Recovery after knee surgery

[venezia222]

Any advice? Fractured kneecap. Now at home with a leg brace. Lots of pain and sleeping on my back is killing me. Can I sleep on my side?

Have no idea how I will wash my hair. Can’t get in the shower.

Help!

I am sorry about your injury. You poor thing. So hard to cope with.

You need to consult the instructions you were given post surgery. Can you remove the brace to sleep? Probably not but is you can support your leg while sleeping on your side that might help your back pain. I would get a body pillow ASAP. Amazon has them. You can rest your injured leg on it while on your side.

You should have been given some guidance about bathing. Can you weight bear? If so you should be able to transfer into the tub onto a bath seat. If you can't weight bear someone needs to show you.

Amazon also has bath seats or you may be able to rent one locally.

Can you take the brace off to bathe? You may have to wait until staples out etc in which case sponge baths etc will have to do.

You really need a home nurse or OT to visit you and sort these things out.

Heal quickly!
You can use dry shampoo in the short term or lean over the kitchen sink and have someone help you with a hair wash.

Thanks. Can weight beat but can’t get in shower. Have dressing on anyway. Have to leave brace on all the time.

Will see if I can get a body pillow.

I could do with some aids to help but no one has mentioned this.

If you can get someone to help you get in and out of the shower, cling film and gaffer tape is your friend to keep any wound dry. I'm currently laid up after foot surgery, and things that have helped me are; all the cushions from the sofa are under my leg,important to keep it elevated so the swelling goes down. Keep your pain meds topped up. I had codeine, paracetamol and ibuprofen all separately, meaning I could take meds every 2 hours. Eat as healthily as you can, plenty of fibre to counteract codeine constipation! If you can borrow a wheelchair with a leg lift and have someone to help, do it. Stops you going stir crazy from looking at the same 4 walls. Short trips though. Most of all, do as you're told. I feel for you.

Thanks x

Limbo cast covers are a whole lot better than gaffer tape etc. A whole leg one should fit over your brace.
After foot surgery, a knee-length one will do the job.

I will look at them once I can manipulate my leg better. No chance of a shower for a while.

My problem at the moment is that I don’t know if I can sleep on my side or not. Sleeping in one position all night on my back is killing me.