Form two lines, please

On the left, those who have compassion for the pain I'm in because I followed physios' instructions.

On the right, those who want to nag me about doing too much, again.

There was a Canon Collective event yesterday, and since the Shelly Jetty is a flat area, easily walked (as both my physio and surgeon recommended I start taking meandering walks). Wing brought a chair, so I wouldn't have to stand the entire time. But that got rained out, so we went to the Narrows Bridge to at least be under cover from the rain.

Unfortunately, the wind coming off the Swan River was cold, and the scar over my knee stiffened up in the cold. Followed by the hamstrings.

This morning, it was (no joke) torturous to do the bending of the knee, sliding heel back as far as possible. I did all 10, but I was biting my lip to do them.

It always hurts the day after

My knee always hurts more, and I'm a bit unsteady, the day after appointment with the physiotherapist.  He worked in the scar dead center on my knee cap, because the scar is a bit drawn and tight.  While he did it, and the rest of yesterday, it felt so much more flexible.

This morning, oh dear. I was hobbling and limping like I was doing a few weeks ago.  I know the treatment of the knee is necessary, but dayam it hurts afterward!

Six weeks post op

Saw the nurse practitioner first for a quick check. Mostly to make sure I was handling the recuperation. Checked the scar, pronounced it well healed. Then out to the waiting room.

Was called in by Dr S. He was quite impressed with my recovery to date. Discussed pain management. All doses have been reduced by half (yay!), except one of the anti-inflammatories. Will use those until they're gone. See him again in six weeks.

Last, but not least, time to see Matt, the physio. Asked me where did I feel binding when I bent my knee. Showed him the area on top of my knee cap, and the tendons on the right side. The scar is a bit drawn on top of my knee cap, so Matt worked to stretch it out a bit. Did the same with the tendons. Matt said have Wing take me somewhere the walking surface is flat, with light pedestrian traffic, and start taking meandering walks for the next stage of rehab. With and without the crutches as soon as I feel confident enough to go without them.

First full day without

Today is the first morning I have gotten up without having taken slow release pain medication before going to bed.   I noticed I was more restless last night, as the pain was enough to keep me from sleeping as well as I had been the past few weeks.

Also, doing my morning rehab exercises... let's just say I had to grit my teeth more than once.  

Had breakfast, and took morning doses.  Took quite a while for the pain to start ebbing, but it's manageable now.  I will be seeing Dr S tomorrow. Will see if I should just be on lower dose of the slow release pain meds or just daily supplemental pain meds.

5 Weeks (and a few days) post Op

It now time to work the scar on my knee. Using a skin moisturizer, I apply it to either side of the scar, and on it. Then  I massage down the sides of the scar, pushing it gently to the left, and then to the right, making it shift at least 1 cm from center.  Then I bend my knee until the scar turns white from the stretch, and then apply moisturizer directly on it.

The goal is to make the scar pliable, and have it stretch to give me full mobility.

Another day, another physio visit

Saw Matt today, and I told him what happened to my knee after the last visit. He looked a bit sheepish and said "I guess we were a bit over enthusiastic because of your progress."  He listened to what I said happened, and how many days the pain and swelling laid me up.  He said that chances are that most of the adhesions I had under the skin and scar had been released and broken, which led to the swelling.

The good news is, even though I couldn't do much in the way of rehab exercise sets for almost 4 days, I haven't 'relapsed'.  I was able to bend my knee, unassisted, to 105 degrees, and after some massage therapy on the tight tendons, and on the scar, I was able to bend it back to 109. 

Oh yeah, Matt said my scar is marvelous. :D

I get to go back next week.

Much relief

The swelling on my knee has gone way down, and the bruised coloring is fading.  It's still more painful than it was prior to last Tuesday, but no where near as painful as it was Wednesday through Friday.  I was able to do all of the rehab exercises, although I don't think I pulled my heel as far back as I had before Tuesday.  And I slept better last night than I have for most of the week.

Yeah, it's bruised

It took a few days, but the bruise showed up on my knee.  I really don't think it was Matt's intention to have my knee get swollen, sore, and bruised with that one manipulation, but I will request he not do that one again. 

Have to go refill two prescriptions. Of course these two run out over a week after getting the OTHERS refilled. *sigh*

That might have been a bit much

But whatever Matt did to my knee on Tuesday, it still effin' hurts!  I mean back to what it felt like 3 weeks post op.  I slept for shit last night, and when I got up this morning, my knee was very painful and stiff.  I've gone from doing 5 sets of exercises a day, to not being able to do them at all yesterday, to barely pushing through the pain to get 2 done today.

I think I'm going to request Matt not flex my knee to that point again.  It doesn't do me any good if it sets me back half of my recovery time to date.

Ummm, ow

Physio appointment today.  Did my knee bend, unassisted, to 104 degrees. Not bad, as I was told the mark we were aiming for was 100 degrees.  After some massage, and acupressure treatment, I was able to bend it, unassisted to 108 degrees.  I discussed the pain I get on top of my knee that comes and goes.  Matt said that was probably due to adhesions that are being broken, but then reform, under the scar tissue.  When the rest of the surgical sealing tape/bandage falls off, I can work on the scar to make it more pliable.

Then, Matt worked on my quads and hamstring muscles to loosen them up. 

Of course now I am one hurting unit.

Go back next week at the same time.

