Recovery and Rehab Update: Weeks 1-2 After 2nd Surgery

Well, here I am again. Taking the same meds, doing the same PT, and dealing with swelling, icing, and wound care just as I did for the earlier surgery less than 7 months ago. This was a bit too soon for me, but delaying this would have delayed getting past all this...and I'm not getting any younger.

I am recovering much quicker from this surgery, which is not a surprise. This was an arthroscopic procedure, not the open surgery I had last time. Today is post-surgery day 13 and its the first day with no crutch usage. I removed one of the two circular bandages covering the surgical "portals". It stuck a bit and caused some bleeding around the stitches (so I put off pulling off the 2nd bandage...maybe tonight or tomorrow). I'm taking meloxicam for the first 30 days post surgery and have not required medication for breakthrough pain (other than acetaminophen a few times). No nausea. No itching.

My PT seems to be going well. I'm going in to NYC this time and other than the heinous traffic, that's worked out just fine. My ROM rapidly improved to 113 degrees by the end of week 1 and to about 130 degrees during week 2. Mind you this is passive ROM, I still have a lot of knee stiffness to work through to achieve active usable ROM. The focus of my PT has been on passive ROM and kneecap mobility so far. Strength is taking a back seat so far, but that can be built later.

To my surprise, the PT asked me to warm up on a stationary bike before a PT session less than 1 week from surgery. He asked me to do this at home as well. I'm very wary of cycling right now...I was clearly a bit overzealous with cycling while rehabbing from my previous surgery and it may have caused or at least contributed to my synovitis. I'm going to try to comply with my PT, but with extreme caution. I have a currently inactivated Zwift account. To avoid the temptation of getting "sucked in" and following or chasing after virtual riders, I'm not going to reactivate my account any time soon.

I still feel some vague burning pain from the area around my patellar tendon to the area just above the kneecap. Even though things seem to be going well, I still am concerned that this is the beginning of more inflammation and I'm going to end up in the same place I was before the surgery. I'm going to keep going, listen to my PT, and hope that the process leads to a better place.