Post-Op Knee Care

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Took longer than I thought to complete this medical blob.....haha....”blob”....of course, I meant blog. Senior moment or poor typing. Let’s go with the latter. Beside being in my recovery and recuperation mode, we have had other activity going on. Onward and upward we go.

Each morning, I go outside to sit and visit with our friends. It’s so great having them around....as we have said before and Art reminds us “we are all family”. Our family really became complete when Sam & Sandy returned to their site next to us. Hooray! So good to see them and resume our lives where we left off several months ago.

The day after I returned from the hospital, a sales rep showed up with a device called Kneehab. It was an electrical stimulator to wake up my thigh muscles.......wow!....they woke up and never went back to sleep. At first it, wasn’t too bad using it but by the third day, I was howling in pain (Yup....I finally let out the screech heard ‘round the world”). Bruising had moved up and around my thigh and it must have jostled and beat my blood around so bad that I thought my leg was being eaten by a pack of piraña. Oh, the pain! I don’t know what was going on but it wasn’t good. I could use the remote to control the intensity but I was going the wrong way with my numbers....my baseline started with 85/95. This time it was 0/0 cause I ripped it off my leg ...best I could cause it was all stuck to my skin like a jellyfish. The pad didn’t really fit...too long on my thigh so some of the gel pads were folded over. It wasn’t good....any of it. I called my care coordinator to inform my doctor that this device was not adaptable for my needs and I was sending it back. He probably promptly documented in my chart: “non-compliant patient”. So be it. I’m not into S&M so why would I inflict myself with such horrific and extreme pain? Why? It was eating my leg alive!

Okay. The next day we received a call stating that they could not arrange home (RV) help because I didn’t have an attending (internal) physician. Of course, I do in NY. I tried to get one here in Florida but everyone I called aren’t taking new patients until after the first of the year. I have an appointment with one on January 7th but that wouldn’t help me now. Fortunately my care coordinator went to work and resolved that issue through a transition doctor.....no idea who he is (never saw or spoke to him) but he must have signed the needed papers because the next day, the Nurse saw me at our RV and had PT come out to me that afternoon. All good. They were impressed with my present status. PT did an assessment by taking me through some exercises....all good. No problems....no pain. Walking with my walker easily and pain free. Hooray. Next day, another PT guy showed up......he was the bicycle man! I had bought a small floor pedal bicycle last year at our park’s yard sale for $1.00. He had me use it. Ooooooooo. Not so easy! Hummmmmm- I’m not liking this too much. But I did what he told me to do.......Owwwwweeeeee. He had me do other exercises. Whew! Now I had the first guy’s exercises, the second guy’s exercises and some sent from Advent Health via a video. God, if I did them all, I would be exercising 24/7!! No way, José. Now what!!?? What is this anguish? Owwwww. My left hip hurts....bad! Feel sorry for me? I hope so. This is impeding some of my exercises. Owwww. Not good. Back comes “bicycle man” and wants me to pedal again......No way, José. I’ve buried that machine. I told him about my sore hip. He felt bad. We did some ROM exercises that didn’t involve my hip. So now I am alternating a heating pad on my hip and ice wrap on my knee. My leg is so confused it’s a wonder it doesn’t just drop off. I was happy to get rid of the ace wraps and compression stocking. My affected leg is still very swollen and firm to the touch. Two times , years ago, I went to the Smithsonian Medical museum and saw a leg in a big jar all swollen up from elephantiasis. My leg could be in a jar next to it! Feel sorry for me? I still have the surgical dressing on. NO! That is not a maxi pad on my knee.....it’s the dressing! Of course, Lulu has stuck right with me. She likes lying next to my leg cause it is warm. It’s getting chilly down here in Florida: 70’s...brrrrr. Cory has had the worst of it.....remember how I said I make a bad patient. He can attest to that. I think he’s mighty weary of waiting on me. Of course, I want everything now. Cory works at his own pace. But we are getting the job done together. Thank, God, for Cory. I owe him big time. He’ll make me pay up, I know that.

