Knee Surgery" "How Easy Is That!"

Yes, it's been a while since I appeared here on this page. But here I am, back again, better than ever!  HA!  New bionic knee and all.....

I had a partial knee replacement last Monday, January 29. It all went fine, it was really the first surgery I have experienced and as experiences with knives and drugs go, it was quite fine. Nice people in the pre-OP area, nice people with knives and drugs in the OR and very cool people in the post-OP area as well. Maybe my impression was colored by drugs, but everyone seemed charming and kind.

The surgeon said we were wise to opt for the partial knee instead of the Full Monty Knee because the other half of the knee was "pristine" (in his words) and needed nothing. 

I was in the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and back in my house before 2:00 p.m.  Less than an 8 hour visit, a good thing, who really wants to spend the night in a hospital ward? Not me. My brother Steve came over on Monday night with pizza, my sister Kate was here for the week, everything was easy on that first night.

And then the hospital drugs wore off, sometime mid-day on Tuesday. That's when we are grateful for opioids. They sent me home with Oxycodone, tiny little 5 milligram pills that look as innocent as a white daisy. I went from taking one every six hours to 2 every 4 hours and I set my alarm for those 4 hours. The pain was rather unpleasant but the Oxy kept it in the back room for 24 hours. After that I cut back to 2 every 6 hours and then, late Wednesday, I was down to one every 6  hours and that worked fine.  But man, it was nice to know those tiny white pills were at my bedside if I needed them. I am now taking no pain pills but I still have them smiling at me in their little pill bottle, just in case.

Things are now fine. Very little pain, just a bit of hurting. The Physical Therapist comes twice a week and makes me move my leg in painful ways but that's to be expected. I can move it in ways I couldn't two days ago, so progress is being made. Now it's just the "do the exercises and wait" part of the process.  Waiting is not my strong suit. I am reading and watching TV and reading some more. The only time the knee is annoying is when I try to sleep, it is impossible to get comfortable, but that's a small problem that will eventually disappear. 

That's it for now..... time to heat up soup and try to get it from point A to point B using the two handed walker and not sloshing it all on the floor. It's a great lesson in humility and MacGyver's unconventional problem solving. Lessons I am certainly learning.

later.....