One Year Anniversary

Had my check-up yesterday. Doctor is extremely pleased with my range of motion and all else doing with recovery. Next check-up: Two years. I told him that I am considering doing the other knee next summer- he said if I can wait that long... so the x-rays must have shown up some serious bone-on-bone business. I told him about all the walking I will be doing in Italy and it turns out his mother is Sicilian (with a name like Donald Reilly who knew?) so he/we spent about 1/2 hour on the internet looking the wedding site and he showed me how to use Google satellite to get right down on the ground of a location (who knew?) and we looked at street views of the areas we will be visiting. It was so nice that a doctor would take a personal interest like that.

Anyway - I thought you would find this interesting: I told him the two things that still have me "stymied" is that 1) when I get up from a chair I cannot just start walking - I have to sort of orient myself and 2) although I have started practicing going downstairs without a railing, I am scared every time I am at the top step looking down. There is actually a word for that: propriaceptive sense - the sensors in my knee were cut which signal to my brain the place in space where my knee is. He demonstrated by putting his arms up over and behind his head then hooking his two index fingers together. He said the reason we can do this is that internal sensory awareness - and I no longer have that in my knee. He said I will get more confident in moving, but that the nerves are permanently cut and not to think that it's something that's wrong - it is just something that, if I don't let it get in my way, I eventually may overcome. Interesting! I will also have numbness alongside the outside of my leg/knee.. forever - but that I can deal with - it's just a weird feeling when I shave my leg or go to scratch an itch.

I told him that the year's recovery is not that everything will be back to normal, but that it takes a year to come to terms with things being the way they are... he totally agreed. He said hips are different - in a year you would never know you have a replacement, but knees have a niggling awareness forever. I'm not sorry though it's a small trade for a world of pain being gone.  I said it's similar to childbirth - there would be far many more only children in this world if women actually remembered everything they went through.  He laughed and said it is exactly that!


Anyway - I am going to take a break from blog-writing for now.  Anyone visiting this blog to get insight on early recovery, please go back to my 2011 blogs - they are very informative and will let you know what to expect in your early recovery - I will check back in at various points - especially after the wedding, and as I hit other recovery markers.  And, of course, I'll let you know if I ever get the other knee done!


Take care.
Miriam