In the past week after my surgery, I've been trying to exercise the way Dr. Music requested. His number one exercise for my knee is a stationary bike, second, walking. The day after surgery, Charlene, who is always the greatest Nurse (for the worst patient-me), searched Craig's List and found a wonderful bike for a hundred bucks, mint condition. We picked it up the next day and I have been doing 2-3 miles a day ever since. My knee is still somewhat swollen but lessens by the day. All the muscles on my calf and thigh are very sore - I mean very sore. Back of my knee (is that the 'nape of my knee'?) is black and blue and I don't know why. Bending hurts. Just plain hurts. I have to force myself to move my right leg correctly when I walk. The pain just takes over and I walk funny, stiff legged if I don't think about it. Strange how something like walking can be forgotten so quickly in response to pain. As the days go by, I can bend it a little more, tolerate a little more pain and constantly force myself to think about how my leg is supposed to work when I walk. If I give in to the pain, I walk funny, stiff-legged, lean funny and in trying to favor my right leg, screw up my back. My back? Yea, you remember in 2009 when I started this blog - it was because I was bored recovering from back surgery. Yea, that back. So, my walking is half reflex, half thought-controlled if I don't want a sore knee and back. When I realize I'm walking with a stiff right leg, I think how my left leg takes a step and apply that motion to my right leg. Kind of a drag. I just can't go from here to there without pausing, remember to 'walk' the right leg and slowly get there. I haven't learned how to do it faster than 'slow' but I keep trying.
Today, 8 days after surgery, I went to see Dr. Music. His nurse took out my stitches - 4 on one side of my knee, 1 on the other. Dr. Music came in shortly thereafter, shook my hand and examined my knee. He made me bend and extend and was pleased with my progress. I told him that Charlene had gotten a recumbent stationary bike and was doing 2-3 miles a day and he was happy about that. He had warned me that one of the incisions would be bigger than the other but he kept having to make one bigger as he tried to get the giant boulder out (the huge one in the x-ray, previous blog post). He kind of laughed and did a replay of the operation with him struggling to get it out of the too small opening. A funny scene. He told me that the soreness of my thigh and calf is due to the fact that during the operation, they 'pressurize' the joint with water, swelling it up and stretching everything. It will slowly fade. Then, he got serious. Uh-oh.....
He told me that my knee was pretty bad and that if I treated it kindly, it would last another 6-10 years before requiring a knee-replacement operation. Then he ask, "Do you want that operation"? to which I replied, "NO!". "Do you want to know how to keep your knee?", he ask. "Well, Yeah", I said.
"Treat it gently. No jogging. No jumping. No sudden impacts to the joint. Low impact exercise - one hour a day - for the rest of your life. The stationary bike is an excellent low impact exercise and you need to use it every day. The gentle motion will help 'polish' the bone surfaces and keep them smooth and arthritic buildup to a minimum.""
And with that, he shook my hand and left. Bummer. I thought I was superman and this operation would have me up and running around like the hyper-active moron I've been for decades. But, Noooooo! I have to slow down and act my age, or should I say 'act my body condition'. Gross! Old age just plain Sucks!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Copier Knee
My first day of a 4 week vacation started out kind of weird: I was drugged, beaten, stabbed, sawed and bandaged.
Yea, that about says it all. I suffer from "Copier Knee". If you work on copiers long enough, your knees will start screwing up. After decades of "up and down, crawling around on my knees, sitting on the floor like an Indian (American, not India), the knees just take a beating.
I've had problems with my right knee for almost 20 years now and it slowly gets worse: Locks up, clicks, sends pain signals everywhere. Last November, Charlene and I were doing some shopping, walking across a parking lot when, out of the blue, my right knee decided that it was time to let me know that it probably needs looked at by someone other than the Cat. As the weeks went on, the pain increased to the point of me taking Charlene's advice and scheduling a visit with Dr. Music. He's an Orthopedic Surgeon and since Charlene sees his patients on her floor, she knew him and his excellent reputation as a knee fixer. One of my customers also gave him a great recommendation. I made the appointment, got some x-rays and paid him a visit (actually, my insurance company paid him for the visit).
You oldsters remember Marcus Welby, M.D. on TV of yester-year. Dr. Music is one of those kind of doctors: Upbeat, caring, energetic, outgoing, great sense of humor, extremely positive. He's the kind of doctor you all would want. After the first office visit, I just loved this guy! I mean, if he accidentally cut off my leg, I would still love him - he's just that great!
During my office visit with him, I had brought a paper from the x-ray people that explained 3 things wrong with my right knee, all in medical-ese that I didn't understand. He came in, sat down right beside me and took the paper and explained all three items:
1. You've got a lot of fluid in your joint
2. You've got a lot of arthritis in you knee
3. You've got a lot of 'gravel' in your knee joint.
Then he pulled up the digital x-rays and showed me the what, why and whatever was causing me pain. I've attached the really cool one here that shows a giant rock in the knee joint. Other x-rays showed more 'gravel' but not as dramatic as this x-ray:
Years of arthritis, bone spurs, calcium deposits growing, breaking off had taken it's toll. Time to operate. He said that most surgeons would tell me that I'm due for a knee replacement surgery but, (thank God) he didn't think it was that bad yet. He pulled out some Arthroscopic surgery tools and showed how the operation would go. 45 minutes to an hour in same-day surgery, home by noon. He said there would be two small incisions for the tools to be inserted in the joint and do the deed. He laughed and said one of the slits would have to be bigger than normal to get the big rock out (the one in the x ray above). If I was an office worker, sitting all day, I could go back to work in a week. Copierguy? No way - you're going to be off for a month with the abuse you give your knees. He also said I should have come see him sooner - like, 15 years sooner. So, I cleared everything with work and scheduled the surgery for yesterday morning. Charlene took me there and we arrived a 6 a.m., surgery at 7:30. Of course, in the free time before they put me under, I played with things and basically annoyed everyone. Only ask for coffee once, maybe twice.
