Mama's Got a Brand New Knee!

When I retired a few years ago, I wanted to write a blog about my experiences as a Boomer exploring the delights of being on daily vacation.  Maybe the younger Boomers can learn what they have to look forward to, I thought.

Now I'm experiencing some great stuff, but also the less fun stuff of being over 60. For example, I had a knee replacement a few months ago.  Now that I can finally walk with a cane, it seems that whoever I talk to about the surgery has either had the surgery themselves, or tells me about a relative who's had it.  Just like getting my ears pierced when I got to college, knee surgeries seem to be a trend now among Boomers.

If you haven't had your own new knee yet, I'll describe how my surgery and recovery have gone.

Since it was the first surgery I've ever had, I was unprepared for the experience of being helpless in the first couple of weeks.  Staying in the hospital for 3 nights didn't seem long enough, in spite of my fears of being there.  At least my hospital had private rooms, which was a nice surprise.  But then, I was so out of it that  I couldn't really experience the room.  I didn't even want visitors the first day because it was too much trouble to talk. And I lost a few pounds because I couldn't stand to eat for weeks.

The medical people all say knees are the worst, and I believe them.  The first 2 or 3 weeks, I couldn't even lift my bad leg onto the bed by myself.  And certain moves brought actual tears to my eyes.  

 I was lucky to have a physical therapist visit my house twice weekly the first month and show me which exercises to do on my own, and I did them. They helped.  I was off the walker after a month, though I still use it, after three months, to go to the bathroom at night and in and out of shower.

The drugs were pretty heavy at first, and I had to change to weaker pain killers Week Two, when the Percocet made me paranoid at night.  And it took me a couple of months to drive and to stand around the kitchen long enough to make something to eat.

But my healing went great, and I'm amazed at how my incision healed fast and seemed amazingly small for somebody to stuff a whole new Titanium knee in there.

Almost four months after surgery, I'm doing fairly well, although there's still pain, especially after an hour or two of sleeping in one position.  But I finally went to a movie once, and even to Nordstrom.  Various sources say it takes from 8 months to maybe a year to fully recover.  We'll see.

Right now, I'm hopeful that the recovery progresses, and that I can travel again, maybe next year.  And that I'll again be able to walk, pain-free.  It's getting better every week.