One of These Things is Not Like the Other

It was four weeks ago yesterday that I went in for my first arthroscopy and lateral release. As I recorded in a few previous posts, the days and weeks that followed were simply about healing and resting. Recovery was moving rapidly and I was feeling like Superwoman. But that was then...

And this is now... I had the arthroscopy and lateral release done on my opposite leg 6 days ago. Even though the surgery was smooth and predictable like before, recovery has been much different this time around. The change began almost as soon as I was awake and coherent out of anesthesia. My assigned nurse started rattling off my post-op orders, which unexpectedly included "no weight bearing" on my operated leg until my follow-up appointment ten days later. If I asked her once, I asked her a million times to confirm. Are you SURE??!, I whined. She never could tell me the reasons why, but only that those were the orthopedic surgeon's instructions.

Since then I've been bearing full weight with the help of crutches on my 4-week-post-surgery knee that is still very tender and sore. And that means that this recovery week has been so very sloooooooooooow and frustrating, completely opposite of my first experience. And to add insult to injury (literally), yesterday I severely strained my IT band (iliotibial band, which is the tissue that is "released" in the procedure) while trying to stand up from a motorized cart after grocery shopping. The pain I felt in that moment was on a scale that I'm not sure I've ever experienced in my life until this point. Absolutely excruciating. That injury-- combined with non-weight-bearing orders on my left leg-- has pretty much left me sentenced to stay in bed. Five feet to the bathroom is as ambitious as it gets until Friday morning.

*insert a really sad, depressing song here for background music* 

I've also been paranoid about taking Oxycodone this time around after a scary spell of having my blood pressure plummet when getting out of bed too quickly (which can be a side effect of the drug). Another terrible episode that I don't ever desire to experience again! But the otc meds unfortunately don't mask the pain the way narcotics do, so I'm having to cautiously continue them for now.

So, I sit...
and wait...
and sleep...
and binge on Netflix and Pinterest...
and ice...
and medicate...
and elevate...
rinse and repeat...
all the while praying that the longterm outcomes of these two surgeries will be worth the present difficulties.