Day 3 - Jan-20-2022
Things have started to become a routine. Had a 2 to 3 hours of sleep yesterday night. Started watching movies in my laptop and few videos in my phone if I don't get the sleep. The ice pack machine was actually helpful as it numbs the area of swelling so you will have a less discomfort in terms of senses but the legs will still be heavy if you try to change directions. I had responded back to motoboarder's question about using the ice pack and I am pasting the same content here as it explains how I was and am still able to use that ice pack machine for more than 20 hours a day
Question from motoboarder: You sure we should stay on the ice machine >=20h a day? I was a bit slack on that guess I should do more..
My answer: I am pretty sure about it and Pam was very adamant about that. Pam and Noor are the in-patient PTs available. At least for me they visited me every day from day 2 of the surgery. They kept the 2 pads of the polar bear machine right on top of the incision sites using a pillow cover and for the first 30 mins it was feeling good but as the time goes on since the cold water keeps on circulating inside the pads I felt very heavy and it was pressing my incision/wound sites and i could not bear the heaviness. I thought screw it and didn't use the whole night and the next day until 4 PM as that's when my PT session will be. I told her I felt heavy so I didn't use it, that's it. She didn't like my answer at all and told me clearly like a warning there's a reason why we are giving this ice pack machine and this is the only natural remedy to keep the swelling under control and medicines will only help a bit. Ever since after that I made sure at least it stays on for 20 hours but in a more comfortable way for me. Trust me they don't understand the discomfort or pain that you suffer so we need to learn as we try out things. So I keep it on the knee first and when the discomfort starts, I will move it down towards the ankle, then to under the calf, then to above the knee. I will keep in each position until I feel the discomfort and repeat the cycles in this way most swelling areas will get the cooling therapy. At night mostly I will keep under my calf for about 6-8 hours because that is the only place where you don't feel any discomfort at all or at least for a longer period of times. Hope you get the point.
Got a session on how to use the walker today. Oh boy it freaks me out definitely not the pain part but the nail bending part. Took about 8 to 10 steps and wheeled back to my bed. Also did the PT exercises.
Happily taking all the drugs/tablets what they give to me and saying no to the laxatives. Still haven't eaten any meal. I have eaten so far 5-6 energy bars whenever my stomach rumbles and 1 or 2 bread that came as part of the meal. Also started drinking coffee couple of times a day and more juices whenever I need them.
One thing while using the ice pack machine is that I keep getting chills because of the prolonged usage of the ice pack machine. So I asked the nurse to increase the temperature to 78 and yes that helped a lot. I am sweating and ice pack feels great on my legs while sweating.
Starting Bilateral Tibial Surgery With Dr. Paley - Dec-02-2021
Day 4 - Jan-21-2022
Slept about 6 hours intermittently. The swelling up until this point is still super high. Pasting one of my old comments about my swelling part as it would make sense at this place.
"So far I would say the swelling part is the worst and which makes things horrible for now. Also the tightness of the plasters with the swelling wow what a deadly combination it's like a balloon that's about to be burst or something that is about to explode under your knees. The Polar Bear ice pack machine is the savior so far with swelling. In my case it doesn't reduce the swelling it just numbs the area so I can feel 30-40% less swelling pain. But if I don't keep the ice pack on my leg even for 20 mins forget it and it goes back to 100% swelling pain. So keeping that for more than 20 hours in a day for now."
Also I started to feel that my left leg is more worse than the right in terms of all the pain. Any small movements give me a lot of pain on my left leg. I have pain in my right leg but it is more manageable and it's only pain from the swelling and sutures and bone cut areas. Whereas in left leg along with these pains I have some muscle contracture pain or kind of constant pulling on one side or combination of both something like and I feel a great pull on the outer left calf area. I don't know exactly to put it across but I hope you guys get the picture. I have a feeling that once the bone is cut and rod is inserted after the cut they will do a rotational test and once that test is done they need to keep the leg back to the original position. I believe there might be a slight off there from its original position the reason I am saying is my left leg is trying to pull me in one direction always to the left. I will have a clear picture of this issue when my swelling comes down. Will keep you posted on this one.
They stopped IV on this day onwards and any antibiotic or morphine that you need is directly injected into you arms using the IV inlet not through the drips. I asked the nurse that is today my discharge day? She said if you want to you can but you can stay couple of more days as well. I decided to stay one more day just to be safe.
Had my PT session. Had about 25 steps in the walker including turning using the walker. It really freaks me out in terms of weight bearing.
Since the IV drips is no more I started eating my lunch and dinner however didn't take the laxatives yet.
