I’ve been walking around the house without using the cane or walker for the past couple days.  I’m not sure if it’s better for my knee to walk around this way, or to still use the cane or walker to assist me.  That’ll be a good question for my therapist visit tomorrow.  I can’t seem to find a decent answer on the web.  That’s about it for today on my knee status, so you can stop reading this particular post right here if that’s all you’re checking in for.

Ticket sales for the movie Venom went on sale the other day, so I grabbed ours right away.  We’re excited for this one.  Matt’s a huge Venom fan.  It’ll be him, Kevin and I at the first showing on 10/4 – the day before the actual release.  Should be a blast.

I watched two awesome Stephen King prison movies yesterday: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.  Both very long, both worth every minute.  I hadn’t seen either of them in quite some time, so they were both pretty refreshing as well.  My favorite character in each?  In Shawshank it was Morgan Freeman.  You can’t go wrong with Morgan Freeman – God Himself. He even ironically refers to his own last name in the movie as he talks about wanting and not wanting to become a “free man”.  In The Green Mile it’s John Coffey (like the drink, only not spelled the same) played by the awesome Micheal Clarke Duncan.  Sadly, he passed away recently.  He was engaged to Omarosa, a former aide to Donald Trump.  The details of his untimely death were explained in her book “Unhinged”, which was primarily about her entire history with Donald Trump.  At the time I read that book, I hadn’t known he had died, so it was a bit of a shock for me.  I also loved him in the movie “Armageddon.”

Sandy recently found this old photo of Rick from his Class of 1969 Bradford yearbook, and because I was so  amused to find a “Pick-O-Rick” I just had to post it on Facebook.  Kevin found it behind the microwave in the kitchen while he and Sandy were installing our new microwave oven this week and showed it to me, asking “Do you know who this is?”  I think Sandy had already told him it was Rick, or he already looked on the back of it, which had “Class of 69!” along with Rick’s autograph.  As soon as I saw it, I shouted “It’s a…PIC-O-RICK!”  Anyone who knows Rick & Morty, the cartoon, knows “Pickle Rick”, and you can’t say it without shouting it.  I got quite a kick out of this and couldn’t resist posting it.

Waze is now being built into new Lincoln vehicles.  It’s in all of their TV ads, which shows a Lincoln driving through crowded city streets containing real-world representations of Waze in-app icons.  Goofy, but that’s expected from most of today’s commercials.  I’m just wondering if it also includes the popup ads that appear whenever you come to a stop in the Android version of Waze.  If it does, I sure hope there’s not an extra charge to get a Lincoln that’s “Waze-equipped.”  That’d be crazy.  And if it doesn’t have the popup ads, I’m betting there’s a pretty hefty add-on charge for the feature on the sticker price!  Either way, I think I’ll stick to having all of my navigation functions on my phone and use a magnet mount.  That way I don’t have any issues with built-in functionality expiring over time, if I don’t keep paying the periodic fees, or when the built-in app just gets a few years old and the manufacturer decides to no longer support it on older models and versions.  Inevitably, one or more of those very frustrating issues will happen sooner or later.  My phone also gets replaced occasionally too, yes, and updates are frequent, but at least I have more options for navigation, should anything happen to Waze or a better option comes along.  But anyway, more power to Google (who bought Waze) for getting this contract.  I’m sure it’ll make them even more billions of dollars and secure their place even more in the Navigation world.  It’s weird how Waze has hundreds of millions less users than Google Maps Navigation does though… This tide will probably start turning now.

Feeling great today.  I’ve stopped taking the Oxycodone completely.   Tylenol is sufficient.  The pain has lessened and I took another shower this morning.  I’m up to “marching” with the walker now, and primarily using a cane.  I’ve gone out on errands with Sandy a few times, in both cars, and everything is progressing nicely.  I’ll be going out to dinner again this weekend.  I love these “test” outings.