I’ve had great support and help from our friends, too. My cheerleader Art has lent me his “Jet Stream Water/Ice Machine”. It works and feels so much better than the hospital’s ice pack. Sonny came by and changed around the wheels on my walker. He put them on the inside of the device rather than on the outside. I had been banging into things inside of the RV....limited maneuverable space in our cozy house. Crash...Bang!

We have been gifted lots of delicious food. Cory is thrilled by that because he was not made to be Wolfgang Puck. My beautiful flowers are still bright and beautiful. We so appreciate the kindness of all our dear friends.

Now, while all this is going on, we have listened to a sound all day that sounds like a small dog barking.....all day. For 5 days!! Over and over and over. Yep....that’s right. What is it you ask? I’ll tell you. It is a rhythmic scraping noise. Our motor home has a protective, clear cover over the front of it....called a Diamond Shield. It protects it from stones, bugs, etc. FOR AWHILE! Remember when we drove to Red Bay last year and the love bugs were covering our Diamond shield and windshield completely? Cory did the best he could to wipe them off each night but some didn’t budge. They left an acid deposit into our Diamond Shield. We also had dings from stones striking against it....nothing you can do to stop that. These made teeny holes in the shield allowing moisture and mold to form under the shield. It looked disgusting! A real mess. Yuck! Worse than a fungus toe and on a big scale. The main Diamond Shield company is in Rochester, NY. Originally, we planned to take our RV there this summer and have it removed and replaced ($$$$). Since we didn’t take the RV with us, it didn’t happened. One day I happened upon a web site on our RV app site and this guy advertised he removed Diamond Shields! Ring, Ring, Ring! We called him immediately. Yes, he would come to our RV (oh, heavenly) and do the job on site (thank you, God). He has worked and worked and worked and scraped and scraped and scraped for days....all day! He is a meticulous worker and a perfectionist.....oh, hallelujah that we found him...Chuck the miracle worker. Even though he said our RV was far from the worst he had seen, he has worked longer than planned. He first said 3 days....it has been 5 days and he still has to do some more polishing after something he’s put on it dries. That will be another 1/2 day. Wow. We paid for the job not by the hour so we are more than satisfied. He was reasonable in his price to begin with and we couldn’t be happier with his job. Highly recommend him to any one who may need this procedure done. It’s a horrible, strenuous, tedious job and then do it all day in the hot sun....what a guy! Our friends, Walt & Diane, are having their Diamond Shield removed by him starting soon. They’ll be happy.

Halloween here at the park was celebrated with several fun filled events. A group of us sat outside our RV and watched the ingeniously decorated golf carts pass us by. They were so festive. We had a few trick or treaters come by. We used safety measures to pass out our candy to the scary goblins. Lulu dressed up in costume. She wore my surgical hair cover so of course, she was commended for being my scrub nurse.

I did find a couple photos that I had missed from my hospital stay. Don’t want you to miss out on any of my grueling experience. I do have to admit.....it was a piece of cake.....no problem....up until now - and bicycle man and my sore hip. That will improve and I won’t have anything to complain about. Well, maybe.....not sure how comfortable it will be when the doctor’s P.A. removes by zip strips. Zziipp, Zziipp, Zziipp......Ow, Ow, Ow! I’ll try to behave. Doesn’t happen until Nov.11th. I’ll take pictures!

So that’s the Saga of Sandy’s Knee Surgery. Couldn’t have faired so well without all of you helping me along. Yeah, where were you when bicycle man made me do the pedal bike? Just kidding. Cory, Lulu and myself are truly grateful to everyone who played a part in my surgery and aftercare.....as you can see you rode the surgical knife right along with my doctor. Don’t put away your nursing tools.....I’m going to check with my doctor about having my other knee done. I’ll be running marathons before you know it. I’ll strap Lulu to my back cause she will want to be right there with us. What a great side-kick. She keeps asking me to see if the doctor can give her some knees.....not going to happen. She doesn’t have any health insurance.

We used absentee votes!

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Photos

Sam the Cannon Man is back
Wonderful Friends

Wonderful Friends
Their transportation

The torture machine: the Kneehab
The representative who brought it

Swollen, bruised thigh. Dressing on my incision
Not a maxi pad! Fat leg is less swollen now.