Recovery day 3

I woke up this morning at 4:30.  Knees were really hurting bad.  I took a pain pill and waited for it to take effect.  Today I decided that I would try to not use the walker, but that decision was quickly put to rest. I was determined to try the exercise bike today. 

I had no trouble getting on it.  That was the easy part.  I got my right leg on the pedal then my left leg.  I should have gotten off then.  But I thought I would pedal once around. Big mistake.  Left knee came up with excruciating pain and brought tears to my eyes.  I now know that recovery will take some time and this bike is not tall enough.  I need to extend the seat at least 6 inckes higher before I get on it again. I was able to step in the bath tub today to get a shower. That was an improvement from yesterday.  I really feel for those athletes who have knee trouble because I now know what the recovery involves.  I am glad I had both done because if I had only done one knee I think I would have never done the other one.  More to come. 

Recovery day 2

Well, the pain level is just as bad as yesterday. I am able to bend my knees a little bit better today. I can walk a little better today than yesterday. Knees are really tight and without the pain medicine I would not be able to get up and down. Tomorrow I will try to see if I can get on the stationary bike. I need to ride 20 minutes a day.  I think that will help with flexibility. By the end of this week I hope to be able to walk without the walker. Still a little wobbly in the knees and there is pain if I step wrong.  Knees are still swollen and I am keeping ice bags on each of them.  That's all for now. 

Recovery day 1

So, the surgery was yesterday.  We got to the hospital a little before 6 am.  After a short wait we were taken to  another waiting area.  From there we went to a pre-op room where we had the longest waiting time. My doctor, Dr. Kenneth Bramlett, came in and marked both legs and explained what he was going to do.  Everyone we came in contact with had a surprised look or comment when they realized that both knees were being done at the same time.  The only nurse that was not surprised was the OR nurse who came in to check the size of my legs to determine if they would do both simultaneously or one at a time.  They rolled me to the OR.  The anesthesiologist asked if I was ready to go to sleep. I really don't think I had any choice because the next thing I was aware of was waking in recovery room.  Surgery completed, pain set in.  Morphine given and gladly accepted. About 3:30 pm we were home.  Below you can see that both legs were wrapped in the largest ace bandage I've ever seen.  

I had a restless night last night. I was told I could remove the bandages and take a shower this morning.  There is something about stepping into a bathtub when your knees don't bend and you can't lift your leg that makes it nearly an impossible task. Getting out was a little easier but not that much.  Here is what it looks like now.  

Doc said the left leg was worse than the right with a torn meniscus so I will be looking at possible knee replacement surgery in 5 to 10 years.  My wife, Amy, just told me that the pictures above were groce. So just imagine the rest of a smiley face drawn on each knee.  That makes all the difference in the world.  More to come tomorrow. 

Surgery

I will have my Knee Arthroscopy in the morning.  Am I nervous? Yes, about as nervous as I was the day before beginning my AT hike.  I have learned the hard way, as usual, that an older, overweight man, should not add a 40 pound pack and expect to traverse steep uphills and rocky downhills without suffering some consequences.  Even though I was the slowest hiker ever, my knees still suffered.  Really, I have had this knee problem for some time.  The hiking only aggravated the problem and caused it to worsen.  The surgery is to clean out the knees and remove scar tissue that is causing pain.  I believe that the doctor will perform a debridement on each knee.  This is to wash out the knee joint and remove or repair any damage.  The doctor said the procedure takes about 10 minutes on each knee. The recovery period is about 3 weeks before I can return to normal activity.  He also said that before I continue hiking, I had to lose 50 pounds, then I would be okay to add 40 on my back.  Of course this is something that I have known without having to be told.  I had already started on a diet and have lost 12 pounds so far.  I am cutting back on the amount of food I eat and log every calorie.  My count is limited to 1700 calories per day, and so far I have been able to stay under that amount.  I also can have snacks as long as the total is under 1700 calories for the day.  That means that snacks are like carrots and celery. It has been easy to drop the pounds so far because I have been using more calories than I am taking in.  I am not sure how the surgery will effect my diet, because the only exercise I will be doing is riding a stationary bike.  More to come after the surgery.

Pre Admission Testing

    Today I went to take care of the pre admission lab work for surgery next week.  I think the doctor is doing both knees at the same time but people keep asking if I am okay with it.  I look at it this way - I have pain in both knees now so at least I will have some pain meds when I return from the hospital.  The doc said that I would be back to normal activity in three weeks.  Enough of that subject on to the next.

     I have always hung my hummingbird feeders each spring.  I only got them out today after having several hummingbirds come looking for the feeder.  I have decided to hang some feeders off the screened in porch as well as the ones by the door.  I have had as many as ten hummingbirds feeding and fighting in the past.  I really enjoy watching them and the way they dive at you if you are sitting outside.

     The irrigation system is working fine in the garden.  I have been pulling weeds some and resting under the shade trees when I get too hot.  With the temperature in the mid 90's and 100% humidity, I spend alot of time resting.  I have 5 more rows to pull weeds from and then I will post pictures.  My tomato plants out grew their cages and I have tried to tie up the limbs to keep them off the ground.  Next year I will try the Florida weave to stake up the tomato plants.  I am going to try to make pickles tomorrow.  More pictures coming tomorrow.  In case you haven't noticed, I loaned my camera that I usually use for pictures to my nephew, Sam.  He is in South America brushing up on his Spanish.  He is staying with a family that speaks no English.  Quite interesting.   He should return next week.  He will enter Auburn (War Eagle!) in the fall.  More to come later. 

Home again

After returning home to a garden overrun with grass growing in it I have just about gotten it back into shape again.  I finally got to turn on my irrigation system and it works great.  I have also been to the doctor about my knees.  They are both blown and will be scoped next week.  Also the doctor said that I needed to lose 50 pounds before adding 40 more on my back for my next hike.  I had already decided to begin a new diet, and take it seriously.  I really love to eat though and usually eat way too much.  I have downloaded an app on my ipad that will help with the diet.  The app is MyFitnessPal.  It seems really easy to record and keep track of everything I eat and the calories that I burn through exercise.  This is not the first time that I have been on a diet.  Hopefully I will be able to stick to this one.  I did start walking again.  This was the first time since I got off the AT.  Today it was only 3.3 miles, but the knees were painful.  I was also walking in new shoes for the first time.  I also had the wrong kind of socks on.  Hopefully I will be able to walk again in the morning.  Time will tell.
Back to the garden, I have so many cucumbers that I am going to try to make some pickles again.  The last time was a total failure.  I was following an old recipe for 10 day bread and butter pickles.  Evidently I did not follow the recipe correctly since I ended up with about 20 pints of terrible pickles.  This time I will try a simple recipe for sweet pickles that are ready to eat in 24 hours.  Maybe these will be fit to eat.  I will follow up with pictures as I begin to make them.  More to come tomorrow.

Home repair

It has been a couple of days since my last post.  It was great to have Emily, Craig, and Kale Burt at our house for the week. Time flies when they are here. I did get a little work out of them while they were here.  Em helped pull grass out of the garden and Craig filled the holes left from the electrician. 

That was before the wall was patched. I still have to sand and paint.  Before they came I did trim the trees next to the house. 

As you can see the holly really needed trimming.  I had no problem going up the ladder, but coming down was a whole different story.  Pain with each step down.  I will see the doctor next week.

We are outside Warner-Robbins in Bonaire, GA at the Burt house babysitting Kale while his parents are in San Antonio Texas looking for a house.  They will be moving there next month after Emily completes her tour of duty in the Air Force.  Did I mention before that I am proud of all three of my kids and their families?  Well I am.  More to come when we return home.