In a few days I will surrender myself to the competent hands of one of the best knee replacement doctors in the capital district in an effort to rid myself of the pain in my left knee which has been plaguing me for a couple years. In similar fashion to its sibling four years ago I am fresh out of that wonderful commodity known as cartilage on the left and have decided to get it taken care of; years and years as a farm kid jumping off countless pickup trucks, horses and hay wagons have taken their toll. Limping around Australia and missing out on some amazing hikes along with climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge made me realize it was a quality of life issue and I began to plan for the best time to be out of commission. Ideally the heavy garden work will be over next week and I have some time before I have to shovel snow so early October seemed to be my best bet or wait until spring which had zero appeal. Another winter of being unable to snowshoe because of knee pain? No thank you. I am sick to death of fretting about having to walk somewhere far, doing the lawn in stages and having my knee balk at my beloved spin class.
Much of the mental work of being a single girl who is undergoing fairly major surgery is similar to last time but this time I am undertaking a Total Knee Replacement as an out-patient. You read that correctly. In and out the same day, and while I am pleased to be a healthy enough candidate for such a thing I’m concerned about hitting the weeds when it comes to pain but they seem to have nailed all that and I am going to give it a try; the program has a very good success rate and it’s hard to argue against lessening your infection vector by staying out of the hospital. I’m in.
As was required last time I attended Joint Class and was once again given an excellent rundown of expectations and how to prepare for surgery along with a question and answer session. When the class was over I was walking back to the parking garage with a woman who looked to be my age; she was there with her husband and shared that she was having both hips done at once. When I registered my surprise she said, “Honey, I’m a waitress and only get two weeks of time off a year. I can’t afford to do one after the other”. That was a sobering comment and for the millionth time I am grateful for a job that gives generous amounts of sick time and allows us to accrue it and really drove home some of the things people in this country do in the name of healthcare. I am truly one of the lucky ones.
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