1 week post-op

Here are the highlights of the past three days: On Friday (9/15) I went to the doctor to see about my leg and get some reassurance that I didn't have a blood clot.  I was told all is well, ultrasound report was confirmed to be negative.  My suspicion is that my medial gastrocnemius muscle (medial calf muscle) sustained a reperfusion injury (during surgery a tourniquet is used on the thigh to restrict blood flow, giving the surgeon a more "clear" and bloodless joint to work in - injury can occur when blood suddenly rushes back into the blood restricted tissue).   I was given an Rx for a muscle relaxer and told to come back if swelling didn't resolve with elevation and ice; and/or if my leg became more intolerably painful.  Carla and I went to see the new Reese Witherspoon movie "Home Again," a feel good mindless romantic comedy.  First time Carla and I have gone to a movie together since we were teenagers I bet.  I don't know what I will do to repay both Carla and Mary for taking care of me during this time.  They are certainly incredible friends.  

Saturday I stayed home and did PT exercises and walked - for the first time- partially weight bearing on my right leg.  It felt ok.....I was anxious about it buckling since I don't have a brace on it....but it didn't.  I guess I'm a little gun shy and don't trust my knee to be stable just yet; however, it feels so tight I don't see how it could possible give out on me. It simply feels weird.  Maybe it's the autograft ligament that feels strange.  During surgery they harvested my own hamstring ligament but it (my ligament) was too little (probably from being so stretchy from yoga) and the surgeon opted to use mine and "bulk it up" with a cadaver ligament.  Mary and I noticed that Mia, Mary's dog, was standoff-ish around me and kept sniffing my knee....we both wondered if it was the donated ligament. Dogs are perceptive that way.

I'll probably never know anything about the donor and today I will write a note of thanks to the donor's family.  If you haven't identified yourself as an organ/tissue donor on your driver's license I encourage you to do so.  I know I didn't need one of the "big" donations (heart/kidney/lung/liver etc) but through the generosity of this now deceased individual and/or his/her generous family, my knee has a chance at being normal again.  I'd say it's now a supernatural knee.  We've named my ligament Aretha and know that I'm going to have a kick ass knee when it's fully rehabilitated. 

Here we are on Sunday.  September 17.  My big adventure for the day was taking a shower on my own.   Oh those little activities of daily living we take for granted!!  Today I've done my exercises - one of my exercises is laying on my stomach on the bed.  That one wasn't easy since my leg doesn't want to go into full extension; but that's the point of the exercise.  While laying there breathing, I was thankful that laying face down was actually an exercise!  Now that I've exercised and showered, I guess I'll get to meditation and reading.  Current books I'm reading are: Qigong Meditation: Small Circulation, by Yang,  The End of Sorrow: The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, Volume I,   by Eknath Easwaran and Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali,  translation/commentary by Barbara Stoler Miller.  Meditation with InsightTimer is my go to right now.  I've used it for almost 2 years.   Other than that nothing's on my "schedule" till Tuesday's PT appointment.  

My dear friend and yoga teacher, Tom, checked in on me the other day and reminded me that "patience is practice."  As Guruji K Pattabhi Jois used to say, Practice, all is coming.  Today's practice will be patience.  All is coming.