It was a simple procedure – an arthroscopic fix of two tears in my meniscus. The doctor said he’s done this same surgery on many of his colleagues, and they are typically back at work in a matter of days.

It’s a good thing I don’t have a job to go to. I also wonder about the peer pressure inflicted on the poor chaps who work at an orthopedic surgical center and who must go through repairs themselves. I’m sure many brave faces accompany those folks who wish they were home with their feet up.

As for me, my doc, who I really do like, said I’d be on crutches for a couple of days to ensure that my knee didn’t buckle and cause a fall. I’m happy to report that I never fell, even though I did have the occasional knee buckle. That was to be expected, so I was told. He also said that after six weeks I’d feel pretty much like my old self. I thought it inconsiderate of him to mention that I’m old, but you don’t have to have great bedside manner to be a good surgeon.

After six weeks, I paid a visit to my doctor. I felt like I was letting him down in that I had pain and swelling, but he assured me that I was on track. The pain I was feeling was arthritis – another reminder of the serious number of birthdays I have accumulated. He offered a shot of cortisone, but I decided to wait it out as he said it takes three months to fully recover. I know myself, and I never finish anything early.

Since our household was on the upside-down side between my knee and my mom’s long recovery from shingles, I was relieved that I didn’t have to go to physical therapy. But I did exercises at home. I amazed myself at my commitment to get better. I haven’t exercised this much on my own since, well let’s just say it’s been a while. I also haven’t done regular things like weed around the birdfeeder. The evidence of this , I am quite enjoying. I never planted sunflower seeds, but the birds discard a lot of them. 

Thing I learned from my knee surgery:

1. Our shower head can move. Since my first couple of showers were taken while sitting down, I wiggled the shower head mount to lower it to where I could reach it. I had a measure of success with that. I could then reach it, but only because I pulled the whole thing off the wall. Bob told me that the knob on the side was to loosen the head so it could slide to whatever height I wanted. This was information I could have used before he had to remount the shower head, and for sure would have been good to know before I was standing on one leg while trying to put the shower head back together. We have lived in our house for ten years, so it’s kind of sad that I didn’t know this earlier.
2. I don’t like to exercise. This was not new to me, but additional evidence of why I don’t use my gym membership.
3. Just because the exercise sheet says for me to stand at a counter and raise my involved foot to my butt and grab it (the foot) by the hand and pull until I feel a stretch, that doesn’t mean that I can do it. I stood at that counter and dangled my arm behind me like I was fishing, but I didn’t catch a thing. When I looked to see how far I was from reaching my foot, it was sad. I tried with my other leg, but alas that knee is on deck for its meniscus repair. At least I could reach my foot, even though it did elicit a fair amount of pain in my “good” knee. The big realization is that I don’t have a good knee and a bad knee. I have a bad knee and a better knee.
4. My bad knee is getting better and is becoming my good knee. Today I can reach my foot when I reach back, but I cannot yet pull it up. I rigged a yoga band to make a pully system for my foot, but all I managed to do was tangle the yoga band.
5. When you have swelling in your knee and try to swim in a pool, the knee tends to float thereby making it impossible to swim in a straight line. Actually, it was impossible to swim at all unless I flipped over on my back because I am pretty uncoordinated. I’m happy to report that I am swimming like my old self again. Yes, I used that word intentionally.

On August 8, I will reach my three-month mark, and I expect that I will have made enough progress to make me glad I did the procedure. When I think back, I already am in much better shape with much less pain, so I’m thankful. Bob and I will be in Alaska celebrating our 50th anniversary when I hit that date. That should be the official litmus test, especially if we have to run from a bear or a moose, not that I’m hoping for that. Really, I’m not.