ProfessorTomoe

I've got a new release up on Bandcamp - a 96KHz/24-bit Remaster of one of my most popular songs, "Goin' Down the Fast Way" from the game Rise of the Triad! https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/track/goin-down-the-fast-way-2020-hq-remaster

Continued from the "Happy New Year" thread ... Turns out my knee didn't hold out - half of my steri-strips got wet from fluid coming out of one of my surgical wounds. They promptly slid off. Had to start putting new bandages on the site. When I went in for physical therapy today, I showed the site to the therapist. She examined it and said it wasn't pus or synovial fluid, at least. Just platelets, plasma, and other normal stuff that you'd see at a non-infected wound site that hadn't healed up yet. She put on a fresh bandage, and we went through some exercises designed to help with pain I was suffering after all of the walking I did at the Winter Classic. By the time PT was over, I could feel dampness in the bandage again. The therapist told me to wrap it in an ACE Bandage when I got home, which Mrs. Prof. did for me, twice. I feel much less leakage now. I've got a follow-up appointment with the surgeon next week. We'll see how he reacts to all of this.

Can legs have a hangover? Mrs. Prof. and I went to the NHL Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl here in Dallas and saw our Stars pull out a 4-2 comeback win over the Nashville Predators hockey club. I should say that we and around 85,358 other people went to the game. I wasn't ready for how cold it would be, nor was I ready for how narrow the seats would be (both front-to-back as well as side-to-side). However, what I really wasn't prepared for was the walk. Ohmydearlord, the walk. We decided to save $30 on parking and take the DART light rail from Garland (our suburb) to Fair Park (home of the Cotton Bowl). Bad move on many levels. One, the distance from the rail station to the stadium is ridiculous, especially when you consider my disabilities, the fact that I don't walk much, and that little thingy I had last Monday, what was it ... arthroscopic surgery! Oh, yeah, that. Mrs. Prof. had to help me navigate item number two, the official attendance of 85,360 (including ourselves). Everywhere you went, there was a line, especially to get past the metal detectors. Once we found our seats, or what there was of them - tiny little things - we actually had good sight lines. I had to keep pumping down the oxycodone to survive the experience, though. Game over, and repeat the excruciating incursion in reverse, right? Wrong. All but two gates to the gigantic complex were closed. DART police were letting people through in small groups to get onto outbound trains going to random destinations. My quads and calf muscles were in flames, and my knee joint was screaming at me with every passing minute. DART police didn't care. We had to wait with everyone else. We did finally make it through the mass of people and onto a train, but I had to ride standing up for the first half of the trip. We transferred onto a train with free seats, where I was finally able to sit and let some of the burn dissipate. It's now Friday, and my legs still hurt. I'm going to physical therapy this afternoon, where I'm going to ask them to concentrate not so much on my knee by itself and work more on getting my knee and my legs to recover from Wednesday's walk. Sort of a one-off therapy session. That's how you have a New Year's hangover without alcohol.

David Diamond Symphony No. 2

Been 2020 in Texas for 2 hours now. I'm still awake. No party, just bad bedtime planning.

Wednesday's going to be a real test of my scoped-out knee. Mrs. Prof and I are going to the NHL Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on New Year's Day, just a light rail ride away from our house. Only problem is that there's quite a walk from the parking lot to the rail station, then another much longer walk from the terminal station to the Cotton Bowl. After that, we've got to go through security, make it up the ramps, and navigate the steps to our seats. I hadn't planned for this when I scheduled my surgery. Here's hoping my knee holds out ... either that, or my pain medicine holds out.