I can’t wait until I can get out and actually walk, even just out to the nearest Pokestop or Portal, which is about 1 block away, so I can start playing games again.  I’m hoping Kevin can spot me when I get to this point.  He doesn’t even bother to make that little walk himself on days he doesn’t work though… sheesh, he doesn’t know how good he’s got it.  I guess advancing his daily spin and catch bonuses just don’t motivate him like they do most other players.  Once I get out there walking myself, I plan to try to increase my distance daily until I’m back up to at least a mile and off the cane, then ramp it up back to two miles a day, minimum.

My follow-up appointment for my knee is Tuesday.  At that time I’ll find out from the doctor if I can drive yet and move my rehab to facility with proper equipment, or wait a little longer with more in-home therapy.  It’s a toss-up at this point, so I have my in-home therapy appointments already scheduled for next week, just in case.

Yesterday I went outside for the first time since the surgery.   That was nice.   It was also the first time I used my new Handy Cane (as a cane, that is) too.  I’ve used its reacher feature several times already, and it was even very handy after I got into the car–with the car door being wide open so I could bend my right knee enough to get in the passenger’s side, I couldn’t reach the door handle to close the door, so I used the reacher to grab the handle and pull the door closed.

Sandy drove my car (which in itself seemed a bit odd) going to the restaurant, but she’s a good driver.  Even so, it was still a fairly painful ride.  I could feel every bump in the road in my knee.

As a test before we left the house, I got into the driver’s side and acted like I was going to drive just to see how it felt.  I couldn’t even lift my foot up onto the gas or brake pedal without much effort and stretching.  I’m definitely not there yet, so driving is still out for now.  I’ll have to try it again in another week.  I know a few of the therapy exercises I do several times a day pretty much directly apply to these same actions, so I know I’ll get there soon.

My therapist took the bandage off today – 7 days after my surgery.  She said it looks good.  Sandy took a picture, and you can find it on this site if you look a little.  Don’t look for it if you’re easily grossed-out.  That’s why I didn’t add it directly to this post.  Not everyone is comfortable looking at that kind of horror show up-close and personal.

I guess it’s ok.  A friend send me a photo of his knee at the same point of healing, and it looks fairly similar, except he had zip ties on his wound.  I have nothing – no stitches, no zip ties.  From what I understand, they used some sort of surgical glue.

Anyway, if feels much better, and much less itchy this way.  There’s still a clear somewhat invisible bandage over it.  If you look closely in the photo you can see it.  This will eventually starts to peel off.  When it does, I’m supposed to trim the edges.  I shouldn’t try to peel it off, just work with it naturally as it works its way off itself.  My entire knee area still seems oddly “tight”, almost like it’s still wrapped in a huge thick bandage, but with some effort I can stretch it to walk and exercise.  It’s slowly coming back.

Well, it’s 9/11.  I usually re-post my original 9/11 posting from, 9/11/10, 9 years after, asking for stories, so I’ll add that as a link in case anyone missed it over the past 17 years.  Damn, this site is old:  So… where were you??

This morning I watched Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is about a kid who lost his father on 9/11.  If you hadn’t seen it, it’s worth watching.  I watched it several years ago, but didn’t remember much of it, so it was pretty interesting all over again.  I also watched the “9/11 Inside The Pentagon” special that PBS aired yesterday.  I think that one was actually new, I hadn’t heard of it before.  It was interesting as well.  That’s about it, I’m all 9/11’ed out for this year, except for our flag.  Kevin and I raised our 9/11 flag on 8/31 this year.  I figured we’d fly it for the full month of September, so I’ll take it down and put the regular American flag up again at the end of the month.

Wow.  What a Packers game last night!  They’ve got a lot to live up to, if the first game of the season is that good!  We had our Packers duds on, of course, so now I’ll be asked to wear them for every game this season.  Agh.  Oh, and yes, the play that took Aaron Rodgers out of the game (temporarily) was pretty painful for me as well!  Ouuuuuch!  I could just feel my new knee throb in pain when a Bear landed on his and forced it sideways!

Anyway, I took my first shower since 9/4/18 last night. No, I wasn’t stinky, the sponge baths work OK, but there’s nothing quite like a real shower. Sandy covered the bandage with a plastic bag and medical tape, and it held up pretty good.

