Day 4

The knee still felt a little inflamed in the morning. I took an ibuprofen with breakfast for a change and it helped. Feels better otherwise: I'm able to do a few steps up stairs before it even starts hurting, and it also hurts less trying to go down stairs. I actually climbed the full three floor to my apartment semi-normally later in the day.

I'm allowed my first full shower today. I removed the adhesive bandage so I could take a look at the actual incision for the first time too. It's not very pretty, but it looks fine. I won't be embedding a picture directly in the post, but here's a link to it for anyone interested.

I took another ibuprofen with dinner after the shower, just in case. That's two ibuprofen for the day, no paracetamol.

I'm other news, the ankle swelling send to be gone, while the one under and around the incision is unchanged, noticeable only when the knee is flexed.

Day 3

I have a full range of motion today, from fully extended to fully flexed. However, I'm still not able to exert any force throughout the range without pain. I am capable of taking a few steps up and down stairs using the affected leg, but it still hurts.

I went outside in the afternoon, spent some time with friends in a park and walking around. It was nice, but I overdid it a little, so it feels a bit tender and inflamed in the evening. 

I've taken two paracetamol in total - one morning, one evening - and no ibuprofen. It helps settle things down a little, but I don't have any major pain that would need constant medication. No sign of a visible hematoma appearing, just the little, very localised swelling that's not changing. The swelling around the ankle is still there, but it is receding.

Day 2

I had no pain this night, or at least none that would wake me up - guess the paracetamol did its thing well. There is less pain today, it is now more of a soreness. The swelling around the ankle looks about the same as yesterday.

I removed the outer bandage today, that was a big relief. The first layer or two over the knee were quite snug, they actually caused some light abrasions around the patella. That explains the pain there from the first night. Other than the marks from the bandage, which disappeared during the course of the day, the knee looks pretty good. There is visible localised swelling at the incision site when the knee is flexed, but no hematoma in sight. I took a paracetamol after removing the bandage to prevent swelling and inflammation now that the pressure is off.

The ridges in the middle are marks from the edge of the protective pad under the bandage. The redness to the left is a light abrasion; another one is just about visible to the right.

This right after removal of the bandage; most of the marks disappeared within an hour. The adhesive bandage won't be touched for a couple more days.

As soon as I removed the bandage, max knee flexion went up to 90 degrees (if done carefully, no load). At that point, internal pressure at the incision made it too uncomfortable to go further. Range of motion has kept improving throughout the rest of the day.

Day 1

Didn't sleep very well this night. I would get into an position that's uncomfortable to the left knee and the pain would wake me up. Some of the pain came distinctively from the patella region for some reason; it wasn't from somewhere inside the joint, but from the outer edges of the patella.

The pain is not too bad during the day. In total I've taken one aspirine (in the morning before picking up the prescribed medication), two paracetamol (one at the end of the day before going to bed) and one ibuprofen during the course of the day.

Knee flexion has improved since yesterday, I can do 40+ degrees from straight now. This is just passive flexion, no weight on the leg, no pressure on the knee. When not moving I'm keeping leg extended and elevated most of the time.

I'm able to walk slowly and carefully. Bearing weight is no problem, but the part where I need to bend the knee and bring the foot forward can be tricky. When stepping forward I can't really use the stabilising muscles around the knee because that puts strain on the IT band; instead I just lock out the leg and put weight on it completely straight and that seems to work fine at the speed that I'm going. I go up and down stairs using the right leg only to do the work. I've had two walks of 15-20 minutes to keep the leg moving and to stimulate circulation.

I've noticed some swelling in the ankle and foot in the evening. Can't tell if it was there before, I wasn't really looking. I'm guessing it's a light swelling that started in the knee area and then the fluid descended to the foot. It's not big or painful so I'm not really worried.