Episode 12 - What's Next

21 Jun 07, Thu. D23 - What's the next stage of rehab.

Saw the Prof this morning. He was happy with the healing of the wound. He was surprised with my fever episode immediately after my discharge from hospital. He said it was unfortunate this occurred as my conditions appeared quite stabilised when still in hospital. He examined the slightly swollen knee and was satisfied that there was no abnormal redness or localised swelling. To play it safe, or be a bit "kia-su", he asked me not to push too hard for a quick recovery. He explained that the repair to my chondral ulcer was quite extensive and deep, and as such, the range of motion for the knee should continue to be capped at 0 - 30 degrees. He asked the nurse to dress up the wound to prevent any infection. He would extend my hospitalisation leaves for another 3 weeks. The zero load bearing for the right leg has to be for the full 6 weeks. He also asked me to extend the rental of the CPM machine to cover the whole of the 6 weeks, so that I could continue with my thrice daily CPM sessions. He explained what to expect for The Next Few Months. He would see me again in 3 weeks time, before my MCs expire, to review the situation.

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I spoke to him about the experience which I've had, and told him that I've been taking notes. I've also been reading up quite extensively on this subject. I told him many of my friends and colleagues have been asking about my treatment procedures and that my notes may be a source of reference for others. I intend to publish it in a blog to share it with others. He said it was an excellent idea and asked me for the blog address so that he can view it and maybe asked his students to study it too. He said he also had in mind to start a website, but was just too busy to do it. While waiting in the specialist clinic, I found the ortho wheelchair quite comfortable as it has a leg support.

Now, what's this?

(please scroll down further to see)

Altogether, I've published 12 episodes in this blog. Please scroll down to start from the beginning at Episode 1 - Introduction to this Blog or click any of the links to read any Episode and the 3 Annexes. Future posts will be added when I have any updates.

Episodes & Content

1 Introduction to this Blog
2 The Background
3 Pre-Operation thoughts
4 D day - The Operation
5 The Day After
6 The Recovery
7 The Home Coming
8 A Feverish Nightmare
9 The Fever Pattern
10 Winning the Battle
11 Start of the Rehab
12 What's Next (this page)

Annexes
Annex A - What is ACI
Annex B - The Next Few Months (including references & links)
Annex C - The Fever Chart

Take your time to read or zoom in to the sections you're interested in. Regards, Poh SH, 21 June 2007.

22 Jun 07, Fri. D24 - I have an idea.

I don't have an ortho wheelchair at home. Sitting on a normal chair is quite difficult without a small foot-stool to support the leg. Can't be carrying the small stool around whenever I move about. I began to hatch an idea to design a portable lightweight folding foot-rest, whereby I can rest my leg whenever I sit on a chair, bearing in mind that my knee cannot bend due to the brace. While going through the sketch with my son and checking on the availability of suitable materials to build the foot-rest, he suddenly remembered he has a collapsible tripod stool which he used for his outdoor archery shoot. It turned out to be ideal for this purpose. Here are the photos: