Freedom!

I'm FRRRREEEEEEEEEE! Free of that monstrosity of a brace that I have been told to wear for the past two months! Free of the stares from people, and the "hilarious" comments like "you look like the bionic woman" ha ha ha, never heard that one before! Free from being forced to not bend my leg when I want to. etc... hip hip hoooray! Can you keep a secret?? I haven't actually been wearing it much other than to sleep in for the past two weeks because my therapist told me I walk funny in it and not to wear it as much. I've just been careful not to bend TOO far, although I don't know if i physicall CAN bend past about 95 degreese right now! But hey, at least now I don't have to wear it at night anymore either! That was the worst part, sleeping in it. Okay - actually the WORST part was after my swelling from the clot went away the brace would slip down and the big metal strip would land directly on my ankle bone. Talk about PAINFUL. Owchie. I couldn't take more than two steps when it would do that before I would have to fix the whole dang thing (again)!

So tomorrow I start full range-of-motion physical therapy. I've been going for about three weeks now just working on straightening my leg, and rebuilding muscle lost in my leg. Tomorrow we start with the bending process, and, to be honest, I'm a bit nervous. But, it'll be good (painful, i'm sure, but good). I just hope that I can regain full use of my knee again soon!


And in other news - my INR levels (blood thinning levels) FINALLY went up to 2.5, right where it should be on coumadin, so I got to stop the lovenox shots! I was on them twice a day for four weeks. My belly looked horrible, full of bruises. But, that is a thing of the past now too. I finally feel like I might actually get over this whole ordeal one day!