Knee Surgery

Had a bit of knee surgery yesterday. Just a scoping procedure where they went in and cleaned out a bit of torn cartilage from my left knee. Last patient of the day--in at 2 and out the door at 415. Incredible relief to have that done and already I feel the knee is much stronger. I was able to actually able to get a reasonable nights' sleep last night. What a relief! For the last month I don't think I got any more than 3 hours sleep in any given night, and when combined with all the pain medication I'd been taken, I was becoming a real wreck. It's amazing I survived as well as I did. Before the surgery, when the doctor and i were reviewing my MRI, he said he was quite surprised that I was still walking.

Even though the knee had been causing a lot of pain, for the last few weeks it had been both more shoulders that were the bigger problems. As I wasn't able to use my legs to lift myself out of a chair or even to change position in bed, I had to use my arms in ways they had never been used before. This compensation caused a shooting in both shoulders whenever I moved them in a certain way. It was very difficult to put on a shirt or to even tie my shoes and I practically had to forget about sleep. Just getting into and out of bed was an excruciating prospect, even with the large amounts of hydrocodone I was taking (vicodin).

I had been logging my vicodin usage as the big concern is if you take too much, it can cause liver damage. This is due to the acetemenophin that is in each capsule, not the codeine. Because it wasn't proving real effective for the shoulder pain, I was up to 15 pills a day, nearly twice the recommended limit. Most of that was taken at night, where I was desperately trying to get at least a little sleep each night. Finally, after seeing Shawn West (my family doctor), he prescibed some percocet, which was much stronger and was a little more effective at controlling the pain.

To make this last week worse, our hot water heater broke and flooded the basement. Tuuli was a big help in dealing with that, but it was still a hassle getting a new one installed, etc. Boxes of junk are still spread throughout the basement, drying.

But the topper was on Thursday morning when I went to see Dr West for the pre-op formalities and was told that I needed a complete physical before the operation could be approved. What a nasty surprise that was! Anyway, the physical was over and I went to work. On the way home for lunch, Dr West called and said there was an anomaly on my EKG and there was a chance the surgery might need to be rescheduled. Well, that was about the last thing I wanted to hear, but fortunately, a couple hours later he called back and said my surgeon agreed to go ahead with the procedure. The end result thought is I have to go downtown next week for another battery of tests. I asked if I could put it off for a while as I was a little strapped for cash at the moment, but the doctor insisted it had to be done in the next few days. Kind of wondering what that's all about--always thought my heart, if nothing else, was in pretty good shape. Hopefully it was just a glitch in the original test.

Anyway, feel much, much better now and just wish I had gotten this done earlier. But again, I was trying to save money and attempted to rehab the knee on my own. Obviously, as it turned out, that was a losing battle as I had two fairly severe tears to the inside of my meniscus. The pain is much more controllable now and even the shoulders are already starting to feel better. It's amazing how quickly the human body can recover!

Of course, the downside to having the operation was that I was not able to drive down to see Tiana last weekend. As she had just graduated to a higher level, it would have been great to take her off campus and spend some real quality time with her. But that's the way it goes--mentally, and probably physically too, I could not have waited another 4-5 days to get the knee fixed. It was getting to the point where my arms were compensating for my knee, my back was compensating for my arms and then my thighs and ankles were starting to hurt too. What a mess I would have been after a few more days! Not to mention having to go into work each day and just generally dealing with the lack of sleep.

It's now Wednesday and I'm finally able to remove the bandages around my knee and lower leg. That takes a little of the support away, so I've been using my arms a little more, which is bringing back a little pain in my arms. I'm down to 2-3 pain pills a day. Still haven't been able to take a real shower--hopefully tomorrow. Went to the gym last night for a light workout and the knee felt great afterwards. No swelling and I slept well.

Will go in to see the doctor next Monday for a final sign off. But right now, I'm real happy with the way the knee is progressing and don't anticipate any complications. Fully expecting to start riding my bike next week.

NOTE: AFTER A COUPLE WEEKS, SHOULDER AND LEG PAINS RETURNED AND I WAS ON MORE PAIN MEDICATION THAN EVER. DESPITE MULTIPLE VISITS TO THE DOCTOR, COULDN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON. COULD BARELY GET OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING. FINALLY WAS REFERRED TO A REUMATOLOGIST WHO IMMEDIATELY DIAGNOSED MY PROBLEM AS POLYMYALGIA RHEUMATICA (PMR), A CONDITION, OR DISEASE, THAT AFFECTS THE MUSCLES OF THE NECK, SHOULDER AND UPPER LEGS (http://www.medicinenet.com/polymyalgia_rheumatica/article.htm). MUCH MORE COMMON IN THE 65+ AGE GROUP, I WAS ONE OF THE YOUNGEST MALE PATIENTS THE DOCTOR HAD SEEN. I WAS PRESCRIBED THE STEROID PREDNIZONE AND WITH 48 HOURS ALL THE PAIN WAS GONE AND I WAS ABLE TO GO ABOUT MY NORMAL BUSINESS. THE KNEE OPERATION HAD BEEN COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT PMR SPONTANEOUSLY REMITS WITHIN 2-3 YEARS WITH NO LONGTERM EFFECTS. RARELY LEADS TO MORE SERIOUS CONDITIONS.