Here's the "more later" I keep forgetting to post. Things have healed up quite nicely on the outside of my knee. I'm walking with relative ease, thanks in part to my oxycodone. I did have to go off my gabapentin in the end just so I could stay awake. My right ankle hasn't noticed the difference. Inside the knee, things are a bit different. I've posted a photo gallery here. Things are supposed to look smooth and off-white, not red and tattered and angry as they were when the doctor went in. He was quite surprised to find bone-on-bone arthritis, which of course he couldn't fix, plus some "angry" spots here and there. I went to my first physical therapy appointment yesterday. Bleaugh. Can't stand the stuff, but since I'm going to have to walk quite a bit in order to get from the light rail station to the Cotton Bowl Stadium in order to watch the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day, I'm going to have to do the exercises. Might want to think about a knee brace before I get there, hell, I don't know. I mean, I've still got steri-strips on my knee that are full of blood and I can't even get them wet until Monday. Meanwhile, there's another issue developing on my right foot - an infection of toe #2 that literally "popped" open the day before surgery. Spewed blood onto the shower floor. For a day there, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to have the knee surgery, but that obviously happened, mainly since it was on the opposite leg. However, the surgeon added an antibiotic to my IV and gave me a prescription for a very strong capsule - clindamycin. I mean, the stuff is so strong that I can't lie down for 10 minutes after I've taken it (to keep it from damaging my throat), plus I've got to take a probiotic with it. I'm not sure if it's doing anything to my mouth right now or not - might have to go see my regular doctor to check for thrush. I've got an appointment with my podiatrist on January 2nd to look at the toe and see what's going on with it. I hope it's not another case of osteomyelitis (bone infection) - that cost me two toes already over the past year & a half.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Well, *someone* had to say it.

I have made it through my knee surgery, successfully as far as I know of at this time. I'm walking on a cane through the house. However, I'm having a slight problem keeping myself awake. I keep passing out at random times, like I just did. A nurse suggested that I back off on my pain medicines. I might back off on my gabapentin. Otherwise, I'm doing okay. More later.

I just got a time a little while ago for my surgery on Monday. I check in at 11:15 a.m. CST, and they wheel me back at 1:15 p.m. CST for a God-knows-how-long scoping out of my left knee. I met with the surgeon yesterday and asked him a few questions—he said he'll be doing a "diagnostic arthroscopy" to begin with. In other words, he'll go in and scout out the whole knee to see what might be wrong before he starts doing any repair work. Once the diagnostic is done, he'll do the actual fixing, in which he expects to include repair/removal of torn meniscus material and a small amount of shaving down of my arthritic kneecap. After my surgery and my recovery time, he expects that I'll be walking on my left leg in no time. In fact, I should be using either crutches or my cane to leave the hospital! How different from the primitive arthroscopic surgery I had back in 1984.

Now ingesting "Wake the Hell Up!" brand "Jamaica Me Crazy"-flavored Ultra-Caffeinated coffee. Waiting for the caffeine rush to hit.

He chortled in his joy.

True, but if I hadn't, the rapid response team wouldn't have come, they wouldn't have found that my blood pressure was 60/20, and I would have continued to bleed out internally. I probably had about 15-20 minutes of life left in me when they arrived. Those broken ankles saved my life. If you choose the Gastric Sleeve option, yes. That was not available to me, unfortunately - I had a Roux-en-Y bypass. I've had trouble with wildly fluctuating weight, nausea that requires prescription medication (Zofran) to calm down, and unpredictable amounts of how much food I''ll be able to eat at a meal. It has helped me take off and keep off a steady 56 pounds, though, but I want to lose much more, and I can't seem to break through.

Today is a very special day, one that many forumgoers here may remember. Today is the ten-year anniversary of my survival of an extremely close brush with death. Ten years ago, I almost bled to death internally after a botched gastric bypass operation while waiting to be triaged in an emergency room's waiting room. If I hadn't had to go to the bathroom, found it locked, stood up from my wheelchair, and either fell or got knocked over, breaking both ankles and summoning the rapid response team who found that my blood pressure was 60/20, I would have died that day. I spent 3 days in the ICU and almost a month in two different hospitals afterward. I communicated with the EGS Forum with a laptop from my hospital bed. Eight or so weeks after the ER incident, I was back at work, by sheer force of will. I've been in pain from my broken ankles, and have fluctuated in my weight and had to take anti-nausea medicine frequently due to the botched gastric bypass. Still, I have survived, and I hope to survive another ten years past this anniversary. We shall see.

Saw the vascular doctor today. She has no idea what's causing the swelling. However, she believes the skin numbness and the inner pain is caused by nerve damage related to the endovenous ablation procedure. Guess what she put me on? Gabapentin. 300mg 3x a day. w00t. Here we go again. So, I get to be ultra-careful with my diet for the next month to keep from gaining weight due to the gabapentin, plus I'm going to have tunnel/double vision off and on as a side effect. Lovely. As long as it makes the fscking pain go away, I guess.

I'm lucky in the cost part - both the 911 operator and the EMTs told me that they don't charge you unless they transport you to the hospital. I won't get charged for their visit.

