Things got a bit more complicated my 6th day home. Anna and I had just returned from Physical Therapy in Temple and we’d just gotten me into the house and comfortable on the couch. Anna decided to take her car to the Post Office just because we hadn’t been driving it much since the surgery and she wanted to exercise it a bit. That didn’t go quite as planned. Two blocks from the Post Office a young man made a left turn across two lanes on Main Street trying to turn into a Shell station when he hit Anna broadside in the driver’s side doors. While the accident was unfortunate, God was smiling upon her as the Coupland Fire & Rescue squad were fueling their truck at the Shell station and she had EMS response in 15 seconds. Anna was shaken up and some glass cuts and bumps and bruises, but she was fairly intact. She texted me to call her and she told me in a halting voice about the accident and that the car was totaled. I made some calls and got ahold of our pastor (Pastor Cela) who followed the ambulance to the hospital and sat with Anna until she was released.
The result was her new Sonata Hybrid (1700 miles, exactly) was totaled and now it was time for “Games with Insurance Companies” while I was recuperating and Anna was stuck with being the only person capable of driving while dealing with car crash trauma. We spent a lot of time the next two weeks dealing with one thing then another with first the insurance companies and then the Hyundai dealer. The car was officially totaled about a week after the accident and once that was setup, we started working with the Dealer for a replacement car. While all this was going on, so was my recuperation. I transitioned from the walker to a crutch the day after the accident. My therapist (Diane) was both surprised and impressed with my progress. When I first started outpatient rehab, she started by telling me to do two laps around the clinic area in my walker to get warmed up. I pointed out that I’d walked in from the parking lot and I thought I was pretty warmed up already. It was at this point where she started smiling every time I came into her clinic.
Knee rehab is hard work. But is just work and you have to just do it if you want to get better. One of my first love/hate relationships in Outpatient Therapy was the Schwinn Aerodyne stationary bicycle. Even with the seat set on the 10th setting, I could not get my left foot over the top of the arc trying to pedal the damn thing. The first couple of days of therapy in the clinic, I’d just rock back and forth, using my good leg to push the pedal first forward then back as far as the left leg knee bend would allow. Finally, the third day, I was able to get the left foot over the top 3 times pedaling backwards. I was grinding my teeth, seeing stars, my knee was on fire and my sciatica was acting up too, but I pushed through it. Two days later, I managed to get it over the top 13 times, and after another two days, 60 full revolutions. This was only one, of about 5 exercises we’d do during an outpatient visit, but is was one I could do solo allowing her time to work with inpatients while I was there. The other exercises were painful and uncomfortable, but you become accustomed to pushing up to the pain point, and then a little further, to make progress in the recovery. About this time, Diane also introduced me to the stairway to the main floor in the back of the clinic. Just more fun.
Very quickly we fell into a routine where I’d come in and get on the Aerodyne and pedal for 15 minutes. The day after I did 60 revolutions backwards, she had me pedal forwards (It is harder, trust me) and she also dropped the seat an inch. I saw stars and it took about 5 minutes to get over the top the first time, but at this point I really started seeing progress in the range of motion of the knee. I graduated from outpatient therapy after only 3 and a half weeks when I had a passive bend (Unassisted) of 110 degrees. By this time, I was also walking with a cane and about a week later I retired the cane to just walk on my own. I still use the cane, but only when playing disc golf and walking across rough terrain.
On Friday, May 3rd, I saw my orthopedist (Dr. Graham) for my final visit and release to return to work. He was both impressed with the progress I was making in therapy (I walked up 5 flights of stairs to the clinic) and the incision had healed nicely. In his opinion I was at 6 weeks where most people were at about 9 or 10 and I was happy with his appreciation of my hard work. I returned to work on May 6th (the anniversary of the explosion of the Hindenburg Zeppelin in 1937) which seemed appropriate to me. My boss was surprised because he was thinking I’d be out for another week. My return to work was otherwise uneventful and I soon fell back into my morning swim workout routine and in the afternoons, if I wasn’t playing disc golf, I was at the gym on the stationary bicycle for 30 minutes on my way home.
The most satisfying part of the knee rehab is when you start to do things you couldn’t do before the surgery, or couldn’t do without thought and preparation. Sitting on the pot for example. The last year before the surgery, most days, just sitting on the toilet took some planning. I needed room to stretch out my left leg (minimal knee bend) and I needed a counter or a hand rail to hold on to while lowering myself down. Getting up was the reverse. At work, it could be a real challenge in a regular stall just sitting and standing. I was at about 7 weeks post op, when I realized I was pretty much just sitting down now without much thought. (Angels sing.) It is little things. Getting up in the morning and being halfway across the house when you realize that you hadn’t thought about the left knee, you just walked across the house. Mowing the grass, getting up and down off the floor, getting into bed even, all are so much better. I can get up late and still get out of the house in 30 minutes if I really need to get moving. I’d say most days now, I spend less than 10% of the day having any notice of the knee, and that is nice.
The knee doesn’t feel “normal” per se. But it feels like my “new normal”. It is hard to describe clearly, but an artificial knee doesn’t feel exactly like a natural knee and I’m not sure if it ever will. It doesn’t hurt generally (there is still plenty of natural tissue around the knee) and I learned that it isn’t “bullet proof” by straining a ligament or two. What I can say is the intense burning fire pain I had endured, especially after exercise, is gone. Now that most the swelling has gone down; the kneecap is more mobile and I continue to gain a degree or two range of motion every week. Sometimes the knee has an audible click and sometimes I notice a motion in the knee that doesn’t match the other. All that is minor stuff and as I continue on my rehab, they seem to get better and I continue to adjust to my “New Normal”.
It is time to get up and go do my morning swim. I’ll try and post soon more about fun with insurance and car dealers.
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