just got home from knee surgery

I went in this morning for minor knee surgery... just having the last screw removed after a reconstuction 14 years ago. I have very little pain, but am having some trouble walking on it without a cane. The doc has no idea about trucking, so says I should take at least a week off. I kinda thought if it feels good enough to push a clutch come monday, I should get back at it. Thoughts?

 

Well, today I'm kinda stiff and sore, but not bad enough to take anything for it. I can handle walking on it without the cane for short (like here to the coffee maker and back) distances without any real limp, but it tires me pretty fast. Before anyone says what an idiot I am, I am writing this on my laptop parked on the couch, trying to find something decent to watch on daytime TV lol what a wasteland.

On a side note, I'm not supposed to get it wet for another 4 days... how the hell do I get all that red crap they used off my leg? It's some kinda dye or something.

 

I'm thinking maybe late next week, depends how I feel. I have no intention of pushing my recovery. I figure the clearest sign that I'm ready to go will be when my wife says "Ok, all your gear's in the truck, now GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU!"

 

Well, this surgery was nowhere near as drastic as the last one. In 1996, I completely destroyed my left knee. Blew out my ACL, NCL, and ruptured the patellar tendon. They used three 2.5" screws to reattach the tendon, which were supposed to come out in about a year, according to my current orthopedic doctor, but no one ever told me that.

A side effect of the surgery was that a nerve was cut during the reconstruction, so I have no feeling on the outside of my left knee from my thigh to my calf, and my quadricep doesn't always seem to "fire" properly.

Flash forward 14 years, and my knee had become arthritic. While it was good a lot of the time, it hurt like hell to kneel down, and my knee would sometimes fold or collapse for no reason at all. I had to be very careful going up and down stairs or climbing in and out of the truck because I never knew what it was going to do.

The last straw was that one of the screws was starting to back out on its own and finally broke the skin two weeks ago. This surgery was to remove them.

I have very little pain... in fact, it feels better now than it did before I went in. Not even bad enough to take anything for pain, but mind you, I have a very high threshold of pain.

For now, I am using my old cane just so I don't put too much pressure on the stitches, but I'm perfectly fine getting and up and going, oh, say, from my desk to the coffee machine and back, without it.

This morning though, I kinda panicked when I felt something very odd. Kind of a prickly sensation from the previously dead area. I called my doctor, and he says he would not be surprised if the screws were "shorting out" the nerve signals.

He suggests getting in the truck Wednesday or so and seeing if I can push and hold the clutch without pain.

 

Well, update time. I got through the weekend with very little pain at all, even getting out and about without the cane. Yesterday I put it to the test walking to the corner store and back. No problems at all. It hurts a bit when my pants chafe against the stiches, but other than that no problems at all. Back to the truck I go tomorrow.