I also weighed myself since a few weeks before the surgery just to see what direction I was going in. Turns out I’m up 4 pounds. I wonder just how much of that I can blame on my new metal and plastic parts… 2 pounds, maybe? Of course, then I’d have to also factor in the pieces of bone they had to trim off of the leg bones as well.  Ah, nevermind.

My therapist says she’s been going easy on me, which is standard for the first couple sessions, then she ramps things up, so this week should be a lot tougher. Uh oh. The belt-assisted leg pulls are pretty painful as it is.  She’ll be here at 8:30 this morning to get started.  Bring the pain, woman.

Haylie and Connor are here for the weekend, which is nice.  They’re a great distraction from the pain and keep me entertained.  Connor found “Little Inferno” on the Nintendo Switch and he’s been getting pretty addicted to it, burning everything he can.  I got Matt’s approval before allowing it though, that game seems like it could send the wrong message to a susceptible child if they didn’t already know better.

The pain seems worse now than it did the first couple days.  Maybe it took awhile for all of the original meds to wear off completely.  With that, and a couple of the daily exercises I do which require the use of a belt, there’s some serious pain.  The pain meds work pretty good though, I just gotta remember to give the pill about an hour before it actually kicks in after I take it.  

The Bears/Packers game is this evening at 7:20 PM, so we’ll be watching that, and the new Season of Shameless starts tonight, so I’ll have to DVR that one for sure.

Well, we were able to take the Ace bandage off today.  This is the outer wrap that covered most of my right leg.  Good thing too, because it was getting really itchy.   Underneath, covering my knee, is what looks like a very large band-aid.  The rest of my leg was covered in a blue-green ink.  My foot looked pretty alien.  But most of it washed off nicely during this morning’s sponge bath.

I believe at seven days the last bandage comes off, then we can see what my knee really looks like.  I’m going to try to take my first shower tomorrow, once we figure out how to wrap my knee so it’s waterproof.

The therapist added some new exercises yesterday, and I’m doing a little bit better every day.  Socks continues to guard me in my chair most of the day, and he’s doing a little better at navigating around my walker without getting run over when I walk around the house.

I’ve been sleeping in my recliner since I got home after surgery.  My bed is too high and too close to the wall for me to get in it yet, and it would just be too uncomfortable to sleep in it even if  I was able to get in it anyway.  I laid down for awhile in Kevin’s bed yesterday, and that was nice, but there was no way I could even take a short nap.  It was just too uncomfortable.  I was unable to find a position that felt OK enough so I could rest, so it went back to my recliner again.  It was nice to take the short walk and stretch though.  Anything movement and exercise is better than just sitting still and doing nothing.

Here’s some details on my new parts:

Wow, the Oxycodone sure sucks.  Yeah, it takes the edge off when the pain is bad, but it makes me too groggy and I can’t keep focus long enough to play the simplest of games.  I lose focus even trying to play the simplest game of Tetris and can’t get anywhere.  I wanted to try out the new Spider-Man came that released yesterday and Kevin bought.  I did, for about 15 minutes, (it was awesome) but then I couldn’t handle any more.  I’ll have to stick to watching Kevin’s live streaming sessions.  He likes to live stream his games a lot as he plays, so i might as well let him entertain me.

On the other hand, I can make it into my home office now, so it’s much easier to blog than trying to blog from my cell phone.  Can’t quite reach the aquarium to feed the fish though, so I’ll have to ring the bell for Kevin to come and do that.

My therapy exercises are twice a day, and a few of them are pretty brutal.  They leave me pretty sore, but just as the X1 Boot Suit ad says in Ready Player One, No Pain, No Gain.

Socks has been so nice, he lays right next to me in my recliner, alongside my good leg, and keeps me warm, then waits for me to return when I get up each hour to walk.

Ok, time to head back to the recliner and rest again…

Just had my first PT session.  Not too bad!  The pain is totally different than before the surgery, and it feels like I just have to work through it, and it’ll eventually fade away.  I have a list of exercises I have to do twice a day, which aren’t so bad.  Two of them are much more painful than the others, but it’s just stretching things to the point of pain, then forcing it just a bit more to work a little further each time.  I’m also walking across the house once an hour and doing breathing exercises once an hour.

