At my first post-op visit, I told my surgeon, who's known me as long
as I've worked in the OR, about this. Without a trace of sympathy, he
replied, "If there weren't tears in your eyes and sweat on your brow,
then you weren't working hard enough. And the therapist wasn't
doing her job."
Then he told me that if contractures formed in the joint, he'd have
to do a manipulation under general anesthesia and I'd be back to
square one. That was the jolt I needed to endure 10 weeks of torture,
15 or 20 minutes at a time. On a machine that extended my leg one
click past my usual expletive, held it there, then flexed it to my sec-
ond favorite expletive and held it there. On a stationary bicycle where
I had to manually pick up my leg to set my foot on the pedal before I
could ride to nowhere. More forced extending and flexing, straighten-
ing and lifting. I ran out of curse words to say. I was sweating, crying,
nauseated and exhausted before the PT sessions were over.
Back to work
I'm not completely free of aches and pains, but my surgeon says that
I'm further along at this stage than other cases he's seen. If I'm still
doing this well when I see him this month, I can head back to work,
and the rigorous life of a circulator, the following week. Thank God. I
never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of time off! Chalk me up on
the schedule for one of Dr. Pain-In-the-Neck's overly complicated
marathon cases! (Remind me I said that a month from now.) Yes, a
total knee is grueling, but it's led to a great awakening. See, for many
patients the work we do while they're under anesthesia is the easy
part for them. Once they awaken, that's when the hard work is just
beginning. Right, Mishka?
OSM
Ms. Watkins (pwatkins12@comcast.net) is done crying and cursing. Well,
she's done crying.
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