But you know I'm OK here, sitting at home

[venta]

The story begins at Day 1. The short version: I ruptured knee ligaments skiing, and am currently mostly sitting on the sofa.

I skipped a few days because there really wasn't all that much to report, so as I write this day 11 was yesterday and we're mostly up to date. I suspect that the posts will thin out, now, as you probably don't want to know every day that I mostly sat on the sofa and got on with some work.

As the consultant said I would, I am finding that I'm getting a lot better quite quickly. I'm still moving about on crutches without putting my full weight on my right leg, but I'm more stable and doing something that looks a lot closer to a standard walking motion. Partly this is confidence and familiarity, but also my leg is improving. The exercise I'm supposed to do is less horrible, I can bend my leg better, and the swelling is going down. My knee no longer looks like it has localised jaundice from weirdly-placed bruising.

The other knee - don't worry, leftie, I haven't forgotten about you - remains pretty sore, though. It doesn't feel unstable like the right does, but it is painful when walking or twisting. I'll mention this to the consultant when I see him next, but I suspect the advice won't change.

We're also getting into the swing of establishing a routine. This morning, ChrisC helped me get up and get washed and dressed, sorted out my meals, did a thousand other tiny things, and was still at his desk in central London for 9am. (OK, so this was at least partially due to a 9am sale of tickets for a gig he wants to go to, but it proves the principle :)

There is still the ever-present spectre of overdoing things. Hey look, I can put more weight on this leg! Look, I'm almost walking! Um, OK, now I'm going to have to stop doing that. This morning I stood in the kitchen to make my own breakfast, and just before I finished realised that I needed to go and sit down (and then fumbled it and dropped one of my crutches on my foot. Ow).

My leg muscles are clearly getting bored with all this inactivity, however, and have begun to jump and twitch. Sometimes quite violently, which isn't really problematic but is a bit disconcerting. The biggest surprise has been how thin my right leg looks. I understand the principle: you don't use muscles, they begin to waste away. I just hadn't expected the effects to be so noticeable so quickly. I'm sure some of it is psychological, because most of the time the brace makes it look very bulky.

And eating. Eating is odd. "Are you eating normally?" asked the consultant, and I said yes. On reflection, I'm not. Ordinarily, I'm quite a big eater. But ordinarily, I'm also walking around all day, going running, doing yoga, going to rapper. I've been quite surprised at how hungry I'm not at the moment. But I don't think it's anything sinister, I think it's just my body noticing that actually, it's barely using any energy and it's just not hungry, thanks. I'm sticking to three meals a day, but dialling down the portions quite a bit.

In other news, my natty blue Austrian crutches leave a circle-print everywhere I go. Now all the carpets looks like they have measles.

Comments

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Be careful with the eating. I went from very active to hobbling around on a walking frame, lost my appetite and basically wrecked my metabolism. As I recovered and got back to normal I found that gaining weight became very easy and losing it rather less so.

So even if you're not hungry eat little and often


Here endeth the lecture :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Here endeth the lecture

On the contrary, informed advice is appreciated! At least from sensible people :-)