I woke up feeling a bit clearer.  Still no significant pain so I decided to just stay off the Percocet and just take the muscle relaxant, thinking it must be helping somewhat with the hamstring Charlie-horse/spasms.  I got up and started walking down the hall to the living room.  Part way there I felt a very sharp pain in my left pectoral.  Was I crutching wrong?  Was it something else?  I stopped and touched the spot; it hurt like hell in one very specific point near the surface of the muscle as it rolls toward the armpit.  I took the left crutch out from my armpit and made my way over to the couch.  After I sat down the pain went away in a few seconds…weird.

I did my first PT of the day halfheartedly, not really feeling up to the task.

As Friday progressed it became clear that I was not feeling very well at all.  Every time I stood up I felt very light headed, plus had this same sharp pain in my left pectoral.  Additionally I was still constantly thirsty, had to go to the bathroom and was starting to realize I was constipated too.  On top of all that I noticed that my heart rate was quite high for ‘just sitting around’ and suspected my blood pressure was higher than normal too.  By the evening I got my hands on my blood pressure cuff and took a reading…150/95 with heart rate of 98.  I was quite uncomfortable by this time and decided to call my insurance nurse line.  After discussing for a few minutes she transferred me to the Tria on-call doctor.  While talking with the on-call doctor it became clear that all of this was fairly normal stages of purging out all of the anesthetic, pain meds, etc. that had been put in me in the past few days.  She did warn of other symptoms (that if they should arise) would indicate an immediate 911 call.  I figured I was also experiencing anxiety and took some anti-anxiety medication (which also reduces blood pressure/rate).  I felt much better within the hour.  I also managed to relieve the constipation which made a big difference in how I felt.  As the evening wound down I was feeling too dodgy still to attempt PT (which felt like a big failure).

At bedtime I set my muscle relaxant by the bedside, but forget to take it.

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Posted by Greg on July 6th, 2011 :: Filed under ACL Files
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