ProfessorTomoe

They called back. I've got to go in tomorrow to have my knee aspirated and my drain pulled. I called the physical therapy people afterward to coordinate with them. They're going to have the guy who was scheduled to come out tomorrow touch base with the surgeon and see if I need physical therapy at all, considering the circumstances. I should hear from him in a couple of hours. That's if he doesn't call my wife's phone instead.

Couldn't take it - called at 2:30pm. They hadn't even received my photo yet. Resent - they got the resend. I'm now waiting for them to call back. Again.

I've called the surgeon's office and left word with the physician's assistant's "live help line." They asked me to text them a photo of my knee and then wait for them to call back. That was almost 3 hours ago. If I don't hear anything from them by 3pm, I'm calling back. In the meantime, we're putting ice on the knee. Not really helping much. There's a stinging pain at the surface and a burning pain inside the knee. Not sure how they want to take care of this.

Friday. Yeah, fuck. In other words, if I can make it through tonight, I'm calling the surgeon's office in the morning.

Ohmydearlord. My left knee started swelling up on me tonight. Pain level 9. Mrs. Prof got after the drain tube and started "milking" it, managed to get some of the fluids out of my knee. Don't know if that was a permanent or temporary fix, but it's feeling like a temp fix. My drain site is starting to sting again, bringing the pain level back up. I took my Dilaudid 90 minutes early and at an emergency strength. I hope it kicks in soon. I'm working on the Bruckner again to take my mind off of things. It's not getting the job done.

Just had the home health nurse out to change my knee dressings. The ones on the main knee incision looked good - no bad bleeding, no infection, no clotting. The ones around my knee drain were a bit more dubious. They'd already been changed a couple of times - once in the the hospital, once at home by Mrs. Prof - and they were a bit gunky. The nurse cleaned up the incision site and put on a new dressing, commenting that I should probably go on antibiotics. Urgh. Not again. I tested out the walkability of the dressing after she left, and found that she'd dressed the site a bit tight. Urgh again. Still, I can live with it until Monday, when I see the doctor.

Don't misunderstand. Do a deep dive into the term "Drum and Bugle Corps," then cross-reference how it applies to Texas marching bands. The football game is secondary when it comes to that activity in Texas. I know, I was in one of the first drum corps-style marching bands in the state (J. Frank Dobie HS, 1977-1981, Pasadena ISD).

In Texas, high school bands do the whole shebang. Concert, sight-reading, solo, ensemble, marching, you name it.

While I was in the mood for taking chances, I took another big one. I did a search for music contest lists on Google and came up with some good leads. Specifically, I came up with the entry form for the Florida prescribed music list for high school band students. So, I submitted my chamber music works and the arrangement of Bach's Prelude No. 7 in Eb Major to the selection portal. I didn't submit the Bruckner, because a) it's too hard, b ) it's too long, and c) there's not enough percussion used in any of the movements. Let's hope they take a look at what I did submit.

Took a big chance today. I subscribe to a newsletter from a publisher in The Netherlands who specializes in wind band transcriptions. This is the one that someone had referred the first movement of my Bruckner 6th arrangement to long months ago. Well, I got another newsletter a couple of days ago from them with news of a movement from a different Bruckner symphony being added to their catalog. That prompted me to act. I sent them an email with info on all of my Bruckner arrangements up on MyScore, complete with links. I'm hoping they'll take a hard look at each one of them and consider them for publication. I don't know if they will or not, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Thought my knee pain was in retreat until I tried to get up and take a shower today. It screamed at me after we got the shower shields on over the surgical wounds. Couldn't get in the shower stall - had to take a sponge bath with hospital-caliber "shampoo wipes." Things finally started calming down after Mrs. Prof got my dressing changed. Expecting a nurse to visit tomorrow morning. She'll probably change the dressing again.

Did anyone understand what I just typed above here? Because I sure as hell don't. I must have been fried beyond belief. Anyway, I'm down to 3 tabs of 8mg hydromorphone, and by tomorrow I'll be back to my regular 2/2/1 regimen...if it cuts the pain enough. If not, it'll be time for a call to my pain doctor.

I'm home. Yay. Still in pain, still a bit weak from the surgery, still somewhat blurry-eyed from the pain medicines, but I'm recovering. Been asleep for much of the day. Time has passed strangely for me. I could swear it's 6 hours later than it actually is. Weird. At least I'm not on any post-op check-ups and I have no antibiotics to take. Just Aspirin, to prevent blood clots. Right now, I just took four of my 8mg non-extended-release hydromorphone tablets, after which I'll probably have 8 eggs. I'll probably had Y 16 grams (possibly 32) to go with the leftover rice so it won't make me sick.