Day 5 - Discharge Day - Jan-22-2022
Had a good sleep about 6 hours. Had my breakfast and took laxatives this time as the nurse was insisting me to have a bowel movement before the discharge. Kept drinking a lot of water and finally around 12 PM had the bowel movement. The initial push was tough but after that it was all good. Felt really good after the bowel movement.
Had my PT and took about the same amount of steps as yesterday and didn't want to push too much. One guy from Gardens pharmacy came on Day 4 (forgot to mention on day 4) and gave me the toilet commode, wheelchair, and prescribed medicines. It had the following tablets in it - Acetominophen, oxycodone, xarelto, vitamin D3, and 2 small nasal sprays.
I hired a wheelchair van as I didn't want to go through the pain of transferring in/out of the car from/to the wheelchair. He charged my about $115. I discharged from the hospital at 4.30 PM and 2 nurses helped me with moving me and my stuff near the van. Reached home at 5.30 PM and it was really good to be back at home. The moving process was very tiring so had dinner early, took 2 oxys and 2 tylenol 325mg and hit the bed.
Dude you need to eat. Force yourself if you have to.
You're very lucky to have your wife with you
If you need shower chairs and things like that I recommend Homecare America in Jupiter
The next few weeks are going to be rough but it will get better. Good luck
That eating part I explained only during my first 3 days in the hospital. 4th day I started eating well and 5th day I got discharged. Ever since I was discharged I have been eating like a glutton at my home. I may have lost a few pounds in the hospital but ever since I moved to home and since I am eating well now my weight is where it was before the surgery, lol. Hopefully, I won't put on any extra weight. Let's see.
Posting everyday on the forum after the surgery is becoming harder and harder because of the things that need to be dealt with. Even to do few small stuff it takes forever and also suffering of the pain, doing self PT couple of times a day along with the out-patient PT. It's very tiring and exhausting. I have few minor setbacks also. I will explain in my future posts.
Day 8 - Jan-25-2022
The bandage was removed and officially started my lengthening on this day. I was very excited to have the ERC machine on my leg and when the ortho person (carla) showed me how to use it and she helped me doing the first 0.25 mm I was literally having tears of joy. I was expecting for this moment for so many years and finally it's happening and it was such a nice feeling.
Had my first PT session today.
Day 10 - Jan-27-2022
I got my splints or dorsiflexion boots from Falks Prosthetics on this day. However, I should have got the splints by 2nd or 3rd after the surgery but in my case they forgot to update them it seems so I was measured only on the 3rd after my surgery and got the boots on the 10th day. It's an hour drive from my place one way and the prosthetics center made me waited for 3 hours so overall it's a 5 hours sitting on the wheelchair with swollen legs. I forgot to take my pain killers and the journey was very uncomfortable, totally.
When I started using the splints mornings are ok but night time since the legs don't have enough strength the splints are really heavy on my legs. So I have my own light weight splints which I bought from amazon that helps me a lot at nights.
I read from few diaries that wearing the splints is mandatory for paley patients when you are doing your tibias. So I bought a pair of splints 6 months before the surgery and slowly got used to it for upto 20 hours a day. Started with 1 hour a day and gradually increased the amount of wearing time and became more comfortable with it over 6 months. It's really a nice home work I did and it helps me a lot with my broken legs now.
The splints are really helpful for even few non-lengthening issues. I used to play tennis few times a week and sometimes I feel heel pain or sometimes hamstrings or calf muscle soreness. On those days when I wear the splints at night and wake up in the morning that's it no more pain. It works really great.
Day 11 - Jan-28-2022
My left tibia is the weakest compared to my right tibia. Right tibia is more flexible with less pain whereas my left tibia has all sorts of pain.
Ever since I started my lengthening I have been hearing the clicking sound on my right tibia and no sound on left tibia. Had a feeling that the right is not lengthening properly so I shot an email to Dr. Robbins mentioning about the clicking sound on my right tibia.
When I lengthen my left I have this sort of burning sensation in the bone breaking area and also muscle soreness but on my right I don't have any of those so definitely something is not right. However, all I can do at this point is just keep lengthening until he responds back.
Day 13 - Jan-30-2022
Dr. Robbins had responded back saying that the clicking noise concerns him and he asked me to come to the clinic tomorrow (Jan-31-2022). I had my pre-admission testing at 9.30 AM and Pre-Op appointment with Dr.Robbins at 11.45 AM on Jan-31-2022 since my femur surgery was scheduled for Feb-01-2022. I mentioned the same to him and he responded yes we can do an X-ray and see what's going on with your right tibia when you come and see me.
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