My Knee Replacement Surgery

Well, this has been coming for a while, ever since I retired from Lockheed Martin its has gotten more and more painful going up and down stairs and just walking up and down the bank in the back yard. About 2000 I developed a severe click in my right knee and ended up having arthroscopic surgery to cut out some damaged cartilage. When I left the surgeons office he said he'd see me in about ten years; I said "what for, you just fixed me". His response was to show me on the x-rays how much arthritis was in the joint already. Last year Dr. Weisner sent me for some physical therapy to see if some of the problems would clear up, they didn't. I think the real purpose of the PT was to convince me that it was time for the joint replacement. Anyway, I let it go almost another year before going back to him and telling him that it was time.

This to chronicle the journey.

6/15/2011 - Visit to Diabetes Clinic - A1C was 6.1, Deb checked things over and she said that I was healthy (relatively) and they thought I was a good candidate for the surgery.

6/15/2011 - Pre Surgery meeting with Roy Gill. Roy gave me a really good going over and he said that the Surgery was a go from his end.

6/16/2011 - Pre-surgery meeting with Bill Jackson (Dr. Weisners asst). We decided to stay with the rigt knee, I think I've been favoring it so much that its starting to bother my right hip. I kept getting distracted by Bill's watch, it was huge and really shiny black and gold, actually quite gaudy. Anyway Bill brought in a mock-up of what whey are going to do. Basicall they will make a vertical cut over the knee cap and flop it out of the way to get at the joint. Then they'll gring the artheritis off of the two load bearing surfaces and the fit a set of titanium caps (kinda like teeth caps) over the now resurfaced load bearing faces of the bones. Then they'll put in a slippery plastic pad to take the place of the now missing cartilige, then they'll add a plastic pad onto the inside of the kneecap to take up some space. Now the sew everything back up.

Instructions are no food after midnight Sunday, be at hospital at 12:30 Monday, just a half dose of lantus Sunday night.