4. Recovery at Home
Removing Staples
I returned to the hospital after roughly two weeks to have the staples removed from the wound. My leg was still swollen from the surgery and I walked with crutches.
As I’ve written before, each knee/leg is unique and the recovery process of the second leg differed from the first in several ways. Prior to having surgery, I had worn orthotics in my shoes for several years in order to be able to walk at all. After the first surgery, it did not occur to me to remove the orthotics from my shoes until I was almost two months into recovery. The difference that simple act made was enormous. I was immediately able to walk twice as far and without pain because – and in retrospect this seems obvious – what had once been a necessary correction to my gait had become, after the surgery, an impediment. When removed, the orthotics were discarded and I bought a pair of comfortable athletic shoes to cushion my feet as I continued my recovery efforts.
Two weeks post surgery: ready for staple removal
Because my right leg was much more bowed than my left, the muscles attached to my knee had been stretched in a different way; this also impacted the nature and location of post-surgery pain. In particular, tight muscles in my lower calf and foot had started to cause me significant discomfort as I tried to walk, even with the support of crutches. I greatly benefitted from a very simple exercise – rolling my foot across a lacrosse ball in hot water to loosen and stretch the foot muscles. See: Hydrotherapy
After my first surgery, I made it a practice to look for the highest seat in the room (with arms) during the first few months of my recovery. Finding one in the Orthropedic Clinic, I waited there for the summons to have my staples removed.The two-week check-up is an important milestone because it enables the surgeon’s medical staff to assess the patient’s physical and mental recovery. The physician’s assistant who walked me to the examination room stared eagle-eyed at my gait as I made my way down the hall. Once I was seated, with vitals taken and a handicapped pass for the car requested, the staples were removed quickly and with minimal pain. Steri-Strips were applied to protect the wound while the top layer of skin healed. I was advised not to remove them because doing so might reopen the wound introducing harmful bacteria. However, it was fine to trim off the loose ends as they curled away from the skin. The strips fell off gradually over the next two weeks.
Removing Staples
Wound
Applying Steri-Strips