Barring any last-minute major disaster today, I'm going home! I'll be headed hone sometime after this afternoon. Still lots to do, lie dealing with doubled/blurry vision. Squeal like a pig, boy. Ahem. Any case, I'm going to order lunch, see if it comes, see if SHE brings something, and take my chances. Talk to you once I get home and feel better.

I'd given advance permission for whatever may come prior to the surgery, so the patella was covered well in advance. After the surgery yesterday, Physical Therapy came by. The Therapist was an old friend from my previous surgery here at this hospital back in April/May of this year. He knew of what I might be capable and let me run with it. Sure enough, we were up and walking by the end of the session. I even walked from one side of my room to the other and gave my onlooking wife a kiss. Fun, in a post-op kind of way. It's now just before 7AM on the day after surgery. I'm waiting for another Dilaudid dose. If this does more "throw me for a loop" than help, I might want to knock the dose at 11AM down from 4mg to 3.5mg, or even 3mg. We shall see.

They apparently replaced my natural patella with an artificial kneecap. I'll find out for sure in the morning.

I'll ask my son the next time I see him. Which brings up another situation: the surgery is over, and I'm in my hospital room. The surgery did not involve replacing my whole knee - just my kneecap. They had to replace it. The doctor just came in and said the initial "glue" that was used back in 2020 must not have cemented properly. When he vibrated them with a bone saw, the kneecap popped right off of the thing it was glued on to. I'll give more info once my Dilaudid dose goes down from 4mg every 4 hours.

Don't know. It was from the Pathfinder Beginner Box. I told my son that I'd named Ezren's wooden staff. It was called Stimpy. (Or, since it was made of wood, Stumpy.)

I'm on my last hours before leaving for the hospital. Had my pre-op tests yesterday - all was well, I'm assuming, or they would have called me. Tonight, my son and I played another round of Pathfinder (I'm the wizard, Ezren) as we ate. I'm now on NPO - no food or drink until the operation. I have to take a special shower using an antiseptic body wash I got at the hospital before I leave the house. That happens at 4 AM. Urgh.,

Yeah, it was just a fraction of an inch across, I'm guessing, at least on the impact side. The exit wound side was much larger, though.

I live on the northeast border of Dallas. I rest my case.

My son made Japanese curry last night in the Instant Pot. He's been working on getting that recipe right, and I think he's finally got it down pat. He made beef curry from just plain stew meat, with some baby carrots dumped in. Took him all of 15 minutes to put it together. Easiest curry night ever, and it tasted damned good. It'll be my turn to do the duck breast tonight. Should be a simple score/sear/flip/sear/rest/slice/serve job. I think I'll go with Wild Fork creamed spinach, or some of my son's broccoli & cheese sauce as an accompaniment. We'll be decompressing again tonight, as both my son and I maintain an overnight schedule of sorts. I'm on sort of a split schedule: I wake up in the afternoon, fall asleep a few hours later, then wake up in the early evening and stay sporadically awake overnight. This will undoubtedly drive the nurses crazy at the hospital. My pre-op check-in exam is at 2pm CDT Monday. I'll probably be nice and groggy during it.

The countdown to Exploratory Knee Surgery is on. They go in and start digging on my left knee this coming Tuesday, August 27th (2024, for those of you reading this in the future). Once again, the surgery could result in anything from just a new shim or three being inserted to the installation of a whole new, more advanced replacement knee. The doctor won't know which one he'll do until he gets inside and looks around. I'm braced for anything. This weekend is just sort of a buffer period until things get rolling. I've got all but one of my medical appointments out of the way, that being my last check-up and blood work prior to the operation itself. All of that takes place Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours prior to the surgery. Between now and then, all I can do is try and relax, vent a little (I'm doing that now), and enjoy some home cooking before I'm forced to eat hospital food (my son plans on making Japanese curry tonight, and I'm going to make pan-seared smoked duck breast from Wild Fork tomorrow). I'm also going to try and work out one of the more difficult problems I'm having with Bruckner's 2nd Symphony in C Minor, 2nd Movement, before I start getting pain-addled (no explanation possible here). With that, all I can say is wish me luck (I'd ask for the customary "break a leg" send-off, but since I really did do that back in 2009, I'm not so keen on it anymore) and watch this space for further updates. Thank you for reading.

I had a little hiccup with the Symphony No. 2 first movement posting (immediate above link) yesterday. I check through my postings daily, just to make sure nothing has gone fubar, and something did with this particular posting - there was nothing showing up for a Score Preview. I immediately emailed them, attaching a copy of the score to my email, just in case something had happened to the copy that I'd uploaded with my submission. Within about 3 hours (or less, can't remember the exact time), the problem was fixed. Good on them, as far as I'm concerned, for fixing it so fast.

The 1st Movement of Bruckner's Symphony No. 2 in C Minor is now up on MyScore: https://www.jwpepper.com/11590425.item That's all for now. All 11 links are live. Please visit and listen. Thank you!