One down, one to go

My personal journey has reached a key milestone.

I was told it went in perfectly, so now I’m working on being the bionic man with a new left knee.

Yesterday I finally reached the initial part of the milestone I first told you about back in August. My left knee joint is now a Zimmer product that won’t be beset by arthritis anymore.

While I didn’t lose the entire 50 pounds he would have liked, I have taken care of the edema issue, and the BMI is on the outer reach of what he deemed acceptable, so here we are.

I was first in the chute and had to be at the hospital at 5:45 a.m., which meant my wife and I really had to be up at 3:30 to drink my carb-loading drink and take one last shower with the special soap, plus pack my bag in case I stayed overnight, which I didn’t. Once I walked a little bit down the hall and proved I could get up and down stairs by hugging the handrail as they taught, I was good to go. (It was easier with the nerve block, though.)

I suspect that block wore off closer to the 8 hours than the 40 some people get to enjoy: at about 24 hours post-op I can say the biggest difference is pain, which seems to be concentrated at the top of my incision area. Yeah, my knees were sore before, but this is sort of ridiculous - then again, I’m sure there were some internal cuts to muscle that have to heal.

Fortunately, I don’t have to go anywhere since I haven’t had PT set up yet - and they may not get to it Monday either with the possibility of blizzard conditions and a foot of snow here Sunday night.

It’s also good luck that I can work both my jobs from home, as my employer allows remote access to his server. I already have a building to work on.

As for this site, I may take it easy for a couple days and push MER to next week. I’ll probably do a repost on Wednesday and work on Odds and ends for Saturday as my condition improves. It’s been a bit of a jumble here as I’ve relocated to our reclining couch and have been taking the pain meds prescribed. (I actually relocated my CPAP machine out here and slept on the couch.) By week’s end I should be less loopy.

But step one is complete, and hopefully later this spring I’ll have the other knee replaced and can get on with life, a little bit lighter and more mobile.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there.