Well, that escalated quickly. I called the Blue Cross Nurse Help Line to ask if I should put heat or cold on my leg/ankle to get the swelling to go down. The nurse freaked out and called 911 on me. The 911 operator dispatched an ambulance to my house with three EMTs. They looked over my foot, took my vitals, and decided I didn't need to go to the hospital, which is what I told the Blue Cross nurse in the first place. The EMTs *did* tell me to use cold, however. Or hot. Whichever I wanted.

I have an appointment with the vascular specialist this coming Wednesday (Dec. 11th) for my right lower leg and foot. The pain and swelling have been getting worse, to the point where my foot is feeling heavy. There's no obvious discoloration, so I don't know why it's doing this. I've spent a good amount of today with my leg elevated. I don't know if I should apply heat or cold, however. I'm confused.

Bophuthatswana is far away But it's still in South Africa no matter what they say

After eating (and thoroughly enjoying) turkey & dressing with lingonberries at IHOP after Thanksgiving this year, I decided I would take lingonberries to the family get-together on Mrs. Prof's side as my contribution to Christmas dinner. Of course, I had to buy a test bottle from Amazon to make sure I'd be buying the right stuff. The bottle arrived today, so I opened it. Whoops. Not only are they the "right stuff," they're downright smegging addictive! I've gone through two thirds of the bottle by myself already, on things like English muffins, leftover stuffing, and just plain eating them from the jar. Thank goodness that they're only 34 calories per serving, with 20 servings per bottle. I've ordered two jars for Christmas, otherwise I'll eat all of the single jar myself. Now, the trick is going to be getting people to try them next to the cranberry sauce.

Had to skip today's follow-up blood tests / med checks. Mrs. Prof, a.k.a. my transportation, came back from the urgent care clinic last night with a diagnosis of borderline pneumonia. No way I was making her drive me to the doctor. My pre-op tests are still scheduled for Monday. They wouldn't let me schedule both the follow-up and the pre-op simultaneously, claiming insurance wouldn't pay for it. Bastages. I'll get the follow-up done later. A new issue is raising its ugly head, and it has to do with the endovenous ablation of my lower right leg. I'm starting to get some swelling and pain down the back lateral part of my leg, down to the curve of my ankle joint. It feels like something is stuck down there, like perhaps it's not draining properly. I'm going to call the vascular surgeon's office tomorrow to find out WTF is going on.

Well, THAT escalated quickly. The scheduling nurse called. I have a surgery date: December 23rd, two days before Christmas. I know what I want for a Christmas present. Of course, there's a schedule leading up to it. On the 9th, I get pre-op testing done. On the 19th, I have a pre-op appointment with the surgeon, with whom I'll no doubt argue. (He still thinks that my kneecap arthritis is the root cause of my pain, despite all of the problems I have with my meniscus and the physical pain I have on my left side.) Then, finally, on the 23rd, I have the surgery. In the afternoon. NPO (nothing by mouth) from midnight. I don't know how I'll survive it. Hell, I don't know how they'll find a vein to introduce an IV. I have terrible veins. They told me to hyper-hydrate for 48 hours prior to the surgery date. All I can tell that'll make me do is piss a lot. (Guess I'd better discuss stopping my Lasix with my primary care doctor.) That's what I know for now. There may be more forthcoming. I don't know. I hope not. All of my fingers and all of the toes I have left are crossed for a good outcome.

Saw the knee doctor's physician's assistant today. Took with me a printout of the MRI report and the DVD of the MRI scan as artillery. Also made him listen to and feel the clicking in my left knee (he called it "crepitus"). Told him the GELSYN-3 injections did squat for my knee pain and suffering. Asked for arthroscopic surgery. He went to talk to the knee doctor. The knee doctor agreed. In fact, he agreed to do it before the end of the year, while my 100% insurance coverage is still intact. I've got to wait for a phone call from the scheduling nurse and a pre-op appointment with the doctor, but after those comes the surgery. I only hope to God it works.

Not a wise move. It cost him a Beethoven symphony.

Got to see the foot doctor today. He said that I do have something that could potentially be shaved down on inside the bottom of the ball of my foot, but for insurance purposes needs to see if a cortisone injection will help first. He wanted me to come back in 2 weeks, but the damned scheduling nurse said his first available appointment wasn't until mid-January. I know how to get around that, though. Just you watch.