First, the good news. It looks like I won’t be needing to see a Wound Care specialist for the blister. After a couple of weeks of bleeding and draining, it suddenly decided to heal. I have practically no trace of it left. Hoorah!

Now, the bad news, and it is indeed bad. If you’ll recall, I’ve been fighting edema/swelling in both legs and ankles for months now. My primary care doctor ordered an ultrasound of my legs, which came back negative for blood clots, DVTs, or other problems. He also ordered a blood test called a “D-dimer” test, which is supposed to check for evidence of a blood clot. A normal person’s numerical value on this test would be below 0.50. My value was 4.08, which my doctor called, “very high.” He immediately ordered me a prescription for 20 mg of Xarelto (a blood thinner) and is going to set me up for a CT scan of my chest, since that’s where any blood clot will likely be.

Fortunately, I have something working in my favor. Back in December of 2009, I had a “Greenfield Filter” (pictured on this page) implanted into my inferior vena cava. This was done to prevent blood clots from traveling from my broken ankles to my heart and lungs at the time (long story). Who knows – it may be doing its job as I write this.

Needless to say, this whole situation is scaring the daylights out of me. I’ll admit that I’ve upped the dose on my anti-anxiety medication in response. It’s helping a bit, but mostly it’s making me sleepy. I’m combating that with a Diet Mountain Dew and the soundtrack to The Mandalorian, Season 1, Chapter 1. Remarkably effective.

Anyway, I won’t have any further information until after the CT scan. Wish me luck.

Warning: things that make you go “yuck” follow.

As you can see from the X-ray image on this page, my replacement left knee is firmly in place and doing well at the moment. My surgeon was indeed impressed with my walking progress, saying that most people at my stage were still in a walker. He was concerned about the edema (swelling) that affected my knee, both lower legs, and both ankles, though, but he was able to confirm that the knee replacement hardware was not the source of my knee’s swelling. Thank goodness for that.

Since that appointment, the swelling has subsided slightly, but it has left behind a different and somewhat disturbing problem: an open sore that used to be a blister, which refuses to heal. You see, the entirety of the swollen areas makes me itch and rub madly. I was not scratching at my left inner ankle a few days ago, so get that thought out of your head. I was rubbing it instead, when I came across what I thought was a small blister that had popped. I peeled back the loose skin, only to find much more than a small area peeling away. When all was said and done, there was a bare, oozing spot about 2 centimeters by 3 centimeters above my ankle.

My wife came in, promptly declared it gross, and applied a gel-based “burn bandage” to it. The next day, it had puffed up almost 1 1/2 cm. above the surface of my skin. We removed it and found it was full of yellow gel fragments, while the spot it covered continued to ooze. We didn’t have any more of those bandages, so for the next few days we covered it with non-stick pads wrapped in gauze and ACE bandages. Each following day, the result was the same – the sore had oozed through the outer gauze and was still leaking. She finally bought another gel-based bandage (not specifically a burn bandage), which is on my leg now. It has puffed up to cover the entire dimensions of the sore, but it’s not very tall yet. Still, it’ll definitely need changing tomorrow – otherwise, it’ll start leaking out the bottom.

A trip to the doctor is definitely in order, unless this new bandage performs some kind of miracle healing action. Watch this space for updates.

Much progress has been made since my last post. The quad muscle exercises worked so well that I’ve first been able to ditch the walker and go on my cane indoors, then finally ditch the cane indoors and only use it outside of the house. And to think that all of this progress took place between October 14th and the 26th … my mind boggles, when you compare it to how long I was a literal post-op invalid, unable to do anything for myself from the waist down without the aid of a nurse or a therapist.

Speaking of a therapist, you should have seen the physical therapist’s expression when I met her at the door without my walker for the first time. Surprise would be an understatement. My latest surprise, during the session on Monday, October 26th, was to show her how well I navigated my house without my cane (and while doing left quad exercises at the same time). She was thrilled.

Yesterday, Tuesday the 27th, I had a session with the person she calls her boss. (He calls himself something else, but I couldn’t understand what he said.) I went through all of the exercises I could remember with him, plus a few that he taught me on the spot. He then pronounced that I was making “awesome” progress, and that my surgeon should be quite proud when I go in to see him for a follow-up next Friday. He also said that I need to go through another month of home therapy so that I can get my lateral stability and range of motion back to normal, and so I can continue strengthening my quad muscles.

If it seems like I’m going on and on about my quad muscles, remember: they cut through them to remove my old beat-up knee and reattached them to my shiny new knee. You could say they’ve been through quite a lot of trauma.

One last note: I’m still wearing the compression stockings and taking the high dose of Lasix for the edema in my ankles. I think that the swelling is pretty much gone by now, but I’m taking no chances. I’m getting it checked at my primary care doctor’s office this Friday.

I’ve figured out something since my last post; something that has made a difference in my recovery. I realized that a big part of my pain while walking came from the sensation that my knee was hyperextending, or letting the bottom half of my leg bend too far forward. One thing that could cause this would be weak quadriceps muscles, or thigh muscles, and I haven’t been doing much in the way of exercising those muscles.

A bit of thinking gave me a possible bit of help for my problem. The only problem would be that I’d wind up looking like a member of Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch. Well, to hell with that, I’m stuck inside my house, and no one’s going to see me, so I might as well do it.

The solution was to raise my left leg high on every step, flexing the quad muscles in the process, then lower it and do a “glide step” (see previous blog entry).  Do this enough times, and my left quads would strengthen. I tried it out starting late last Wednesday. I definitely felt a burn in my weakened muscles, but it was a good burn, along the lines of my quads saying to me, “Where the hell have you been all this time?”

I’ve stuck with the routine ever since, and the progress has been wonderful so far. I still have pain in my leg and knee area, but it’s a pain of use, not a post-op pain. I’m even able to walk away from the walker with renewed confidence.

While I’m talking about exercise, I should update you about physical therapy. I’m now seeing a home physical therapist every Monday and Wednesday, along with a home health nurse every Wednesday morning. A particularly painful PT session last Wednesday prompted me to do the thinking which led to the “Silly Walks” exercise.

Additionally, the PT brought me a pair of compression stockings for my edema-inflicted legs and ankles. (I traded her a copy of my Derivations album for them.) They seem to be helping, although I can’t be sure if it’s them or if it’s the 80mg of Lasix that’s doing the most work. Let ’em fight it out between themselves.