It's Wednesday, and I am not working tonight.
My appointment at the doctor on Friday was good. The larger incision had leaked recently, but when the PA put a new bandaid on it, it didn't leak again. He showed me pictures of the white, fibrous, ragged-looking scar tissue in the joint before they vaporized it It wasn't even very gross, and it was interesting to see how clear the area was in the "after" pictures.
On Monday, I had my therapy appointment to remove the stitches, It wasn't looking all that good, still bruised, irritated-looking. He decided to wait until today to take them out, to give it a couple more days to heal. Before I left, we set up four weeks (weeks!) of therapy appointments. I reallllly don't want to do therapy for four weeks. For one thing, it's a $25 copay every time. And I really don't think I need it, seriously. My hesitation in moving/stretching it was because of the stitches. I always have this baseless fear that I will rip them open. When I had my knee replacement I had a huge row of staples. When the therapist first stretched me and I flinched, he said, "Do you think that if I bend it too much all of the staples will come pinging out one by one?" When I said that was exactly what I had pictured, he said that he had been doing that job for 19 years and it had never happened. Didn't make me feel any better, though.
Today was my second therapy appointment. I started with six minutes on the seated stepper, and I went full-out. I tried to stay close to 120 steps per minute. :) Then he took out the stitches before stretching me. He said it was healed enough not to need a steri-strip. My bend had been 110 degrees on Monday - today it was 126! He mentioned a bump I had noticed near the larger incision but didn't really know what it was. He stretched me a few times, then turned to make some notes in his computer. When he turned back, he said, "Well, you know, I think I'll put a steri-strip on that after all". Turned out, it had started to bleed all over - but the good news was, I no longer had a bump by the incision. It started to puff up again, and he was concerned enough about it to call my doctor's nurse, but they never called me back, so they must not think I need antibiotics or something. So now I have a steri-strip (the glued on kind), and he suggested I call off work tonight.
I really don't know if I did the wrong thing going back to work on Monday. Maybe it was too soon for being on my feet for four hours. I have been icing it tonight and I will see how it is tomorrow. I really need the money, so I hate to call off again, but I would like this to heal. I don't go back to therapy until next Tuesday, so that gives it several days to heal before we try again.
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