The main drug given for pain at the hospital was one called Dilaudid. It's a brand name for hydromorphone, which is a narcotic. Dodie was sent home from hospital with a prescription for the stuff. And yes, it seemed to help, if only by knocking Dodie out enough to make her insensible to the pain. 

But at the meeting with the surgeon, the new instruction was to discontinue Dilaudid and another - Lyrica, and sub in the less potent Tramadol. We thought we had that at home, but it turned out not. That caused a delay in getting going with the new stuff. But we got it half right, and discontinued the Dilaudid and Lyrica. The result (good guess!) - pain.  But there was something else, withdrawal.  Sweating, nausea, anxiety.

This was the background for the next day trying to do the exercises that had been set by the hurried, pushy physio. With pain and withdrawal, I would have to say it did not go well! Dodie had the good idea of trying to see or measure progress, to have some feedback from the movements. But somehow my brilliant ideas, involving a builders' square, masking tape, magic marker, did not find favour. In general, the whole thing ended in tears.

We decided professional help was needed, but not the hospital physio lady, and sooner than later. So I made a trip to our local private physio clinic. I explained the need for gentle assistance from someone able to understand Dodie's goals and limitations.  They highly recommended one of their staff, and a same day appointment was made.

The physio session that came of this was much different from the hospital one. After carefully listening to the history, including the Netherlands car crash and a much earlier fall from a roof, Jessica, the physio, made a careful study of the whole body, and then focussed not so much on the right knee, but the right ankle. The ankle bone  is connected to the knee bone, as we know from the old Dry Bones song.

Jessica manipulated the foot and ankle, getting Dodie to report the effect in pain at the knee.  She generally seemed attuned to all tension, tightness, and pain in the leg. She recommended only a very gentle attempt at the hospital exercises and declared the objective of reducing the base level of pain, the level before the knee is asked to do whatever "acrobatics" are in the hospital's book. It seemed to make sense. We'll visit her again Monday and see how it goes.

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Meanwhile the withdrawal symptoms seem to be lessening. This recovery does seem to be lurching to and fro quite a bit. But slowly, it may be making progress.