It is day 1 of recovery from arthroscopic left knee surgery and I am already walking without crutches. I surely didn’t expect that kind of response to the surgery. That didn’t last past noontime – when the drugs that block pain and discomfort for a false sense of progress wore off.

Patience Grasshopper

Yeah, those heavy-duty meds from yesterday wore off and the discomfort levels started to increase pretty well. That wonderful thing called reality came back and bit me, no not there, but a little lower – right about knee level.

I can feel where the ACL and MCL were stretched pretty good, so they could peek inside, during the surgery. The knee itself is uncomfortable, but none of it is outside the realm of a Tylenol or two, so that is good. I chose not to get the heavy-duty crap (drugs), because I wouldn’t use it in any case. That stuff just isn’t the direction I want to go. It will take a few days for things to calm down, but the suck will help me limit what I do and not get too stoopid.

That do too much too soon shit that I always seem to end up doing.

This is going to be a 3-4 month recovery, not an 18-day whoopie-di-do, then run a marathon. Time is on my side and I don’t have to hurt myself to get back on the roads to achieve anything. Even thinking about running the January Thaw in six weeks crossed my mind and just as quickly passed through as a bad joke.

VA Togus

When Dr. Morton came in for the post-surgery talk last night, to go over what he did (most of which I still don’t have a clue about he said). About the only thing that I remember was him saying that there was a lot more damage inside the knee than either the MRI showed or that he expected beforehand. When I saw that it was after 4:30 and I went in just before 1:30 for a procedure that the doc thought would take less than an hour, I knew something more had been found even in my drugged-out state. Mary confirmed later that he had told her the same thing in the waiting room, so I didn’t imagine it. The photos that he took while in there, will be interesting to see.

I do want to say that the care I received at VA Togus was top-notch and has been throughout this whole lead-up to the knee arthroscopic surgery. However, the surgical team that prepped me, wheeled me into the operating room, then put up with my lame jokes about the torture chamber and the rack that they have heard about a million times were fantastic. Doctor Morton, the more I see of him, the more impressed I am, he takes the time to do it right and answered the questions that I did ask leading up to the surgery.

Yeah, they did a great job of putting up with me.

Cool Your Jets

Now, I have to keep working on not attempting to do too much too soon. Not that I or the runner in me would ever do that! Oh well, the old body is telling me it is time for some downtime and probably a nice nap. Although I am starting a play-through of NeverWinter Nights again, getting ready to paint some miniatures, and re-reading the Comeback Quotient, so I am getting other things done as well.

I know that I am not good at this sitting stuff, but if I want to run well again, patience and keeping things very close to reality rather than the dream world I sometimes work from will be rather important I have a feeling.