For at least five years, more than one doctor has recommended total knee replacement surgery so I finally scheduled it back in September with a surgery date of December 7. All of the pre-op tests with my regular doctor and my cardiologist went well so I had no excuse but to proceed. It seemed a little strange as they wheeled me in to the operating room to see a row of power tools on a table to my right. I was told that I followed the instructions perfectly related to getting myself from the gurney to the operating table. That conversation was followed by blackness and I awakened in my hospital room approximately two and one-half hours later. Not much happened the rest of the day although I did get out of bed and walk across the hallway using a walker. (Walker's walker............)
This was on Friday and I remember eating three meals on Saturday and Sunday and being hooked up about six hours a day to the CPM. This is a continuous passive motion machine that bends your leg at the knee for the length of time and angle selected. I was told that my doctor wanted a bend of at least 90 degrees before I could leave the hospital and this was accomplished with very little problem. Check-out was after breakfast on Monday and I was ambulatory as long as I had my walker. Physical therapy was scheduled to begin on Tuesday and the three days following for the first week. It then switched to three days per week for the next five weeks. My last physical therapy session is scheduled for Thursday and my next doctor visit is scheduled for February 27.
My last regular visit was January 16 at which time I was told that things were going well. I also no longer had to wear the thick, stretchy, white hose on my right leg. I think Joyce was more thrilled than me because she had to put it on me each morning. I also no longer had to take the two aspirin per day for blood thinning, and I could now use the pool and hot-tub at Gold's Gym. Joyce and I went to water aerobics yesterday for the first time in several months and it felt great! I have been driving for a little over two weeks so that lightened Joyce's burden a little bit also. Talk about cabin fever. When the only place you go is physical therapy, it doesn't take long to start talking to yourself.
AH! Physical therapy (or private torture as I prefer to call it). The first week was not too bad because of the recent surgery but then they begin to try to whip you back into shape. My only problem is that I had a preconceived idea about how fast I wanted to be whipped back into shape and just how much none-self-inflicted pain I was willing to tolerate. We had a few disagreements over this and I finally convinced them that I did not like surprises and when they were fixing to abuse my body, I wanted to be warned ahead of time and not just told to relax. I am also required to perform physical exercises on my own three times a day (seven days a week) on the non-therapy days and two times a day on the therapy days. I must confess I have only abided by this about 75% of the time due to laziness, pain, rebellion, or stubbornness.
I have gotten back to Sunday School two of the last three weeks as well as Wednesday night share time at church and Thursday night Bible Study at the Kahne's house. These three things have greatly lifted my spirits. There is nothing sweeter than getting together with fellow believers who are bound together by their love for Jesus Christ.
Here is a picture of my knees today and you can tell how much straighter the right one is. Am I even considering knee replacement for the left knee? Not a chance in a million. Perhaps as the memory of the pain wears off and the new knee begins to perform at its expected level, I might rethink it but a lot of time will have to elapse to wipe out those painful memories.
I ran into an old acquaintance from past water aerobics classes at PT today. She had her second knee replacement two weeks ago and really didn't look to be in very good shape. My therapist says that I must work out on my own until the knee is back to regular use. This will include workouts at home and at Gold's Gym. My numbers have not changed for the last 2-3 weeks so my flexibility and leg extension is about where it is going to be. The exercising is to make sure that I don't lose ground since both knees have comparable numbers right now.
Other than the loss of sleep, appetite, bladder and bowel control, slight anemia for the last couple of weeks, and other maladies that I've already forgotten, it was quite a trip. God has been there all the time but it has been difficult to get my focus off of me but then that is pretty much how I've lived my whole life....me, me, me. I didn't even have to take selfish lessons, they came naturally. My desire going into the surgery was that God would receive glory. He has because this path was chosen by him to show me that he will see me through everything until my time here is over. I praise him for what has happened and what will be happening as I continue my recovery. He is a great God and greatly to be praised.
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