Sunday, September 09, 2012

Knee Surgery Update

It has now been 40 days since my knee replacement surgery.  And I'm still having problems with pain and swelling.

They tried all the well known, high-octane pain meds but none of them worked as expected.  No pain relief at all but all of the negative side effects worked, including a couple of scares that almost resulted in a 911 call.  One even had me hallucinating.  That was enough to make me stop taking anything but Tylenol.  And even Tylenol isn't working well.  It just takes the pain level down from an 8 to maybe a 6 or 7.  It doesn't help at all on days when I have physical therapy.

So here I sit with my swollen knee and foot, in about a level 6 pain, all the while wishing this little adventure would be over.  But, like they say, it could be worse.

Tomorrow starts a new week of therapy and they are not giving me any mercy.  They want me back to normal as bad as I do but they don't have to suffer the rest of the day, all night and into the next day from an hour of flexing, bending and other forms of torture.

At least I can still wear my "Temporarily out of Service" shirt.


Meanwhile, we've had visitors.  Our long time friend Wanda from Jacksonville came to spend a few days the week before the Labor Day weekend.  She's a lot of fun and we really enjoyed her visit.

The following weekend, Joyce and Allen flew in from New Orleans to celebrate Allen's and Judy's birthdays.  New Orleans had just experienced Hurricane Isaac and getting away for a few days seemed like a good idea.  We had a great time and everyone except me pitched in to do some of the little jobs that I haven't been able to do.  As it turned out, remodeling the guest bath wasn't such a little job after all.  Allen changed out the light fixture and sink faucet.

My Sweetie also had another birthday but she worked to make sure everyone, especially me, was well fed and comfortable.  She's a Saint, for sure.

Finally, life is getting back to half way normal.  I even cooked a pizza in the Coop yesterday.