So if you are a regular follower of this page and group – you will know by now that this time last week – I was officially DAY ONE after surgery – Total Knee Replacement of my Right Knee. Which if you don’t understand or don’t know anyone who has had this kind of surgeries is possibly one of the most agonisingly painful things that you can have done. So much so they say if you need two done – get them done together. AND I was lined up for that and IM SO GLAD my surgeon suggested we see how this goes and wait to do the left ( which was misbehaving badly due to the superior misbehaviour of the right).
Now I don’t like to be uninformed when I do homework in regard to such things so I researched this surgery very carefully and have been through 12 months of drug trials and painful injections, meniscal removal and physio before I lined myself up for this. I also chatted to people who had been through this and similar surgeries who assured me the outcome is worth it and that they suffered pain controllable by panadols. Ive joined Facebook support groups and I THOUGHT I WAS PREPARED.
Well short and sweet HELL NO. Nothing – but NOTHING could prepare me for the pain but euphoria of night one ( knowing it was done finally) and then day one after surgery. Appetite vanished and the physio came to visit with various instruments of torture. And we discovered my Femoral Block – inserted to allow me to be up and walking by that day was not working as it should. Which was why I was pushing my pain button like a …. I could not even stand the sheets to be on my skin. They ice packed me – I begged for it to be removed after about 2 minutes, they moved me to bathe me – I screamed in agony. The started to feed me pain killers and Nurofen on an empty tummy – the nausea and the wind started to build. Wednesday morning I was in agony and attached to a little plastic bag every five seconds. Incredibly hard to do – as I had eaten nothing. And it hurt it hurt so badly..
They managed to get pain killers into me via injection. I managed to hobble to the shower sit on a shower chair and cry my eyes out while I washed off the vomit. It settled when they gave me an injection to stop the nausea and then the great wind commenced. So they gave me a laxative. To cure the wind.
It did not cure the wind for the next 48 hours. Sheer explosive hell. I swear if you noticed an earthquake again in Newcastle it was me. Im sorry. But I tell you – the quickest way to get a knee surgery patient out of bed – is to feed them a laxative. By the next morning – I was quite mobile and they made me walk to the patient lounge for a cup of tea ( I was dehydrated, I was in agony, I had bruised my hands on the Zimmer Frame and my ass on the toilet seat but I was walking)
Then the bad news began to infiltrate my protective bubble – bad news I can not currently extend on but lets just say – IT WAS NO FUN. The feelings of uselessness are overwhelming when you are hit with wave upon wave of bad news and there is NOTHING – NOTHING at all you can do.
So I am home now, I am getting back into good eating habits. Ive let a few old comforts in – but I kinda figure with my intense fast for about 5 days I can allow a few treats at the moment. And I have in the archives a few recipes and in the freezer many meals pre prepared ( thank god)..
Eventually I will share everything else that happened last week – but its stuff Im dealing with and others are dealing with so for privacy I will remain silent at this stage. I will have some recipes up soon. So thank you all for your support and love and sharing on the group page xoxo
The Domesticated Ms Hemsworth 