Saturday, June 07, 2008

Recuperating after knee arthroscopy

I had arthroscopic knee surgery Thursday morning, which went just as expected. After dropping our friend Karen off at the airport, wifie and I drove to the surgery center and waited just a few minutes before the nurse called me back to get prepped. The anesthesiologist started my IV, into which "happy juice" was injected just before they wheeled me back, and quite soon I began to feel very fine. I kissed wifie goodbye, and the next thing I knew I was in recovery with a big ace bandage wrapped around my knee. I vaguely remember asking whether I was still waiting to be taken back to surgery.

I was advised to relax the rest of the weekend, put ice on the knee as needed and take the pain medication I was prescribed as needed. I can bear weight as tolerated and use crutches for support when necessary.

I removed the bandages yesterday afternoon. There were two small incisions each side of the front of my knee with a stitch or two closing each one. There is no pain at all from the incisions.

I'm posting this about 10:30 Saturday morning and have needed the crutches less with each passing day. I go back for a followup appointment Monday afternoon, at which time the doctor will remove the stitches and let me know what if any physical therapy I need.

This year marks my 20th anniversary of beginning Jazzercise, which I look forward to resuming in a few weeks.

3 comments:

Genevieve Netz said...

It sounds like the surgery went well. Hope the smooth recovery is continuing.

natarajdance said...

Nicely done ser,
i just had one today. I am feeling good, not much pain, 12 hours after, did not take any pan killers yet.Similar experience with anesthesia. I am looking to find when exactly should i start exercising.

I hope we can resume soon all activities, specially since I am yoga instructor and got this injury while playing basketball.

Kerlyn said...

Knee arthroscopy is a great alternative to open knee surgery. I had my knee operated on using this procedure and the results were amazing. There's a great article here on knee surgery and the various methods.