Update on the fake knee, like you really want to know.

Six weeks after surgery and my knee is doing well, at least that's what the PT guy and the surgeon say, both whom I saw yesterday.  How would I know?  The fake knee could have disintegrated in there and I would have no idea except for the pain, of which there is plenty. (Well, it didn't, I saw the x-rays.)

Last week there was no pain for three days.  And then I worked it pretty hard and then there was pain for a week!  What to do?  Work it for the cause of "range of motion" as they say or let it languish for the cause of "pain free" as I say?  I am not sure. Why do I care about the range of motion? It's not like I need my leg to karate kick someone's shoulder.  It's not like I need my knee to make that extra point at the football goal. If the knee's range of motion is five degrees smaller than optimal, should I care?

When I go to Kaiser for the PT, they measure the angle of my "bend."  (It's the only reason I go there because they charge $17 for me to have PT there, which is pathetic since I am there for about 20 minutes.  The other 2 or 3 days a week I go to the YMCA of which I am a member and therefore it isn't a $17 copay every time. Duh.)  So, the PT guy measures the angle and for the past three weeks it has been stuck at 110.  Last week I painfully worked it enough so that the number jacked up to 120.  That is huge, so he says, the final result they expect is 125.

But no wonder my friggin leg hurt for a week, I was really working that bend! I felt happy that I got to 120 but I also was pissed that it hurt as much as it did. This hurting knee thing has got to stop. I am done with the pain, I don't care that it's only been six weeks since the surgery, I want it all to be perfect NOW!  Not in a month or three months. Now.

Sigh. The cool thing was the surgeon showed me the current X-rays of the knee with the fake "bones" they implanted and that was actually pretty cool.  They photograph very differently than real bones so the fakeness really stood out, it was like gray bones juxtaposed with new, clean white bones.  Very nice. 

OK, a boring lesson, yes. But there you have it.