On1 2018 Beta

Yes, I know it's beta, and there will be bugs.  And we have been asked to submit the bugs.

The stand alone loads noticeably faster than v2017.  It now can do Panorama stitching.  It does line up the images perfectly, and does stitch/merge them.  However, it doesn't blend the edges. Even on photos that were taken on a tripod specifically to be stitched together.  (Submitted this issue as a bug).  When you click to make the pano, 7 images doesn't take a long time, but when I made a 360 degree pano, it took a long time for it to finish.  (submitted this as a concern)

An old problem has reared it's ugly head again.  Even though during the installation of 2018 it asks if you want to keep older versions, you really cant.  You will get "Could not complete the Browse in Bridge command because Photoshop was unable to find the Javascript plugin."  It also happens with other commands/scripts.  I have found the only way to get rid of this error is to remove previous version. 

Also, I still use Phototools Professional v2.6.  Yes, it's older, but it has tools and overlays/textures I can't duplicate or replace in newer On1 products.  In CS6 it will start to launch, but then close down.  The only way to fix this is to remove ANY On1 Resizing plugin. Remove the resizing plugin, and it works.  Since I can resize with Photoshop itself, or with Alien Skin Blow Up, this poses no great hardship.

Seriously, what the hell

I have Adobe CS5 Extended. I have had it for a long time. I upgraded it from Adobe CS3 Extended.  For years, I have been using it without any problems.  Although I have CS6E, I use CS5 to tutor those who have it, and to test plug ins to see if they will work with earlier versions.

Today, I started it up and it says "NOT A VALID LICENSE NUMBER".  WTF?  Ok, figuring it was a system hiccup, I get both boxes with the license/serial numbers.  I put in the one for CS5E. All good.  Then it wants the serial for qualifying product, CS3 E.  Invalid serial number.  I double checked to make sure I didn't mistype. Nope, but the interface still says invalid serial number. I type it in again, STILL invalid number.

I head off to Adobe site, to my account to check to make sure all my info is correct.  Imagine my surprise when the ONLY product listed is ONE instance of CS6E.  Bizarre considering I have CS6 Master Suite, too.  And CS5, and CS3, and 4 different versions of Photoshop Elements.

Seeing no way to rectify this problem myself, I start up help chat. Was told it would be a 4 minute wait. Ok, no problem.  Then it said 3 minute wait. Good, good. Then it jumped to 20 minute wait. Huh?   Then an hour.  Then down to 15 minutes.  Then back up to an hour.

I don't have time to futz around waiting.  Let's just say I got it working again. I look at it this way. I legally own my copies of CS3E and CS5E. If Adobe doesn't want it to play nice, I, like a good mommy, will MAKE it play nice.

Rehab exercises

I have 11 Post knee replacement exercises to do every day.  The optimum amount would be doing the set 5 times a day.  I normally get at least 4 of them done.

I have noticed that the first set I do is more for working out the stiffness. It's rather surprising how stiff I get just from sleeping.   Subsequent sets are achieving the necessary bends and stretches.

This morning, my knee was both stiff and a bit puffy, so I put on the thigh to ankle compression sock, and it does help. I've gotten two sets done so far today.  Hoping to get all 5 sets done today.

Date with the Physiotherapist

I went in at 4pm.  As we were walking back I told him that I think I had been on my feet, without the crutches, a bit too much yesterday, as my knee felt thick and stiff around 6pm last night.  After recounting everything I had done, it turns out I was on my feet for almost 3 hours without a break.  Didn't do any damage, and I was still able to do the rehab exercises today, but my knee did feel thick.

I was asked to bend the knee back as far as I could. 95 degrees, unassisted. Matt gave it a massage to relieve the swelling in my foot (swelling is normal) and worked the knee joint and knee cap.   He then asked me to bend it back again, as far as I could. Over 100 degrees of bend.  For comparison, last week it was 85, then 94 degrees.

Was told to limit the amount of time I am standing without the crutches to 30 minutes, then take a break.  Repeat as necessary. 

Oh, and it turns out being able to put my own socks on actually is a milestone, as it shows more mobility in the knee. Who knew?

Got a new bed yesterday

Queen sized, lower than the double. I thought I would have difficulty sleeping in a new bed, but nope. It was so comfortable. I went to bed, pulled the blanket up, and next thing I knew, it was morning. I did have a brief wake up when Wing came back from his gaming session, but I slept almost 9 hours in total.

Wing and I went for a few short walks yesterday, which probably accounted for my good resting last night.  Headed to City Farmers to get cat food for our 4 purr kids.  They had a great sale going on, so we stocked up.  I really like that they paid attention to what their customers were saying. I had been asked why I hadn't been around for a long time, and I told them honestly that it was less expensive to go to grocery stores, as one or more of what we used was on sale.  I was told that was one of the reasons they brought the prices down.  And because of that, we go there now, instead of the grocery store.

Then we headed to Coles, and walked around there for about a half hour. It's slow going on crutches, but at least it's going. When we got back, I was rather surprised at how tired I was.  Had a light supper, and went to bed before 9.

The knee is still stiff, but the pain level is being managed with proper medications.  I understand what Dr S said that the majority of the rehab is pain management, because if you can't do the bends/stretches/exercises because of pain, it would take even longer to recover.  But I have learned to not over do it, and I learned the hard way by over doing it.  So, this patient must be patient.