news of the knee

I saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday, and he saw my leg. It has interesting green and purple bruises on the upper shin and on the sides of the knee, worst on the outside. The swelling is down. He won't know for a while whether there is ligament damage, but he said it's usually ligament or bone, not both.
I get to keep the immobilizer and the crutches for another 5 weeks, until I see him again June 28th. After 2 weeks I can take the immobilizer off at home for brief periods to gently flex and extend the leg.
But it remains important that I put no weight on the right leg until cleared. If I do, I risk worsening the fracture, buggering my knee, surgery, and all that. Which also means being very careful while crutching and not taking it for granted as it gets easier (I'm assuming it does get easier).
Overall, good news, with caveats.

My endurance of sitting up, whether in a chair or propped up in bed, still runs to an hour at most, and crutching to the washroom and back means a recuperative nap. On the other hand, I was suffering generalised aches and upper-body twitches from lack of exercise.  So Mark brought me a couple of 10 lb dumbbells, and I worked out with those, and did leg lifts with the good leg.
It wasn't quite as rejuvenating as my sponge bath, but it meant last night's sleep was much more comfortable than the night before.

Big achievement the first day of bed-rest:  figuring out how to lie on my side.
Big achievement yesterday:  working out how to wash my hair (still theoretical, test to be made today).

One unexpected benefit of clinic visits is how filling out the information forms makes me grateful for my good health. I'd never thought of myself as a terrifically healthy person (glasses, arthritis, always catching colds, not athletic) but being able to check the NO box for a massive list of chronic health conditions does remind me that I wasn't that much of a loser in the genetic lottery, even if I didn't win the 'tall, with prominent cheekbones' prize.