Yeah, last night rather sucked, and today while better has meant more than a few grin-and-bear-it moments. This morning I took a Naproxen to take the edge off and while it isn’t really comfortable, at the same time I don’t want the pain to be completely masked either. If it is I would have the tendency to do too much and delay recovery (which is what I did last time).

I am learning that one crutch works better in the house than two, but even that is a pain to have to use, but at this point, I can’t put full weight on the leg yet, so it’s suck-it-up time. Use the crutch.

No, I didn’t expect that the recovery portion of post-surgery was going to be a cakewalk. After all, the doc did do some extra stuff beyond a simple meniscus repair job. When surgery happens, there is a recovery process that you gotta deal with and I knew this discomfort and pain were part of the process if I want to get better. Not the fun part, but a part.

One thing I like about online medical records is you see what the medical professionals actually write up versus seeing it months later if ever in your medical records. So what did the doc say about the surgery?

“Complications: None”

“Operative Findings: He had an unstable posterior horn medial meniscus tear. The unstable portion of it was a beak type tear with horizontal cleavage components deeper in the meniscus. There was some minimal grade 1 and 1 area of grade II chondromalacia of the medial femoral condyle, but nothing more than that. The tibial plateau looks good. The intercondylar notch had an inferior plica which I debrided for visualization purposes but the ACL was intact. The lateral compartment had normal meniscus and normal articular cartilage. The medial parapatellar plica was somewhat inflamed and thickened and therefore thought to be pathologic and it corresponded with his preoperative region of tenderness in addition to the meniscus. There was some hypertrophic synovitis at infrapatellar region as well. The suprapatellar pouch looked good. There was some synovitis in the medial gutter but no loose bodies anywhere.”

Taken from Online Medical Record 2022-11-28

The complications: none – is always encouraging to know.

It seems like the doc also had a bunch of other things he took care of while he was in the left knee mucking around. From the research, I attempted to figure out what he did (a lot of the stuff he wrote up is in another language to me). It seems like some were issues I was probably having before I tore up the meniscus and I just thought they were part of getting old and ignored them the best I could.

Hey, it might mean that I can run better 😜. Harold, you are old and better nowadays — is a lot different than you were once upon a time.

A nurse from the VA surgical unit called to see how I was doing and we went over a few things that I needed to do, but the biggest thing I wanted was permission to get rid of that elastic bandage that I had wrapping my leg from just above the knee to my toes this afternoon. It really ain’t all that comfortable to have on, but I figure they are smarter than I am and have been a good boy and didn’t get rid of it until I was supposed to. He said to wait until after 3:00 PM, and I could take it off. His biggest caution to me was to use the meds provided and not let the pain get too far ahead of things and keep icing the knee at regular intervals.

I am not a big medication person and prefer to have just the edge taken off so that I don’t let the obsessive side of my personality get to enjoy the effects that some of the meds could give. I don’t ever want to go down that road, I have seen what that does to too many friends and people I have known over the years.

Although I did get some good news and got the physical therapy stuff set up and will be starting next Wednesday. So, that is one less thing on my mind, wondering if I am doing enough, or more likely too much in my approach to recovery. It is nice to have someone experienced with post-surgical recovery and rehab give you reality checks about what is going on with your body.

We just finished taking off the elastic bandage and a quick wipe-off of the accumulated grime and whatever else was left behind over the past two and half days was needed. Yes, I was very careful to stay away from the knee and no I didn’t get it wet. There was a certain aroma about the old fart that was beginning to be annoying to me and others in the house. Everything looks like it is supposed to and getting those elastic bandages off feels good too.

So while it is only post-op day 2, progress is being made.