Well Well. It has been a while.
I had notice at times I text long messages to many people and said I should place this in a blog or something. Then I decided I will do that especially for adventures that I am going through now.
So I got a Total Knee Replacement on Friday, September 25. This was something that was long over through. I had lost my ACL back in 1996 while in Taekwondo. I continue to practice the art, but the knee slowly continued its deuteriation (not sure if that's the correct spelling).
In 2007 and 2010 I had to have surgery to remove meniscus tears and after the second surgery, the Ortho surgeon diagnosed me with osteoarthritis in both my left knee and left ankle and told me that a knee surgery was in my future. Throughout time when flair up happen, I would be sent to physical therapy to perform exercises to strengthen the area and bring the pain/irritation down. This time the flair up happened and this time it consisted longer than usual. I was referred to Ortho and after an X-Ray we found I was bone on bone and the arthritis was severe. Time for the replacement.
One advantage they said I have is that with me being as young as I am (53), I should recover very well. So I had the surgery on Friday 9/25. Lots of preparation moving up to it. Also, suffered a postponement as the surgery originally was suppose to be on 8/17, but they found something in pre-testing causing me to go to cardiology. Had an echo and the cardiologist said nothing was found. So I was cleared and the surgery was moved to 9/25.
I got the house as ready as I can and arranged for my 4 pups to be watched over while I was away. Managed to gained a ride from a very good friend to and from the hospital as you all know you should not drive and not do ride-share from the hospital.
The surgery went well. Actually faster than I expected. About an 90 minutes. Mind blown. Either way, it went very well. I wish I could have met with the surgeon and anesthesiologist afterwards to go to the details, but they just don't do that as I'm sure they are extremely busy throughout the days, Didn't even see the assistants or PAs either. Oh well.
I woke up in crazy pain and the staff scattered hard to help get my pain down. I don't know if I cried, but I know I was cringing and here and there speaking about the pain, but worked to stay as calm as possible. They did work quickly and got me pretty stable. I was later moved to my room and after several hours I decided to spend the night at the hospital as going home alone would not be advisable.
Got my ride back home with one friend that is watching my oldest dog, Violet (14 years old). She brough her with and I was very happy to see her. Got home and they stayed for a while. During that time my friend worked on some other things to make my mobility even easier around the house. Very grateful. They left hours later and I was in the bed shortly after that with the good dugs in my system.
It felt weird going to bed without my pups, but it was easier without my youngest, Ryker (4 yrs) bouncing around. Violet will be back later today (Sunday 9/27) and the boys (Kylo, Wyatt and Ryker) will be back on Monday (9/28). I slept well though and the need to get up once overnight.
Every hour, I have exercises to do and have to get up and walk around to help keep the blood clots at bay. Back to Monday, I was fortunate to be allowed to work from home, through proper channels, while recovering so no worries about loosing pay. Very thankful. We will see how that works out, too. I'm sure my pups will love it.
Well that is it for now. Will journal back here maybe ever couple of days or week as I progress in this new journey.
Later...
