ironclm's world

3:00 A.M.

It's 3 AM and I'm wide-awake since they seem to come into my room about every hour to do something. Yesterday Kristi picked me up and drove me to the hospital. I was there early so I sat in the lobby until my scheduled time and then went to Admitting. Filled out my paperwork, got my wristband, and then teammate Paige arrived to wait with me. And wait, we did! About 55 minutes later they finally called my name and we went upstairs. I got changed, got blood pressure, temperature, pulse and all of that done, then the nurse came in to put in the IV. At that point, water seemed to burst out of my eyeballs involuntarily. I told her about my needle phobia and she said they could give me something for anxiety but...it would have to go through the IV! The head anesthesiologist came in to explain what they were going to do and the surgeon came in to sign my leg. Then they let Paige come back and we sat some more. The resident came in and then finally the other anesthesiologist (the one who would be with me the entire time) came in and gave me the happy juice (but I didn't feel so happy). Then it was time to go. In the operating room it took three tries to get the spinal, so everyone who said it was a piece a cake and I wouldn't remember it, that was not the case! They finally got it in and the next thing I know, I was in recovery with numb legs and the inability to open my eyes. Eyelids - so heavy. But no pain. I eventually was able to wake up a little more and was finally taken up to the room. I was hungry so they got me a tray of food and what I really wanted - COFFEE! Later the resident came in and said that everything looked really good, though they had had to put me under a little more because when they started, my leg jupped. So it was a spinal plus a deeper sleep, but not general anesthesia. No PT last night since the nerve block had not yet worn off. That also means the bedpan. Lovely. Now I t's 3:00 A.M. and I'm wide awake. I'm taking the pain meds on a regular schedule (oxy every 4 hours, Toradol every 6 hours). Time to try some more sleep. I'm sure it will be a busy day ahead.

How About A New....Knee?

It's hard to believe I haven't updated this in over a year.  Very little training and even less racing to report.  The past year has been work, physical therapy, work, travel for work, sit too much, exercise not enough, and go to some hockey games.  And now, tomorrow, I face surgery to get this bum knee fixed once and for all.

Last fall involved quite a bit of travel for work, all condensed into a short time frame.  I also decided to become a 13-game season ticket holder to the Nashville Predators NHL team.  I found my new love!  They do a really nice job for customer experience and the team was good too!  In fact, I found I loved it so much, I became a full season ticket holder for this upcoming season.  

 

The winter again was rough - too cold for me, even a snowstorm that shut down the city, then a month later, an ice storm which again shut down the city.  Still too much work, continued physical therapy, more work travel, not enough training,  but I did get to spend half a week with the gals in the high desert of Los Angeles County.  I was unable to go last year and really missed it.  My knee was hurting a lot so I mostly did some walking and swimming.   No biking, which was a major bummer.  

After that trip, Jonathan, my PY, said he had some pretty much all he could do.  My strength was better, we'd gone from 15 degrees to about 5 degrees shy of full extension, but to make it any better, I really needed surgery and a new knee since I was bone-on-bone. He suggested seeing a non-surgical orthopedic doctor to see what he said, so I did.  He suggestion injections (no thank you), a topical creme (that gave minor relief), get fitter/thinner, and last resort - knee replacement surgery.  Not what I wanted to hear, but the same thing my ortho in SF had told me in September 2009. ("You will eventually need a knee replacement.")

May - June - first part of July - more work travel, work, some riding, a couple "races" (more of me just paying the entry and riding around), then when I saw my GP in mid-July, I told him that maybe I'd go see the ortho he suggested.   I "raced" on my birthday and could barely walk for two days.  So that's how I ended up  at Dr. Andrew Shinar's office on August 17th.

X-rays, exam, history, and admitting that I couldn't really ride my bike and that sitting or walking or standing too long really made my knee hurt, made me realize that my quality of life had gone down.  So surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, August 26th.  TKR - total knee replacement.

Not thrilled about it, but it needs to be done.  On Friday I had a major freakout session when I think everything finally hit me (and I realized that he wants to do a spinal), and I came this close to canceling the entire thing.  But I didn't.  So tomorrow I head to the hospital and in the future, back to riding the bike, walking, weights - getting back in shape.  Time to rehab and then start training for the 2016 racing schedule.

Wish me luck.