Knees News

Whenever Kym begins a conversation with, "OK....."  I know it's not going to be a good conversation.   So, OK.  I have to have some knee surgery.  It's actually an arthroscopy on my replaced knee, in hopes of relieving lingering pain when going up and down stairs and tightness when bending it.  "Scar tissue impingement", they call it.  So, surgery is schedule for Oct. 6, a Monday.  I will have a followup appointment that Friday with the PA, John, who will release me back to work.  On the following Monday I have to go to therapy to remove the stitches and evaluate whether I am in need of any actual therapy beyond that.  Years ago, when I had the arthroscopy that started the gradual downhill slide that became the replaced knee, I was on crutches for three days, so I need to make arrangements for some new crutches (I think I can rent some from Schnucks).  I have approval from work to be off that week, but beyond that I just don't know.  I hope I won't have to be off any longer than that.

I'll be gone next week to Florida, and then I'll be back to work for two weeks, the first of which is inventory week (and I have been promised extra hours).  Then I will be off for the surgery.  So I think, if I got my timing correct, I am looking at one more "regular" check, then two one-week checks, which isn't great.

When I went to the doctor last week, I also asked him about my left knee.  It clicks and pops and locks so much sometimes that it's almost nauseating, but it rarely hurts.  In my mind, there must be something they can do - short of a knee replacement - to stop the catching and clicking.  But he said he doesn't even want to talk about that one until we get the other one fixed.  I agree with that, but what he actually said was he didn't want to talk about replacing the other until the first was fixed.  Uh, I wasn't planning on going that far.....  

But now that I have had time to think about it, maybe it makes sense to think about getting it replaced (after the right one is fixed).  I definitely don't want to do it if the right one stays this way.  I don't want to limit myself to the condition of my right knee on both sides, you know?  Even if the left one is creepy and clicky, I can still kneel on it and bend it all the way.  I have committed to walking part of the Camino in 2016, probably October.  But let's say my left knee stops being clicky and starts being clicky and painful - that's a problem.  So I have kind of been thinking about this timing:

1. Fix the right knee now.

2. Work tax season at the tax place and summer at the garden place.

3. September-ish, get left knee replaced.

4. Work tax season at the tax place and summer at the garden place, then go to Spain in October.

In order to make that happen I am going to have to really bank money during this tax season.  Luckily, I am starting from a position of relative financial comfort, but I need to be diligent about building up some savings.  And, of course, that means I can't consider Spain next year, which I kind of wanted to do.  But right now, I just have to get past the Oct. 6 surgery and see what happens.