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.