Post-surgery

[unixronin]

Know what I hate more than going down relatively narrow and steep stairs on crutches?  Going down relatively narrow and steep stairs on crutches in the dark because there's a three-year-old asleep in the middle of the landing.

So, yeah, I was into surgery around 1800-1830E, and conscious again sometime around 2000-2030E.  I don't know how it went, really, except that my leg under the dressing appears to be painted pale blue and my knee hurts a lot.  I'm downstairs because between the knee pain, an infuriating endless-loop earworm, and the annoying little neurotic yappy dog next door that WILL NOT SHUT THE FUCK UP, I can't sleep.

The good news:  the post-op pain isn't really any worse than a typical Bad Knee Pain Day.

The bad news:  the post-op pain isn't really any worse than a typical Bad Knee Pain Day.  Or to put that another way, a typical Bad Knee Pain Day is as bad as immediate-post-op pain.

I just took two more Vicodin, and I'm sitting here listening to Julia Ecklar on headphones rehydrating with a can of Hansens mandarin lime soda because we're out of milk.  I also just slightly loosened the very top of the dressing (the outer wrap is one of those handy velcro-tipped Ace bandages) in the hope it'll alleviate where my thigh is hurting just above the knee.  I have a Sqush foot massager pillow on top of an upside-down wastebasket under my desk as an improvised ottoman to elevate my foot a little, but it's not very stable and not really working very well.  Getting my foot up on the desk would probably work better, but I don't think I can right now.

Comments

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Horrible knee girl has to ask - what exactly was wrong and what did they do?

When I was 16 they wanted to do full replacement surgery on both my knees. I declined, with the wisdom and foresight of a 16 year old.

I am sure technology has gotten better and there are less intrusive horrible options now...

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

lack of coffee girl forgot the most important part -

Good luck to you, speedy recovery, and while it's hurty and sucky now, just think about how much better it will feel when you are all healed up.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Lack of coffee is forgiven. :) I haven't had any today either. haven't had any fluids, actually. need to fix that. have to make tea.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, the capsule summary: what's wrong is that my knees are breaking down due to traumatic arthritis. Yesterday's surgery was arthroscopic surgery to do a lateral release of my left kneecap, the hope being that allowing the kneecap to float a little further from the knee will both reduce the pain level, and slow down the erosion of the cartilage. We did just the left knee because my orthopedist wants to see if it works on the left before doing the right.
Frankly, I wish they'd just offer me knee replacement. Two artificial knees and an artificial left ankle, and I suspect I'd be walking a hell of a lot better.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

And you'd just have to have surgery every 10 years instead of several times a year.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

10 years is the expected service life of a set of artificial knees?

Actually....

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

the FDA is saying for 80% of the population the expected lifetime is 20 years.

But I forwarded you a lot of links...

http://www.celebrationjointreplacement.com/lifetime.htm
http://www.stronghealth.com/services/totaljoint/joinreplacement.cfm
http://www.stronghealth.com/services/totaljoing/kneereplacement.cfm
eOrthopod (http://www.eorthopod.com/eorthopodV2/index.php/fuseaction/topics.detail/ID/3a680c091a62a9749e0730167371c81b/TopicID/ab58fba8c039f666668d6c4886234710/area/19)
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2004/204_joints.html
http://www.harthosp.org/orthopaedics/TJR/099.htm

GAH.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

http://www.stronghealth.com/services/totaljoint/jointreplacement.cfm
http://www.stronghealth.com/services/totaljoint/kneereplacement.cfm

And the real reason you won't get ~that~ offer is....

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Your history of infections. There is too much risk.

Also, I'm not sure if you could run with an artificial ankle.

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

Maybe I shouldn't tell you this -- don't take it as a suggestion, just an amusing anecdote: a guy once told me about making projectiles for an air rifle -- I forget whether it was a paintball gun or a BB gun -- out of ice, to use on the annoying dog next door. When the dog barked, he caused it to yelp; the evidence melted away.

Earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones might be a better strategy, though.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Cocoa and Snowy, the yappy dogs right next door, are inside dogs. So while the suggestion would work if we lived elsewhere... it won't work now.

And if we lived elsewhere, I'm getting a big enough lot that it won't matter about the neighbours' yappy dogs. :-)