Tag Archives: Total Knee Replacement

Photo: Hedge Work

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Last week’s focus was on alley hedge work. This doesn’t look like much, but I removed three to four feet of growth from the top of this hedge, which runs the length of our property down the alley. Fortunately, it didn’t need a lot of trimming on the side — we’d done that a few months ago, and the spring growth spurt has not begun yet. We did rake the leaves gathered from underneath.

hedge work

Since the topping required me to climb three ladder steps, make the trim, descend three ladder steps, move ladder, and repeat, I was pleasantly surprised that neither knee protested. To keep them from protesting, I spread this task over three days (it took an hour or two each day).

Ideally, we would have swept the alley and gathered the dirt for sifting, but that’s for another time. I did get a limb that was brushing the power line to the house removed and pruned several smaller bushes in the back yard. I watered the lawn in an effort to get a base of moisture into the ground. I can only hope we get spring rains like last year, because I won’t be able to get down there to water until July. With last year’s spring rains, the yard was sustained through that period.

The yard needs a lot of little things done, which I plan to begin working on after this knee recovery. The real benefit of bilateral knee replacements is you get the recovery over faster and can move on with your life. In my case, my schedule dragged the process out to two years.

Wednesday Wanderings: Roku (First Impression)

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The subject of streaming TV came up. I have largely dismissed streaming television for two reasons. First, I have a 250G per month data cap on my internet connection. I have no idea how much I use, and I can’t find a meter anywhere on ATT’s site. I’m confident it’s nowhere near 260G of data. I’ve also been hearing recently that ATT is not currently enforcing that cap.  Second, I have been pretty happy with DirecTV even though I would prefer to pay about half what I do per month for my subscription, but that’s probably true for me and everyone else subscribing to their service.

What got me considering other options was not having a satellite connection in my recovery room at the house and planning on one more knee replacement early next year. I tried rigging up a wireless connection from the satellite to the remote TV, but I think the old timber in our house is too dense, and the connection was never solid enough to hold itself together. I gave up and watched DVDs while I recovered in my recliner.

I heard the new Apple TV is likely to be announced next month, so I asked around. What does anybody use these things for? Apparently, some people like them. The Roku 3 is supposedly a little better than the Apple TV. Both devices are long overdue for an update. I decided to take a chance on the Roku 3 and ordered it Saturday on Amazon Prime. It arrived today. If either the new Apple TV or the next Roku are irresistibly good, I figure I can use this Roku somewhere else.

I unboxed it, installed the batteries in the remote, plugged in the palm-sized box, turned on the television, switched the source to the proper HDMI port, and followed the instructions on the screen. I first connected to my router, then I had to do a few other things. All simple.

The only real hassle is switching back and forth between the screen and my phone (Or some other device with a browser for entering codes. Lots of codes.). To activate almost any channel on the Roku, I have to enter a code on a website then log into (usually) DirecTV to validate I’m an authorized recipient of that channel. For PBS, I had to give them an email address. For Amazon (Prime Videos) I had to log in to Amazon. For other channels, I have to create an account. It’s a tedious process. No logging into my DirecTV account once and all the other DirecTV channels I can access via Roku recognizing that login. This, I think, is the downside to choosing your own channels. Once I get through the process, I’m sure I won’t have to give it a second thought, but there are something like 1700 channels available to choose from on Roku.

As a “cord-cutting” device, I’m not sure how you’d do that if you have specific channels you’re attached to on your cable or satellite, because to retain those channels on the Roku device, you have to be subscribed to them elsewhere. There appear to be other channels that may do the same thing, but I’m not certain yet how that is. One channel intrigued me, then I looked up the schedule and it runs the same schedule on repeat every 24 hours. Maybe it shows different episodes of Dennis the Menace at the same time every day, but I’m not sure if it’s as good as it looked. The website schedule was updated in 2013. I guess for free, you’re going to get the lowest maintenance presentation possible.

The Watch ESPN channel appears to be pretty good. I validated for that and had several channels to choose from and a pretty good schedule of what to expect for the next day or so.

I played with it for about an hour and a half and came away not quite underwhelmed but not exactly excited about the device either. That’s not quite right. The device itself is sleek with the ability to connect either via CatV or wireless network connection. It comes with  HDMI and USB ports. The HDMI port connects to the television. You can plug in a USB drive containing personal media, and apparently there is a way to play it via the device. The remote has a headphone jack with volume controls and headphones come with the system. Handy if you want to listen privately for any number of reasons — usually a sleeping significant other. I like the hardware. The software and user interface will have to grow on me. The user interface is intuitive and easy to work with even though the process is cumbersome.

It may be useful for my next knee surgery recovery. At some point, it may be worth talking about it with Mr. L as something he could use for old movies, but as it sits now, he would throw the remote through the television screen long before he got a code entered into a website to access an old movie channel. Maybe after I have more time to get comfortable with it and set up a few more channels. If after that I find some value for him, I’ll show it to him as an option to use in parts of the house not wired for satellite.

I’ll do a Tech Stuff post on this after I’ve had more time to get used to it, but this is my preliminary two cents worth. Eh.

Wednesday Wanderings: Pool Therapy

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Hydrotherapy is supposed to be good for joint replacement patients.  I don’t have a swimming pool. Nor do I have friends with a swimming pool — at least nowhere near me. Apparently, the VA has a hydrotherapy pool, but my nurse practitioner didn’t offer to refer me to physical therapy, and I didn’t choose to ask as this time. Enter Mr. L. He suggested I check with one of the local hotels to see if they had any provisions for local people to use their pools.

I stopped out at the newer of the two places today and asked. It turns out they will allow me to use the pool in the mornings for a fee of $5 per time. Mornings is their low usage time, which is exactly what I’m looking for.  I’m sure the water is coldest then, too. Brrrr.

