Two Months and Two Days (Continued)

After I finished the previous post, I realized I was a bit lax in my self-imposed duty to provide details for those who are contemplating or preparing for knee replacement. I feel the need to be more specific about certain things.

Sleeping is still a problem. I tend to toss and turn in an effort to find a comfortable position. All of this is related to pain. I've not smoked any marijuana of late. Truthfully, I ran out and then decided not to use it anymore for the pain. Of course, I subsequently had a few days when the pain was substantial enough to make me wish for a joint. But I survived those days. I've since gotten more weed. I'm in no rush to use it. I'm feeling pain as I type this. That swim this morning beat up on me. I guess there was no good reason to do 100 yards of kicking on my back. Nevertheless, the pain is an irritation more than anything else. And I did it to myself. I don't take the shortest route from Point A to Point B when I workout. I take the long way home. I've always been like that. I see no reason to stop just because I've got a new joint (Ha! I made a marijuana pun!) that hasn't fully integrated itself into my body. When I know I'm going to have trouble sleeping, I drink some wine. It works well enough; I slept about five hours last night.

If I had a job to which I could return, I'd be able to work a desk job now. There's no pain when I'm simply sitting. There's still stiffness and a little pain once I stand up. It's nothing I can't handle. I probably could have comfortably returned to a desk job a few weeks ago.

My limp became less pronounced over the last few days. It seemed to happen overnight actually. One day the leg was stiff. The next day I was walking with an almost normal gait. For two months, my 78 year old mother and her prosthetic knees have walked slowly when with me because I couldn't move much faster than a slug. Last week she was shocked when she couldn't keep up with me.

I could probably drive a manual shift car if I were so inclined.

The joint is no longer hot to the touch. There remains some swelling. That won't abate for a few months.


The worst is behind me now. Thanks again to everyone for the kind words, good karma, food, clay fin, dog sitting and care package. All of you helped me hold it together at a time when I badly needed the help.