Post-Op Day 9 - 13

I love This 

Progress has sped up within the last five days. I still wasn't feeling well enough to get groceries, however, I did some last minute holiday shopping with my mom in-law on Saturday. It felt good to get out but I still get fatigued quite easily. My pain level is 2-3 and I'm continuing with my exercises, ice and elevation.  Medication dose has remained the same but my activity level has increased to a normal off work level. Being up more has increased the swelling in my leg which of course increases the pain.  I work at a desk and at this point I'm still not well enough to go back to work without being in extreme pain.

When I was diagnosed a few weeks ago my number one concern was finding a physician that could educate me on this insidious disease. The 32 doctor offices that I called asking if they new about PVNS or if they could refer me to someone...didn't provide any direction or answers.  Feeling very alone I began searching for others with this disease and found a treasure on FaceBooks  "PVNS is Pants" site.  It is now my mission to create an easy to access, searchable list of PVNS qualified physicians. I'll be providing more details in the next few posts.

This blog was also created in order to pass on the knowledge that I was gaining that helped me make an informed decision about my care. I feel we must understand this disease in order to to have a logical discussion with our doctors about our short term and long term care. Since there aren't any absolute treatment regimens when dealing with PVNS...my surgeon put it best "I can only tell you what I would do if it was my knee, based on my circumstances." I took her advise but also realized that we have different responsibilities, financial resources and physical activity levels. This is where it becomes imperative to have an understanding of this disease and the different treatment options and statistics. Based on all of these factors I was able to confidently determine what treatment plan was best for me. I didn't want more surgery than necessary but I also wanted to decrease my chances as much as possible of it reoccurring.

I hope everyone had a terrific holiday, I certainly did. My mom in-law visited for the holidays and she was a life saver when it came time to making Christmas dinner. Bless her heart, she has been rehabilitating from 2 broken feet that required extensive surgery.  I am so happy that she was able to be here for Christmas. We had a wonderful time that passed all too quickly.  Mom drove to the airport to catch her plane and since I had to drive back home I had to figure out how in the heck do I slide into the drivers seat, not bending my knee and actually reach the steering wheel. That's when you very slowly move the seat forward and then swear a lot, turn, smile and wave bye to mom. The drive was only a half hour but the pressure on my knee...yikes... and the angle caused severe intermittent spasm making driving not such a great idea. A least surgery was on the left knee leaving my driving leg functional. In a couple of days I will have my two week check up and get the staples out.