July 26, 2014: Saturday: discharge

Slept well. Feel good. Will surely go home today. Good PT session with Jen. Bend angle is 52° with help. Hematocrit back down to 30.6%. Likely causes of this loss of red cells is the thinning of the blood with IV solution (which affects this percentage measure) and the loss of red-cell-rich blood through seepage. The drain was taken out today, but there was some post-op seepage through the drain. A friend says that part of that is due to blood loss caused by the cut bone.

Yay: JB came by for long chat. PA Youngblood then certified me for discharge. He does not agree that the anesthesiologists’ recommendation of Lyrica and Celebrex is necessarily warranted. My quad function is there, but I get the sense it is less than they like to see at this point.

2:00  Home now. Yay. Now I must be careful not to overdo it. From one friend who had total knee replacement: “Follow carefully your medical team instructions. I made a bad mistake. 8 days after surgery I went for a 3-mile walk. I was so proud of myself. My surgeon reprimanded me as there was still a lot of hematoma around the knee. The bottom line: it took about 9 months to be pain free, attributed to my premature long walk.”

Yes, I will follow the protocol carefully. Played the piano a little. The sustain pedal works, but I need to put more weight/focus to get it to work than when normal.

Evening: A little tired. A phys. therapist is coming by in the morning. I do have oxygen here and I will use it overnight.

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