A LONG ROW TO HOE

Inklings had knee surgery Wednesday, February 13, 2013.  She made a wise crack that she was having it done on the 13th day of the 13th year but at least not on Friday the 13th.  Her surgery was supposed to be simple and pretty quick but after they got inside the knee they found a lot of unexpected problems.  The meniscus was torn in two, the knee cap was fixed in place with scar tissue, there was lots of irritated cartilage inside the knee, and there was a floater about the size of a nickle running around inside.  The surgery was supposed to take about 45 minutes it took over two hours.  She was supposed to be up and around in five days after the surgery she isn't supposed to put any weight on her knee for three weeks.

The only five after the surgery is that she cannot shower for five days.  That in itself is a tough thing for her.  She hates it when she can't wash her hair every day.  She has washed it a couple of times in the kitchen sink but that is hard for her to do too.

She is recovering pretty well and I can see less and less pain associated with her knee daily.  She has an ice chest and pump attached to a bladder on her knee by two hoses and without it she would be in a lot more pain.  I am thankful for this new development for post operative treatments.  It is an amazing little ice chest with a pump hooked to two hoses that go to the bladder.  The pump puts ice water from the chest up one hose to the bladder and the other hose returns water from the bladder to the chest.  It takes about 15 pounds of ice a day to keep the water cold but the results are amazing.  I really can't see any swelling left in the knee but there are still a lot of bandages around the joint proper.

I am glad we didn't wait any longer to have this surgery done.