Category: Daily life

Knee Surgery, 15

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Recovery sometimes gives me time to read and think. There are times when I have to stay in one place: when I’m doing several of the thrice-daily exercises and when I’m icing the knee. During that time I sometimes watch YouTube videos, but when possible, I prefer to read. And of late, I’ve been reading a remarkable book about income inequality called Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth by philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns.* The growing inequality of income and wealth has long been a political and social issue for me. Predatory capitalism has become the norm, and the rise ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, 14

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Not a day of setbacks, but no big milestones like yesterday (Friday), either. I managed two walks outdoors with Susan and Bella, but both shorter and slower than yesterday’s walk: two individual walks of one block each (about 600m circumference). After yesterday, I was a little too sore and stiff to go further. But still, it’s better to be outdoors than inside. Being able to get outside was a real accomplishment. Distance and speed will come later. Might try a trip to the local Canadian Tire store next week. I’m not sure I’m quite up to shopping but the store ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, 13

Daily life / Personal Reminiscences / Surgery & MedicineOne Comment

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More milestones! Thursday, I enjoyed my first glass of red wine in almost three weeks, 15 days after surgery. Small, about 5-6 ounces (150-175 ml). It was delightful; a return to our normal, daily life. I sipped it slowly, savouring it, while re-watching Beyond the Sea, a biopic about Bobby Darin. Great film with a good cast and almost Bollywood-like in its dance/song skits. I started watching while I was doing some of my new exercises and the music made me want to dance along. Fortunately for my new knee, I only wiggled my hips. Kevin Spacey does a remarkable ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, 12

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Well, the staples are removed and my leg no longer looks like, as per Young Frankenstein, a zipper. It was a quick, and quite painless process, and the incision looked good and clean. The bandage is gone and in its place are numerous “steri-strips” that will last another five days. The knee is still very swollen, and I can’t expect the leg to lose all of the swelling for several months. All I really want right now is for it to diminish enough to make it possible for me to sleep on my side without discomfort. * Our appointment at ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, 11

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Seventy-two degrees, up from 58 when I first started physio last week, That’s how far my operated knee can bend when I’m doing my exercises. It’s still got a long way to go to reach the one hundred-plus milestone, but it’s an improvement. Small achievements are how it’s done. I can also lift my left foot higher, too, and use a five-inch aerobic stepper for one of the exercises, and an eight-inch step for another. Don’t get me wrong: these are baby steps, still. And while the pain has diminished, it is still pretty much constant enough that it sometimes ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, 10

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Back when the surgeon offered me an unexpected date in August instead of the expected December to February, I thought to myself it would be better to get it done in summer when I could still get outside and enjoy the weather. Back then, the temperatures were mid-20s to low 30s and looked like the rest of the summer would be as hot. Seems the weather has since gone from August to October and those lazy, hazy days of summer are a memory. At least, I keep telling myself, it isn’t snowing. But damn, it’s cold for August. And there’s ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, 9

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Well, I have a whole new set of exercises, most of which come with a pain factor increase, but nothing that seems to make any great leap forward in either mobility or pain (fortunately for the latter). Yet. But, of course, it’s still very early days. It’s difficult to be patient or optimistic when every little thing is still a struggle. I’m sure Susan’s patience wears thin during the day when I have to ask for things to be brought, picked up, removed, moved further, moved closer… yeah, yeah, I’m whining again. I should concentrate more on the accomplishments so ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery: 8

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On this blog, I’ve been counting the days since surgery from the day of the operation. That makes surgery day Day 1 in my count. And the first day I wrote about it as Day 2 (the day after surgery). But a friend argued that most people think of the first day as the 24 hours since surgery, and my perhaps eccentric counting was misleading, so I am changing the heading to show just the number of posts, without a day. When I refer to the days since or the date in the post, I will try to be clear. ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, Day 7

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Yesterday, after taking off the tensor bandage, my knee was a cheerful gnome of pain, likely released, I suspect, by the flesh expanding rather suddenly after all that compression. Sort of like one of those strange deep-sea fish dragged to the surface from the depths. And while it calmed down somewhat overnight from the tempest of torment, the pain has not fully gone away. Just another day in the saga of knee replacement recovery, Not that positive notes don’t sound: going up and down the stairs with a cane is a tad easier and less gruelling than before. No faster, ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, Day 6

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Aficionados of slow food, mindfulness, and slow thinking should add knee surgery to their list of life-focusing activities. It certainly makes everything move more slowly and deliberately. One does not rush — indeed cannot rush — with a walker and an operated knee. One walks with a speed that glaciers would admire; carefully, with each step considered. You look at the ground and consider obstacles, you pay attention to the motion of cats and dogs nearby. You plan how to get short distances as thoughtfully as you would a long road trip. It can be almost Buddhist-like in its contemplative ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, Day 5

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Accomplishments come in little packages. Last night, I managed to get myself up and into the bathroom to pee twice, without having to wake Susan up to help me get out of bed. I felt like a proud toddler who finally went potty on his own! Mind you, I woke her up getting back into bed, what with the clanking walker, my grunts and groans, and what thought was the sotto voce swearing when the pain shot through my leg as I lifted it. But still, I did it, on my own. Twice! And I am getting up and down ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, Day 4

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The other thing you lose with mobility is dignity. And that loss can affect you deeply, albeit not physically, but certainly a blow to your morale and ego. We are raised to be independent, to do things for ourselves, to dress ourselves, feed ourselves, to be self-reliant on ourselves for so many things in our daily life. And when we lose mobility and have to depend on someone to help with the smallest things that were previously in our control, our dignity suffers. You feel incapable of doing even the basic tasks; you become an invalid. And while it may ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery, Day 3

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If you want to see just how bad the roads and streets are in the Town of Collingwood, just drive over them a few hours after knee or other surgery. The roads around the hospital are excruciatingly painful, almost nausea-inducing when you hit one of the *many* deep ruts, potholes, or bumps, and the pain explodes. I know, because this was my experience two days ago. But so are the rest of the streets we drove on, on our way home. Some of these streets have ankle-deep potholes, others have been left to decay for decades. But the town doesn’t ……… click below for more ↓

Knee Surgery Day Two

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Well, I’m back from the hospital following my knee surgery. It was a “Total knee arthroplasty (TKA), also known as total knee replacement,” described as a “surgical procedure that involves replacing the damaged surfaces of the knee joint with artificial components made of metal and plastic.” I am now the bionic man. First time I’ve had artificial bits embedded in me, but it’s common with my age cohort who get their knees and hips done.*  I came home just after 5 p.m. yesterday. I could have stayed in the hospital overnight, but I’m sure the hospital staff preferred to see ……… click below for more ↓

When I’m 64…

Daily life / Music & Reviews / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

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Will you still need me? Will you still feed me? When I’m sixty four… it seemed cutely remote to consider being that old when the Beatles sang “When I’m Sixty-Four” back in 1967 on their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Sixty-four seemed so far away then. My father wasn’t even that old in ’67. Sixty-four was to my teenage self somewhere in the distant future, like science fiction or The Jetsons. Old age was somewhere in the time zone of my grandparents, an exotic foreign, and wrinkled land. Unimaginable being there, at least for me when that song ……… click below for more ↓

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