Man, the nights suck so much worse than the days. Especially last night.

It was the first night with the new brace, without the heavy padding of gauze and bandage, with steri-strips instead of staples, and with only one tramadol and gabapentin, since my prescription supply is dwindling. All bad news.

Relatively early on, I found the brace too tight and uncomfortable, especially trying to lay on my side at all, so back to the black sleeve for the night. Regardless, without any bandages, my exposed knee was now rubbing against some of the straps and even the bedsheet resting on the kneecap was super sensitive. I discovered that I have no feeling on the right side of the kneecap – some funky nerve stuff there. But beneath the skin, everywhere, the knee is still sore. The lack of quality painkillers meant I had dull, aching pain (4/10) basically from my hip to my ankle. Tylenol and Advil just don’t quite cut it yet.

It’s still interesting to plot the pain management pathway of this injury. I mean you’re in relative bliss right after surgery, pumped full of anaesthetic and quality opioids; then you’re well-covered by a cocktail of prescription opioids for a week, but then (in the interests of preventing dependency) those finish and suddenly its an off the shelf Tylenol and Advil regimen. Like, great to very good to.. what?! This is two weeks post open-knee surgery. Post ‘drilling into bone’ surgery.

I’ll tough it out this weekend and get in touch with my clinic if necessary on Monday.

Anyway, on a positive note, it is so nice to see my knee again. The gash is not for the feint of heart, but it feels so good to get air on it, and it looks good compared to the day of the accident.

I’m also feeling pretty positive about the prognosis. My instincts and vibes are that surgery must’ve gone well, that I’m recovering effectively and that I’m on the road to a full recovery. However long that takes.