sure. That and maybe the transport costs would be less + get better (but more expensive) food selection at the hotel

But I think she did internal femur so it is not certain it would be the same for internal tibia

I mean it feels like the transfers for internal tibia should be easier than for internal femur, I just wonder how those maybe first two week are for internal tibia patients?

There will be three more patients coming, so maybe hopefully one of them is doing internal tibia and I can ask them

I emailed Novotel and don't completely understand what they are saying:

"The door is accessible also for people using wheelchair and vase basin has specific seize according to the Int. standards for wheelchair accessible rooms
Furthermore the bath floor is flat.

The main room has one double bed and a chair and has space for the people using the wheelchair.

The room rate is available for up to 2 people for superior rooms of 1 double bed.
"

But from the above I think they are saying that even their basic room type "superior" they call it might be OK for wheelchair users

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I'm noticing that when I have pain in the middle of my thighs before sleeping, sometimes I continue to feel that pain in my dreams

And in my dreams when I have that pain, I am often more disabled than I am in real life, feeling extra heavy, pain in the middle of the thighs (? at the gap where there is no bone? not sure?) and oddly enough have some kind of speech impairment in the dreams often too that feels associated with the rest of the pain

I do not know if I ever have had an accidental click while sleeping but I did feel a sort of knock or hitting feeling once, though I somehow doubt that was a device click, maybe a body click instead

I am hoping that when I go back down to 15 clicks instead of 21 per day that the evening stiffness/pain after clicking will go away

I will likely stay in Athens more than 3 months actually so I wonder if I will have the option to reduce my clicks to something lower than normal to spread things out-- Or if this is a bad idea and will cause premature consolidation?