Yea, that about says it all. I suffer from "Copier Knee". If you work on copiers long enough, your knees will start screwing up. After decades of "up and down, crawling around on my knees, sitting on the floor like an Indian (American, not India), the knees just take a beating.
I've had problems with my right knee for almost 20 years now and it slowly gets worse: Locks up, clicks, sends pain signals everywhere. Last November, Charlene and I were doing some shopping, walking across a parking lot when, out of the blue, my right knee decided that it was time to let me know that it probably needs looked at by someone other than the Cat. As the weeks went on, the pain increased to the point of me taking Charlene's advice and scheduling a visit with Dr. Music. He's an Orthopedic Surgeon and since Charlene sees his patients on her floor, she knew him and his excellent reputation as a knee fixer. One of my customers also gave him a great recommendation. I made the appointment, got some x-rays and paid him a visit (actually, my insurance company paid him for the visit).
You oldsters remember Marcus Welby, M.D. on TV of yester-year. Dr. Music is one of those kind of doctors: Upbeat, caring, energetic, outgoing, great sense of humor, extremely positive. He's the kind of doctor you all would want. After the first office visit, I just loved this guy! I mean, if he accidentally cut off my leg, I would still love him - he's just that great!
During my office visit with him, I had brought a paper from the x-ray people that explained 3 things wrong with my right knee, all in medical-ese that I didn't understand. He came in, sat down right beside me and took the paper and explained all three items:
1. You've got a lot of fluid in your joint
2. You've got a lot of arthritis in you knee
3. You've got a lot of 'gravel' in your knee joint.
Then he pulled up the digital x-rays and showed me the what, why and whatever was causing me pain. I've attached the really cool one here that shows a giant rock in the knee joint. Other x-rays showed more 'gravel' but not as dramatic as this x-ray:
Years of arthritis, bone spurs, calcium deposits growing, breaking off had taken it's toll. Time to operate. He said that most surgeons would tell me that I'm due for a knee replacement surgery but, (thank God) he didn't think it was that bad yet. He pulled out some Arthroscopic surgery tools and showed how the operation would go. 45 minutes to an hour in same-day surgery, home by noon. He said there would be two small incisions for the tools to be inserted in the joint and do the deed. He laughed and said one of the slits would have to be bigger than normal to get the big rock out (the one in the x ray above). If I was an office worker, sitting all day, I could go back to work in a week. Copierguy? No way - you're going to be off for a month with the abuse you give your knees. He also said I should have come see him sooner - like, 15 years sooner. So, I cleared everything with work and scheduled the surgery for yesterday morning. Charlene took me there and we arrived a 6 a.m., surgery at 7:30. Of course, in the free time before they put me under, I played with things and basically annoyed everyone. Only ask for coffee once, maybe twice.
Dr. Music showed up at 7 a.m. wearing sneakers, blue jeans, polo shirt. My kind of guy! The operation went very well and as I was coming out of the anesthesia fog, he handed me a couple of 8 x 10 glossy photo montages of images taken thru his instruments during the operation. I'd include more but I have no clue what is going on in most of them..... except this one - the one with the little tiny saw:
Yep, a little tiny saw cutting away all the bad stuff (the suction tool is not shown) in the middle of my knee joint. Pretty cool geek shot, eh? I was home by noon, complete with crutches. Supposed to mostly stay off it for a few days, bandage off on Wednesday, appointment for stitch removal and progress report next Tuesday. After tomorrow, I start physical therapy which consists of either a stationary bicycle or just plain walking. Lots of walking. Major lots of walking. I can't wait for that...... After I got home yesterday, my entire knee was numb, couldn't feel a thing so I was 'crutching around the house for hours. Even Charlene told someone on the phone that on a normal day, I'd sit at the computer for hours but today he can't sit still, he's all over the house. Yea, that about summed it up until the knee became 'un-numb' last evening. After that, I was on the couch, leg propped up, a took a pain pill (some really good ones, courtesy Dr. Music). Going to bed late last night was a little tougher than normal as the pain pills just took the 'edge' off the pain but still made me very aware that I wasn't going to fall asleep soon. After an hour, exhaustion won and I was out until 5 a.m. today. So much for sleeping in.......
I started out with crutches this morning for a half-an-hour and realized that crutches are mostly dangerous, at least for me so I set them aside and forced myself into careful baby steps, straight-ahead walking with no lateral twisting. It's working pretty good for now and my pain level is low so I'll probably work with it, increasing speed and stride as the days go by. For a hyper-active moron, it's maddeningly slow but I'll keep up with it per Dr. Music's orders.
By the way, my surgeon's name is really Dr. Mazurek, not Dr. Music. I'm a numbers oriented guy and can't remember names worth a damned. Initially, I could remember 'Music' so that's what I call him. His name is really pronounced like the State 'Missouri' with a 'K' on the end. Aw, so much easier to say 'Dr. Music'.
Now, I'm off to repair the roof, work on the car's transmission, mow the grass.......NOT!
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