To Sleep or not to Sleep: 20 days post-op

I have always had a relatively good sleep pattern, and generally speaking, I sleep well at night.  But things have changed in the past three weeks as far as sleeping goes.  First of all, I found myself, especially early on after the surgery, needing naps during the day.  Generally, I am not a napper, but since the surgery, naps rule.  I have spoken about this with any number of people, including the nurse, Karyn, and Bud, the PT.  The short answer is that surgery takes a lot out of you, anesthesia can remain in your system for weeks, and therefore, you get tired easier.  Makes sense.

So I've been going with the flow, and napping as necessary.  But now, almost three weeks post surgery, I am finally feeling better during the day, and not in need of as much mid-day rest.

But the other side of that coin is sleeping at night, and that is a problem.  Common wisdom says that if you nap during the day, you might not sleep as well as night, but I don't think that is my problem.  What bothers me at night is an inability to get comfortable.    It's not so much Pain as it is discomfort.  It's best described as follows:

• I feel as if there is a sock full of sand in my knee.  It is heavy, thick, it doesn't bend the way it should. There is an alien in there. This creates a discomfort when I'm trying to get settled in bed.
• Following the surgery, there were black and blue marks from my buttocks/groin/thigh down to my ankle/foot.  These have been a minor annoyance in the overall scheme of things, but they exist nonetheless, and they make themselves known when I move around in bed.
• I have lost skin sensation in the front of my lower leg.  It is almost numb.  This adds  to the list of strange sensations.
• The staples are out, but the scabbing creates a tightness that rubs against the sheets/blankets.
• The quads are sore.

All of this adds up to a problem trying to sleep.

During the first week or so, I was taking pain meds, and this allowed me to sleep.  But once I realized the pain was minimal, I stopped the pain meds, to the detriment of a good night's sleep.  So last night at 2 am, tired of tossing and turning, I took a Percocet and slept well for 5 hours.  I chose to sleep.