What can I say about this day. I showed up they put needles in I passed out, I woke up with a newly scoped knee. What actually happened while I was out I could not tell you. I had the surgery at Methodist hospital in McKinney Texas. My day was less about the surgery and more about wondering how much everything will cost in this 5 star type hotel/Hospital.
In this hospital it is pretty difficult to tell if you are in a hospital until you are in the pre-op area. I have had the pleasure of staying in some nice hotels and this hospital would rival any of them. Is that what we need our health care dollars to do? I guess that if you were interested in the country's debate regarding health care you would not be reading this blog.
My right leg was wrapped from mid thigh down to my ankle in an ace bandage. I could see the swelling and it hurt a little but not enough to make my wish that I had filled the prescription for 30 hydrocodone (see the previous post). The final instructions from the doctor were pretty simple. No running, no lunges and no deep knee exercises. Everything else was pretty much left up to my discretion. I was given crutches and told that I could put as much weight on it as I could bear. So off to home it was. All in all I got to spend about 3 hours in the 5 star hospital.
Not much to say about the remainder of Monday or even Tuesday. I enjoyed being cared for by my wife. By Tuesday afternoon I was just a little stir crazy. So I logged into work and addressed a few details and that's how the first couple of days went. Also I definitely did not need any pain meds I took a few Ibuprofen over those first few days and that was it. By Wednesday it was back to work.
My paying job is to teach computer classes (teaching nerds to be better nerds as I say). Almost all the classes I teach are 5 day classes. When I take a few days off during a week I am pretty much useless to the company for the remaining days of the week. So the remaining days of the week were spent prepping future classes and reviewing the network in the facility. All in all it was a pretty uneventful week (other than the surgery). By Wednesday I had pretty much ditched the crutches, and was getting around fairly well.
Prior to all this my wife had planned to go away Thursday to Sunday with friends. Since I was recovering well she went off to her weekend and I was pretty much on my own. I did have some help if I needed it. My only concern was that there would be a major incident with the house/car etch. that I would not be able to deal with. I could get around ok but I still had trouble bending the knee. I would have been unable to crawl under the sink and fix a bad leak or get on the roof if the wind had blown some shingles off. So I had the husband of one of my wife's traveling companions on call if I needed help. Thankfully the weekend was quiet and without incident. The most exciting thing all weekend was taking the dog to the dog park.
Through this week I did no training. My coach wanted to wait for the follow up appointment. This was scheduled for the Wednesday the week following the surgery. This again was uneventful. The doctor was interested in 2 basic things. 1 the incisions were healing without infection and that I could sufficiently bend the knee. It took about 2 minutes to verify both of these. No pus no infection, I was sitting in the examination room with my knee at about a 30 degree angle when the doctor came in, so that confirmed the knee bending thing. Again simple instructions, bike and swim as much as possible. Weights training anything but lunges and deep knee stuff and still no running. I made an appointment for 1 month and off I went.
Next post back to training.
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