2024 Life Logs, Day 131: 59 Hours and Counting
Date: Friday, May 10, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 62, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
As I write this log, I have 59 hours until my total right knee replacement on Monday. If I seem a bit anxious for that time to arrive, it is because I am. For the past three weeks, the pain in my right knee has increased. Today was my worst day yet. I cannot figure out why the pain has increased, and I can’t even take anything for the pain. You must stop taking any supplements and non-essential meds a full seven days prior to surgery. But if I wear my brace, I can still walk. Without it, my knee just gives way. I hobbled around the house today trying to make sure I have things ready for the post-surgery days. There is more to do, so I will continue to tomorrow afternoon. Mid-afternoon Shadow and I walked with our new friends, Judy Fenwick and her dog Millie. Mille and Shadow basically ignore each other but Shadow was less tenuous today. When he first met Millie last week, he just cowered down and squealed. And believe me, there is nothing scary about Millie. Thankfully, today there was none of that.
I got a call today from CenterWell Home Health. This is the organization that arranges for a home health nurse to come to your home right after surgery and arranges for home physical therapy. The nurse explained that things have changed quite a bit since my left knee replacement five years ago. Then you stayed in the hospital for a night or two. But now, at least at the Cape Cod Hospital, knee replacement patients are sent home about three hours after the surgery. If you get home early enough in the afternoon, the home health nurse comes same day. But if not same day, the nurse comes the next morning. Then about two hours later the home PT person arrives. I find it interesting that there is such aggressive follow up. There was none, other than a call from a nurse, with my back surgery. After that call, I got the call from the hospital giving me my surgery time. I have to arrive at 8:45 am and will head to the operating room at 10:15. It is expected to be a two hour surgery, then post-op, recovery where you work with a physical therapist, then out the door by 3:30 or 4:00 pm IF you pass the PT’s approval. If not, you spend the night in the hospital.
Tomorrow morning starts early with an 8 am oil change (that’s for my car, not me!), then a three-hour standout for Heather at the main intersection in town. There are ten more days until the election, but tomorrow will be my last ‘official’ event. I feel terrible about the timing of my surgery. I would love to be able to help out right up until election day, but that is not to be. I plan for my first post-surgery outing to be going to Heather’s election night thank you event for volunteers, and HOPEFULLY, an election win celebration!!! In the meantime, I have asked friends to stay with me so Heather can focus on work, life, kids, election. She will take me to the hospital, bring me home, and stay with me that first night. Karen Baranowski will spend the next day with me, and then that evening Detta, my bestie from New Hampshire, will come to stay with me until Friday. Hopefully by that time, I will be mostly independent. I certainly won’t be driving, but I should be able to walk Shadow for short distances, cook for myself, etc., etc.
