Knee Surgery

Dressing for the hospital

So, Thursday. I had my knee "done", as we say.  I had a torn meniscus, and also have significant arthritis in all my joints, so success is uncertain. But it was limiting me. I could walk, it didn't hurt when I was just sitting around, but it was limiting me. I couldn't run. I couldn't go down very many stairs. I couldn't drive a spade with my foot. So I did it.

My brother-in-law dropped me off at the hospital and remained on-call to pick me up for this out-patient procedure. Everyone was so nice!  They kept asking how I was, and chuckled as I whined about my dreadful no-coffee headache. Within an hour of walking through the door, I was in the operating room and going under. The plan, which apparently worked out, was to trim the torn meniscus, smooth out the arthritis-roughened areas, with just four little incisions at the corners of my knee.

The next thing I remember was the recovery room, where there was a very rough few minutes - absolutely no idea how long. My knee hurt like hell. They pumped drugs into my IV, and asked every few minutes for a number to describe the pain (a 9 to start!) and pumped in more. I tried and couldn't focus enough to meditate, but I still thing the attempt was useful. In the meantime, I remember through a haze the surgeon came by - and I remember him saying "no surprises" but nothing else - and the nurse started up a conversation. How come I'm so healthy? Why is is that despite my (apparently advanced) age (and, unsaid, heavy body) I have no co-morbitities? I'm a runner? That must explain my low heart rate. She hopped on the phone to the nurse in the next stage to say "Bringing in a 63 year old knee patient. Don't worry about her heart rate. and blood pressure. She's a runner.". I got wheeled into the next room as my nurse from the previous stage was writing down the name of my trainer at the gym.

As long as he doesn't touch the actual knee, it's nice

Amusingly, the next nurse took it up right at the same place and also wrote down the trainer's info. By then, I was in a happy haze from the drugs, and finally got an actual cup of coffee, with apple juice, water, and graham crackers. I called my brother-in-law, got dressed, and was wheeled out to the car clutching my percoset from the hospital pharmacy and my ice bag.

I walked into my house, with my brother-in-law propping me up. Ensconsed on the couch, I visited with him, looked at the internet on my phone, and remembered the admonition to not sign any legal documents for 24 hours after anesthesthia. I felt fine, but decided the admonition pretty much should also apply to social media.

Later that day, my niece came over to stay for a couple of days. The night and the next day are a haze of disordered thinking and weird dreams, with no great pains as long as I didn't move wrong unconsciously. I hated the haze, but I had been warned by knee surgery veterans to not let the pain get ahead of the drugs. I kept a log on the white board on the fridge in my kitchen: when I took the perc, did the math for soonest I could take the next one, and wrote that down as well. The night of the surgery I got up in the middle of the night to take the next one on the dot, turning on the kitchen light, double-checking the written-down time against the clock, reading the pill bottle label to verify the right thing before taking it. But, by mid-afternoon I was stretching the percoset out. The drug has tylenol in it, so I didn't want to jump into tylenol without a taper on the perc since I'm hyper about tylenol and liver damage.  Mid-afternoon of the day after the surgery, just over 24 hours from the operating room, I walked around the block. SO slowly, but still. I used hiking sticks (actually, a hiking stick as a cane), which helped both steady me and take pressure off the knee. I did this for the ability to be able to move - I needed to move! Even though it was raining, the fresh air and the sense of accomplishment were fabulous. Ice every hour while sitting still. My niece and I spent time with movies and TV. I got 4,000 steps for the day! I had laid in supplies of both vegan and non-vegan comfort foods, and we each prepared our own, relying heavily on the microwave.

Size of a volleyball

The next day, yesterday I guess it was, the big move was taking off the bandage. It had effectively immobilized the knee joint itself - I could walk but not bend. Tight when it went on, it was loose and droopy because swelling had gone down. I have the impression the knee plus bandage was basketball sized when I left the hospital, and was down to a volleyball size when I unwrapped it. SHOWER and then four little bandaids over my four little incisions is the only dressing I have. Crazy. Still swollen and visibly bruised.

Tylenol and ice. A trip with my niece to my new basement gym (slow on the stairs, "down with the bad, up with the good", each step with two feet on it). Besides the prescribed exercises, back exercises and some upper body. Five minutes on the treadmill, at two miles an hour.

I can't drive until I'm comfortable bending and flexing the knee - it's my right leg - so we took a Lyft to downtown SS and had a late lunch at the diner. I had thoughts of walking around, but it was pouring and I thought better of it, so we swung into a pharmacy for bandaids and took the ride home. (I did shuffle around the block again when home.) Another movie (willing to rent from prime to catch up on things I missed in the theater) and an early bedtime because I had no nap. Never needed the percoset all day. The surface stings, the underneath aches, but it all feels better for moving and with tylenol and ice it's certainly tolerable. The big thrill was with my bandage off, I was able to roll over onto my side to sleep. Hard to describe the comfort and joy that gave me, after two nights wedged on my back with pillows under my knee and elevating my foot. I got 4,500 steps for the day.

So now I'm on my own, more-or-less back in my right mind (no wise-cracks, please) and aiming at even more exercise and activity today. In fact, while yesterday involved watching movies and reading books, I think today may involve turning my attention to productive pursuits - like enhancing my paltry prep for Christmas. They are not expecting me back at work until Wednesday. I may Uber in, but I'll put in an appearance at the office then. Also likely to sign on work computer and review emails tomorrow or Tuesday, and perhaps Uber out to see my mother tomorrow (based on pouring rain, I'm begging off today). I'm focusing on me and getting better, but frankly it isn't that time consuming and I'm just a bit bored. The most difficult thing I'm doing is trying to satisfy my fitbit that I am moving sufficiently every hour of the day - getting up and taking about 250 steps, which usually leads to other waving of arms and bending of knees before I sit down again.

I'm looking forward to being able to do lunges and squats. Quite a ways off, but part of my goals.