Recovery Days: Broken Tibia Post-Op Life
Approximately one week ago, I broke my leg playing basketball. I jumped for a pass, came down with a hyperextended knee, and when my right leg took all the weight, I suffered medial and lateral tibial plateau fractures. Surgery Friday, home on Saturday. I wrote about it in my TinyLetter earlier this week.
As you might imagine, there is little else on my mind right now other than recovering from this trauma.
So far, things are looking good. Last night, my wife Liz removed my ACE bandage wrap, cut the cotton padding loose, and bathed my right leg. It’s a grizzly sight (no way I’m posting a photo) and yet, in some weird way, I thought, that looks good. I’m gonna have one humdinger of a scar from this. After she dried it off, Liz rewrapped it, and I hobbled my way off to bed.
Yesterday, after speaking to my physician’s assistant and reading numerous emails from friends that have also suffered traumatic bone breaks and ligament tears, I decided to quit using the oxycodone. It’s the one thing that absolutely everyone agrees on: get off the narcotics as fast as possible. So, my last dose of oxy was sometime yesterday, and I’ve switched to acetaminophen as my primary pain reliever. There were some withdrawal symptoms but I already feel pretty good today and believe it was a really good decision.
I’m basically confined to the second floor of the house, where our bathroom is, and that’s okay because I’m good on the crutches. The key to crutches is that you walk not on your armpits but on your hands, controlling the grip of each crutch, and powering yourself around with your arms. Because of this (very limited) mobility, I’m not going stir crazy, so far.
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