Omakase

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Carticel patient status update


Today I am celebrating the 6-week anniversary of my A.C.I. surgery. I am currently mobile via crutches and walker. I am wearing a brace during the day, but sleeping without one. I attend physical therapy 3X/week, and exercise at home on the off days according to plans made by my therapist.

There is very little pain, and at this point, very little need for painkillers. I pop 2-3 ibuproferen tabs 2-3X per day, and that’s it. I also ice my knee a few times a day.

My biggest problem to date has been sore muscles in my “good” leg. Twice I’ve pulled calf muscles when hopping – once climbing stairs, and once hopping without crutches. The second time I pulled the calf muscle was accompanied by an audible “pop.” I’ve talked to my PT about it, and she says that the soreness is temporary, and that I ought to stretch daily and before relying on a cold muscle.

The current expectation is that I’ll be off crutches permanently in ~4 weeks, with initial crutch-free re-training beginning in 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, this means I lost a race with my 1-year old niece to see who would walk first. I challenged her in early July, and just this week she took her first repeated steps.

Other than that, things have been good.

Please feel free to send me any questions about my Carticel experience via email here

1 comment:

Kelley said...

Great to hear you are doing well. I am just under two weeks from my carticel transplant surgery. The hardest part is over. The first wek was pretty rough for me.

Lol...I was just thinking this morning that my good knee was starting to hurt from all the hopping. I guess there is no way around it. I use a wheelchair in addition to my walker and crutches and that helps me a lot. My spine is not so stable. I had experimental spine surgery 7 years ago. I am now the proud owner of two artificial discs. Anyways, it good to hear you are doing well. Gives me something to look forward to. :) kelley

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