Post-op days 2 & 3: Two steps forward and one step back

I didn't sleep super well, during my first night home. I woke up about 4hr15m after my last dose of medicine and OH GOD the pain. It takes about half an hour for the meds to kick in, so that seems like an eternity overnight. My Polar Pack, a god-send, is incredibly noisy so that kept waking me up. We banned the cats from the bedroom, so they were scratching at the door. I was cold, then really cold, then so cold I was shaking which upset the knee and the pain.

My poor husband - I kept waking him up to help me out (as he wanted!) but it was so long a night. I was never so happy as when he decided when we could get up.

At 7:45 Thursday morning, MedSport called. Um, they said, we know you had surgery on Tuesday and you have your post-op today at 8:45, but at 9am, we're having a fire drill. We were thinking that you might like to come in later, so that you don't have to evacuate during the drill? Yes, yes I would.

Then, again, when it was time to go, my crankypants came out. I didn't want to take any more narcotics. They do make me a tad unsteady, but they're great at dealing with the pain... and I wanted to be a bit more coherent for the post-op. Well, I conceded and took 1 (out of 3) pill and away we went. I didn't want long, they helped me on to my blue bed, I said hello to my last physical therapist, and then... they unwound the wrappings, gauze and cotton.

I swear to god, I nearly lost it then and there. I don't know why. I'm not generally squeamish, but I think it was a combination of the drugs and seeing the wound that I nearly blacked out. There aren't stitches in my leg, there are staples. Twenty one staples, to be precise.
Click for picture.

We think that the circle (or semi-circle in the picture) is probably where my knee cap is. Isn't the bruising, below the staples, impressive? it even wowed the MedSport staff!

After I was unwrapped, I was escorted (very slowly) to the x-ray area. We had to stop at one point in time, while the black crawled in around the edges of my vision. Once I was better, but still breathing heavily, I made it the rest of the way. To no one's surprise, the x-ray doesn't look much different than two days ago.

Next, another PT gave me an electrical stim machine that was MISERY. I mean, she didn't believe me how terrible it was until I threatened to throw up on her. It has two pads that lay on my leg, turn on the machine, and it starts sending electrical currents through it to make my quad muscles jump. And shot the pain straight down to my incision area. Add this to the fact that I was slightly off balance, stomach was upset, and I actually cried out loud. She stood and smiled.

Look, I understand - I need to do these things to get better, but when I tell you that now isn't the time, telling me I only have 16+ minutes left isn't going to make it better. If she'd looked at my records, she'd know that I'm a go-getter and a real get it done type of person. But I was so sick after the whole narcotic/incision thing...

...in fact, I got home, and I still wasn't sure I wasn't going to throw up. i took one of the anti-nausea pills that I had a prescription for and... slept for the next six hours, more or less. I woke up and got up in time for dinner.

And that's the first full day at home. The only other thing worth noting is that the physician's assistant gave me one instruction (beyond the two "exercises" I was given) and that was to "do nothing and come back in two weeks." Roger that, good buddy!