And here I thought I’d have all this free time to play video games… sure, there’s more free time than I had before, but nowhere near the extra time I thought I’d have.  No problem though, it’s all for the better.

The ride home and the walk into the house was Challenge #1, and Mother Nature set the difficult level to High. In addition to the normally bumpy roads, it was raining and of course the torrential rain started the minute we pulled into the driveway. Sandy backed into the driveway so my distance to walk would be as short as possible. I took the challenge head-on, using the Walker as quickly as possible to get into the house.

I made it into the house in decent time, but we were both really soaked. Sandy changed me into some dry clothes and I finally got my achievement reward: Sitting in my recliner.

Now I’m under house arrest. LOL

I’m back home now, after the surgery. Wow, that was something! I’m still pretty groggy and my entire right leg is numb. There is intense pain with every slight movement. The ride home was pretty painful. I never realized just how bumpy Kenosha’s roads really are.

They said the pain will get much worse once the numbness from the medication in my leg wears off, which is supposed to be this evening. Oh joy, so something to look forward to. But at least the spike of stabbing pain every time I tried to walk on my bad knee is gone. Now I just need to work through this.

My therapist stopped by tonight right after work for an initial visit to go over what I can expect from the surgery, tips for the best recovery and how best to go about everyday tasks post-surgery.  I think I got this.  

My own version of preparing is just about complete now too… I have everything I need within reach of my recliner:  Laptop, TV remote, a controller for each game system, a walker with folding tray table (so I can get my Sparkling Ice drinks and a Red Solo Cup filled with ice back to my recliner), and last, but not least… A new Intel NUC all loaded up with my entire Steam Library!  That last one’s a first for me…and took quite some time to do:

Now let’s get on with it already!

Well, tomorrow is Surgery Day.   Last week my regular doctor gave me a full physical, did blood work, 12-lead EKG, etc., and I passed everything, so I’m cleared for the surgery.  I’ve been Hibiclensing once a day and Mupirocining twice a day for the past 5 days and I’m ready to get on with it.    My nose feels like it’s constantly running, I’m frequently sneezing, and my skin smells alcohol-fresh.  My surgeon’s office has turned in my FMLA paperwork and my house has received the “OK for knee replacement rehab” seal of approval from the physical therapy people.  This means my walker will fit through all of doorways in my house and I will still be able to use my bathroom facilities.  Now I’m off to one last day of work before FMLA starts.  I’ll post again as soon as I can after the surgery.  See you on the other side.

Today’s lesson is “Up with the good, down with the bad.”  I learned that from the therapist that visited yesterday to check the house for walker and handicapped accessibility.  That’s the phrase to remember when walking up or down steps–“Up with the good, down with the bad.”  Lead with the good leg if you’re going UP stairs, lead with the bad leg if you’re going DOWN stairs.  There’s less bending when descending and more when ascending, so it’s less painful doing it this way. 

I posted this mainly to help me remember it.  You know, with my CRS and all… That explains “The Good and The Bad” in the title, but why “The Ugly” you ask?  Well, that just reminds me that I need to catch up on a few good classic movies during my sick time at home… Some classic Duke and Clint is definitely on the menu!

My second opinion appointment with Dr. Michael Slimack went quite well. After explaining my situation, reviewing my history and looking at me, he said there wouldn’t be any problem with me having the surgery and he’d be glad to do it. We were shown a mock-up of the three knee parts attached to a fake leg to get an idea of how it works. It’s two metal pieces–one attached to the upper leg and one attached to the lower leg. The lower-leg piece is a baseplate for the plastic middle layer. It all makes sense and works great as a model.

By the end of the appointment I was scheduled for the surgery. It’s going to be next Wednesday, September 5th. It’s outpatient surgery, performed in right at the doctor’s clinic. I go home a few hours later with a new knee. The physical therapist I had been going to to rehab my bad knee said she’s never known of anyone having this surgery as an outpatient. It should be interesting.

