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 manner.*
Writing about life before the internet, essayist Rebecca Solnit said, “That bygone time had rhythm, and it had room for you to do one thing at a time; it had different parts; mornings included this, and evenings that, and a great many of us had these schedules in common.” Recovering from knee surgery has some of that in common. You have a schedule of exercise and of medicines that punctuate your day. Later in the process, there are physio appointments to prepare for, and attend.
It’s a chilly Monday, unlike the late August days I experienced in the past (and a lot like early October!). I am not quite up to going outside yet, but in the pre-knee past, we often sat outside in the morning with our tea and a book, and sat outside in the afternoon under the late day sun, sometimes with a glass of wine. I miss being able to go out, but it’s a pleasure that will have to wait at least few more days as I recover. And maybe by then the weather will have warmed.
I had not received any printed instructions about removing my tensor bandage. Sources disagree on how long they should stay on, ranging from three to 10 days in my reading about it. A nurse in the ambulatory care unit may have spoken to me about it as I recovered, because I know she gave me replacement bandages. But I was so groggy, I forgot anything she said. So I called the surgeon’s office for advice. Their office is closed for vacation until next week. So I called the hospital’s ambulatory care for advice. A very nice nurse had nothing to offer except to call my family doctor. Sigh. So I called my family doctor and the nurse there gave me all the advice and information I needed. Very helpful.
Late morning, we prepared for the removal. Susan cleaned the nearest surfaces with alcohol, provided a clean towel and washcloth, gauze, brought in gloves for us to wear, and, of course, provided the alcohol to swab the incision with. We scrubbed our hands, arranged seating, and unwrapped. The amount of bandage and cotton padding on my knee was surprising.
We cleaned, swabbed, and applied a new, light bandage that the hospital had provided. It’s not difficult, but you need to be scrupulous in being clean and not touching anything until you’ve scrubbed or put on gloves. In a house with cats and a dog, we have a microbiome of bacteria and fungi.
Changing the bandage has not changed the numbness or the pain in my leg, but it does offer added flexibility for me to exercise and move. That also means I need to move more carefully because now my leg can bend into painful positions easily.
There is still some bruising to fade, and as you can see, the knee remains very swollen. The left side of the knee feels strained, tight, and somewhat numb. Staples come out next week. No one has yet contacted me about where or how that gets done. I’ll call the surgeon’s office next week and hope they can arrange it.
I try to do a little more every day, to regain my independence. I made my own lunch yesterday (my usual small salad) and today (Susan brought me the ingredients to help, though). But because I can’t bend down far, or manage stairs with any proficiency, there are many things I can’t do yet. I’ve spoken to others who have had the same surgical procedure, and all say it gets better; the pain dissipates, the mobility returns, the flexibility comes back. But that seems a long way off right now. People often say it takes about six weeks, so I should be patient.
A poem about using a walker during my recovery:
I start out the day doing my exercises in bed while Susan makes the tea and feeds the animals. I usually turn on my laptop to check news (is he dead yet? dammit!) and social media. And then I start to put together this blog. I can’t begin to express my affection for Susan who brings me tea, helps me dress, and watches over my recovery.
Notes:
* Would that I were so focused. My mind wanders, I think about other things, I overlook the dog under the table, I ask about Susan’s plans for dinner, I wonder if the mail has come. I stub my toe and bang the walker’s legs into things rather too frequently and I swear. I was never a good Buddhist. The Dalai Lama himself had total knee replacement surgery in October, 2024. I wonder how he felt during recovery. Did he swear, too?
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