I am now the bionic man

The knee prosthetic was put in place early this morning. I had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 this morning, which has some advantages since I didn’t have to sit around all day and think about it. My hope is that Dr. Lee is a morning person.

As with most happenings in life, when you go through them, you often find others in your circle with that experience. So I have been networking with others on the whole Total Knee Replacement (TKR) process. Vicki and I went to Dairy Crest to get an ice cream cone. While we enjoyed our delightful, cool, chocolate-dipped swirl of ice cream like wonderfulness, a familiar looking guy ambles up, and I recognize him as an old friend, Steve Aerni. Steve began to share his own TKR experience right off the bat: he had both knees done just a couple of years ago, feels like he is 35, went skiing and plays basketball, was in terrible pain for two months but now feels great. I then shared that I was getting mine done the next morning. He asked if I had an ice therapy machine, which I did not, then promptly went home, found his, and brought it to my house. What a blessing!

I experienced the normal pre-surgery stuff: signed a whole lot documents for which I did not know the purpose, was asked approximately 87 times my name, birthdate, and what I was getting done, stripped down so I could wear that obscene, open-back gown. And I was soon doped up and out of it.

I woke up in the recovery area, groggy, muttering nonsense to people, and having only a vague recollection of getting an epidural to allow Dr. Lee to do his cutting and grinding. A pressure wrap covered my leg from ankle to upper thigh along with an immobilizing brace. I don’t even recall being moved to another room, but found myself in a fabulous suite with plenty of space and amenities, characteristic of Mercy Anderson Hospital.

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Vicki has been a fabulous helper and Morgan came up to help as well. My pain today was manageable, thanks to Percocet and morphine. I was able to get up, use a walker, and go pee without help, which is apparently a big deal. And I was able to do all my exercises well.

What I think really helped me in the above recovery steps was that I worked out vigorously during the last few weeks. It hurt a lot. But I want to recover quickly and I figured getting myself as strong as I as possible before the surgery would help. We shall see whether or not that is sound advice for others as progress continues on my recovery.