New Knee Number 2

~ Bitchy After 60

Thinking that The Old Guy was doing pretty good with his first knee replacement, and thinking that he wasn’t going to have his second knee operated on in 2024, we booked a river cruise in Portugal for November. Then on June 6th, he got a call. There was a cancellation and he had a spot if he wanted it.  So what did he do? He told them he couldn’t take it because he didn’t want to ruin our trip! What did I do? I made him call them back! We have insurance and the trip doesn’t have to be paid for until later in August. We will know by then if we want to still go or reschedule.

As they say, this isn’t our first rodeo, so we were totally prepared. This time, because the weather is nice, we chose the main floor and the deck over the TV and his toy room in the lower level. We set up our main floor bedroom for his recovery. This bedroom has an en suite, one he is used to getting to in the dark. It now has a nightlight to help the cause and hopefully reduce any confusion when looking for the washroom while tired, disoriented and/or on heavy drugs. Being able to recover outside on nice days will be very appreciated. Plus, he can totally avoid the stairs to the lower level for a few weeks. 

We purchased a small TV for the bedroom that will later be moved to our son’s old room for whenever he visits. Some of his visits are three months long, and he often borrows or brings a TV for those periods. For the recovery duration, which is likely to be about 6 weeks, I have moved into the spare bedroom. I have written blogs in the past about how much I like to sleep alone so, once I adjust to the other bed, this should work out just fine.

Prior to the surgery, The Old Guy had been going to the gym three times a week to strengthen his leg muscles. We expect this to make a huge difference during his recovery. Prior to his last surgery, he had been doing all the physiotherapy exercises in preparation and that made a big difference. This time he has done so much more.

Yesterday was the big day, and he was in and out without a hitch. As with the last time, The Old Guy chose to have the spinal, which is considered, “the way to go,” by all the professionals, although many patients still don’t go that way. It’s a fear thing more than anything else. But it is a whole lot easier than coming out of anesthetic. It just takes a little longer for the lower half of your body to wake up. This particular doctor, who is so amazing you can hardly see the last scar, only needs about 45 minutes to perform the actual knee replacement operation. This is followed by first recovery when you wake up and then second recovery when the rest of your body wakes up.

Afterwards they get you walking and teach you how to go up and down stairs before you hop (ok maybe not hop) into the passenger seat of your caregiver’s car (in this case wife’s car) and go home. Actually we went to the pharmacy first because there were prescriptions and needles to be picked up that are required for the recovery process. 

We arrived at the hospital at 11:AM; and after the taking of vitals and some preliminary conversations, he was taken away to be prepared for his 1:00surgery. This is when I left. I made the mistake of sitting around waiting last time and it was a long and very hard-on-the-back day. So yes, I ditched him because they actually call thirty minutes before he will be ready to leave to give you time to get back and be there for the going home information. I got to run errands, eat nachos and salsa, vacuum, and do a load of laundry.

Post Operation

I didn’t get to do everything I had planned because he was ready to go home faster than the first time and I was back at the hospital before 5:PM. We were in the parking lot of our pharmacy, which is located in the Medical Center, just up the road from our house by just after 6:PM. We got home, heated up leftover smoked salmon pizza for dinner and I was back at the pharmacy by 6:50 to pick up all the drugs and stuff. A very successful whirlwind.

Prior to the operation, the anesthetic team injects the knee area with pain blockers which take 24 to 48 hours to wear off.  Needless to say, today has been pretty calm and The Old Guy is doing very well. As required, he has already started the post-op exercises. We know things will get harder before they get easier, and at times, it will be exhausting for us both; but as I said, we have been through this before and The Old Guy will get through it with gold stars. I have to admit, that I am very proud of him. 

And because we have been through this before, I am not wasting the tickets for a couple of Halifax Jazz Fest concerts that we planned to go to. I will be going instead with friends on both Friday and Saturday nights. As far as The Old Guy is concerned, we both know that he will be just fine.

Thank you for reading. 

Photos: Jenn Stone

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24 thoughts on “New Knee Number 2”

  2. Good luck with the recovery. I’m a great fan of spinal anaesthetics as I have had bad experiences under general anaesthetics and, quite honestly, am scared of them. With a spinal I swear you could cut me in half and I wouldn’t notice. I had my most recent urological procedure done under local instead of spinal. It made my eyes water but the upside was that as soon as they finished I could get myself off the table and walk to recovery. Far better than the normal 2-3 hour wait for the spinal to wear off then all the fuss about hving to have someone with you at home for 24 hours etc.

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  6. Thank goodness for knee replacements and the wonders of modern medicine. I’ve had my pacemaker for just under a year now. I hope the Old Guy bounces back relatively quickly. Quality of life has top be the main goal as we get older.

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    1. Thanks. Yes aren’t we lucky that we were born when we were. I always said I would have died in my twenties had I been alive in an earlier era. And The Old Guy would have ended up in a wheelchair. You are so right about quality of life.

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  9. Even as a vegetarian, I have to say ‘smoked salmon pizza’ sounds very interesting!

    The ‘doing lots of exercise beforehand to build up the muscles’ will have really helped – it really is the best thing to do. It sounds to have gone really well.

    When you say he had the spinal, do you mean he was conscious and knew all about it apart from the pain or did they put something else into the spinal which make him unaware of the procedure (I insisted they do that with me as I said it was likely to turn nasty in the operating theatre if they came at me with power tools!)

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    1. Along with the spinal they put him out but it is a lot less anaesthetic. Less side effects and better for your brain when you’re older. My husband is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s so the less things that mess with his brain the better.

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    1. He will do fine. There will be some hard days but by six weeks or less it will be over. I won’t lie. It was exhausting for me the last time and I expect it will be again. I am tired all ready from all the stuff we needed to get done beforehand. I will survive because I am a survivor. Thanks for asking. I really appreciate it.

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  11. Way to go! I did both of my knees in 2018. Best thing I EVER did (for my health). Did the right in June and the left in December. Recovery took five weeks and I was back to normal, whatever that might be. You’ll be cursing the river before you know it. BTW I ‘bopped’ on over from Yeah, Another Blogger… have a great day!

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