Been home for two days now after 7 weeks in hospital. It's really difficult coping because of pain and difficulty in walking, I need my rollator walker and mobility scooter, have used both today and will use them more later.
I’ve been in various hospitals since March 3rd. Having examined my case the surgeon, nurses and physiotherapists figure I can “walk” (with walking aid) at least 50 metres by then. Which is supposed to be enough for me to get home.
It’s remarkable (not in a good way) how much the muscles around my left knee have lost strength and conditioning. Little wonder I can’t yet walk unassisted.
The surgeon who attends the rehab facility three days per week has agreed to try a three-day course of anti inflammatories at twice the dosage applied a week ago at the general hospital. That has a chance of working.
The surgeon has visited. We spoke about use of anti inflammatory meds and he is going to arrange for the dosage recommended by my local doctor for dealing with gout attacks.
I’m now in a dedicated rehab hospital theoretically getting more frequent physiotherapy for the knee. I’m still not certain I was getting proper treatment of the problems, gout and septic arthritis. I’ll discuss this with the surgeon here.
Just back from having had a PICC line installed. This is a tube running inside a vein from just above my elbow to the top of my heart. It allows for easier sampling of blood and for insertion of nutrients and medication and totally replaced any cannulae.
My swollen left knee was opened with keyhole surgery methods and a bacterial infection was flushed out. This was done 36 hours ago. The hospital physiotherapist might drop by later today to get me walking in a rollator walker. Will be interesting.