Yes, it’s very soon too, so I’ve been scrambling ever since the appointment to get everything arranged and all the paperwork and red tape completed in these two weeks. Yesterday I had to go to my regular doctor and get a physical, EKG, blood tests, etc., to get cleared for the surgery, and I have an appointment tomorrow (Wednesday 8/29) with an in-home medical supply company that Dr. Slimack ordered to make sure I have everything I need for after-surgery care. Then, next Tuesday, the day before the surgery, I have an in-home therapist coming to go over everything we’ll be doing for the post-surgery therapy. She’ll be coming to my home regularly after that for my physical therapy up until my follow-up doctor’s appointment two weeks after the surgery.

Yesterday I had scheduled a half-day off of work to see a knee doctor – the same doctor who did my partial meniscectomy on my left knee in 2008.  I’m pretty gimpy at this point, and I really don’t like the idea of using a cane, so Kevin agreed to come along and push me in a wheelchair just to make it easier.  Thanks, Kev! Anyway, I was asked to come 15 minutes early to fill out the initial paperwork. I came an hour early, and STILL barely finished it all by the time of my appointment!  It was a crazy stack of my history, my medications, my FAMILY history, surveys, etc. etc., and I didn’t want to mess any of it up, so one hour early turned out to be just right–though the receptionist did say “you’re REALLY early, just in case you didn’t realize it” when we arrived.

Promptly at my appointment time I was taken into an X-Ray room and a few X-Rays were taken.  My regular doctor had ordered X-Rays a week ago, which I went to the hospital and had done that same day, but the assistant said these are a different set of x-rays specific to my knee issue.  After several minutes of performing various poses and bends for x-rays–some of which were pretty painful–I was taken to another room to wait for the doctor.

Sidenote: Next time I’ll know–skip any tests my regular doctor wants to do, and just go see the knee doctor for knee issues… I’m pretty sure the first set of x-rays were a waste of time and thousands of dollars of insurance money (and probably a chunk of MY money, I just haven’t gotten the bill yet–

My knee doctor came in after a few minutes, showed me all the x-rays and explained the options.  Basically, my right knee is partially bone-on-bone. There is very little meniscus left. This, and arthritis on this knee, explains all my recent and increasing pain.  My regular doctor has prescribed Tylenol with Codeine, and my knee doctor said this was a bad choice–Codeine will not help with this kind of pain at all. He told me to stop the Codeine and he prescribed a different medication.

He went on to list all of the available treatments, and narrowed things down for my particular situation.  Here’s where I stand: My right knee needs to be replaced, that’s a given. The question is WHEN. Insurance companies recommend this as a last-resort option though, especially for someone my age, preferring instead pain management and therapy to reduce the pain and increase mobility and quality of life.

In my particular situation, the doctor said he won’t do the surgery anyway, until my BMI is 40 or below.  He said 30 is optimal, but he’ll be realistic and settle for 40. I’m currently over 50, he said. Google says it’s 48.4, but what does the Internet know?  Anyway, it’s too high, so I need some serious diet and exercise changes. All of this will help a lot with my health and fitness overall, as well as allow me to get a new knee, so it’ll be good all around.  I’m waiting for a nutritionist to call me so I can get a solid plan setup and going. But I already had my initial evaluation for Physical and Aquatic Therapy last night.

I am scheduled for many appointments for PT and Aquatic Therapy already, which starts Tuesday 8/14.  I’m still struggling to see how I’m going to continue to lose weight if I’m not walking my two miles a day, but I do have a schedule of exercises to do at home already, and I’m supposed to walk a little, but only as much as my knee can tolerate.  I’m not quite sure what that means yet, or how far I should I should push it each time though… Until I’m crying from the pain? Just short of that? Until the pain is to the point I can’t think straight? How do you measure that?

So that’s it.  I can’t just get the new knee and shorten the recovery time by several months or years… I have to work through it for my overall health improvement, and then, when I’m finally feeling great, much less fat and in less pain, THEN I can go through the trauma of a full knee replacement and start all over again.  Dems da rules. Let’s do this and get it done!