Wednesday Wanderings: New Knee

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I mentioned I was getting a new knee, but I haven’t said much about it. The new left knee, a Stryker Triathalon if that means anything to you, was installed three weeks ago and is working beautifully. I am pleased beyond my wildest dreams.

Pre-op went well. They prepped me for a spinal and some other anesthesia. My surgeon came in to see me as I was getting ready for that, and he asked if he could pray for me. I said, “Sure.” I found this very encouraging and comforting. Afterward, I remember feeling filled with peace and confidence. I know I was alert for a few minutes after that, because Mr. L decided to go run errands (there wasn’t anything else he could do until after I came back from surgery), so they made sure they had a good number for him, and he left. The next thing I knew, they were wheeling me into my room (a private room, thankfully), and Mr. L was there waiting for me. He made sure I was settled in, the he left for home.

I didn’t care for the hospital stay, but my complaints are niggling. They kept turning the bed alarm on, so every time I needed to get up to go to the bathroom, the darn bed would alarm. They did this inconsistently. They said, “Just call us.” Good grief. The Respiratory Therapy people drove me nuts. They’d come in just to put the oximeter on my finger. Why couldn’t they talk to the person taking my blood pressure either half an hour before or after who was doing the same thing? They kept asking if I needed oxygen or if I had COPD. No. I don’t. I just use a CPAP, which works very well without you annoying me all night long unnecessarily.

Hospital food? Excellent! Someone would come in and ask what I wanted from several choices, and the meal was delivered on time and at the appropriate temperature. And it was GOOD.

The staff did a great job of keeping my water pitcher filled with ice water. Once I got an understanding of the pain medication schedule, I was perfectly happy. I had no pain, but I’d heard to take the medication on the clock, but without knowing what the schedule was, I didn’t know how to handle it. It turned out I was getting OxyContin once in the evening and once in the morning. Hydrocodone was “as needed” every four or six hours (I don’t recall which). Well, I didn’t want to let the pain become bad enough to need anything, so I had the nurse write the time I could have the next dose on my white board, and I’d call them and remind them then. That worked.

I had a wonderful physical therapist. He came in the first afternoon and got me up to sit in a chair. I stood up, and as I sat down, I knew the nausea was going to get the best of me. He SCRAMBLED and found a pan just in time. My hero! This will sound strange, but my physical therapist seemed like he took the most care of me. He’d sit me up and get me a second gown to keep that bare backside from showing. He changed my sheets. He also guided me through basic physical therapy exercises and showed me how to use the CPM machine (the nurses didn’t seem to have a clue). This enabled me to set myself up on the machine. And, of course, I set off the stupid “fall” alarm when I got out of bed to lift the machine up for use or to set it down.

My surgeon checked on me after the surgery and told me he’d pulled three rocks about the diameter of a quarter from my knee. He said it was one of the worst knees he’d ever seen. He said a hospital doctor would be checking on me in case I needed anything, but he’d be back in the morning. He came early each morning to see how I was doing. By Friday morning, I greeted him by asking if I could go home, which, of course, I could. I called Mr. L and told him I’d be ready by about nine. I just had to wait for my physical therapist to come by. When he came in close to nine, I was wearing my street clothes and ready to go. He laughed and said I should have let him know, he’d have come in sooner, but Mr. L had needed time to get there, so I told him this worked well. We did what we had to do, and they called for a wheelchair for me. Mr. L brought the truck around, and I got slid into the back seat, cushioned on pillows, hooked up my cryo-cuff (see explanation below), and belted myself in for the ride home (with stops for prescription fills and a few other things — I stayed in the truck).

I’m finishing up home health physical therapy. I was supposed to have my final session today, but my therapist came down with laryngitis. She hopes to be okay by tomorrow for our final discharge session.

The outpatient physical therapy office called a few minutes ago, and I’m set to begin on Tuesday the 19th. I’ve been off narcotic pain relievers since Friday. I’m driving again. I only use a cane for insurance. My walking is going pretty well, but I have to pay attention. When I get tired, I need to be more careful. I have a long way to go for healing and recovery, but my knee feels so good.

I thoroughly enjoyed my recliner (I’m sitting in it now), but I moved back upstairs for sleeping on Monday night. I enjoyed that, too. I can do stairs. I don’t like to do stairs. I don’t like to get up from lower level seating. It’s getting a little easier. With my therapist, I have been able to go up and down stairs “normally.” When she’s not here, I tend to do it the one leg at a time way. In the evening, I’m too tired and wearing my backback and carrying my cryo-cuff. In the morning, I’m not really awake enough, and I’m wearing my backpack and carrying my cryo-cuff.

What’s a cryo-cuff? It’s a cooler with a hose coming out of the spigot that runs to a hook and loop closing wrap that goes around the knee. With a mix of ice and water, you can open the top vent and use gravity to surround your knee with cooling, refreshing ice water. Rest, ice, and elevation are a new knee’s best friends.

Before surgery, I took two extra strength Acetaminophen in morning and two in the evening for pain management. Now, I’m taking those and two more in the afternoon. That seems to be doing the trick.

So far, I’ve managed to avoid overdoing activity, but everyone overdoes at some time or another. I do a few things, rest, then do a few more.  The first week, I slept a lot. The second week, I was able to load the dishwasher and unload it, Mr. L brought his laundry down, and I was able to wash, dry, and fold it. The third week, I’ve gradually added a few more things, like litter boxes, which Mr. L abhors. Last weekend, I was able to weed eat through two batteries (of the six it takes to do the full yard). I still tire easily, but I stop and rest.

I’m looking forward to getting the right knee done, but I’m sticking to my revised plan of doing it next year — maybe a little earlier in April.