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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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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.

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3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

I haven't seen many hockey games where the spectators sustained the most severe injuries...

There's a hockey game where the players don't take the most severe injuries in this story...

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Just got home from my follow-up appointment with the knee surgeon. He said he found "a lot" (his emphasis) more arthritis in my left knee, mainly on the back of the kneecap. After going in and doing the arthroscopy, he now, finally, recommends that I have my left knee replaced.

It's about damned time. I've been trying to get this knee replaced for over a decade now.

Of course, he doesn't think it should be replaced any time soon. In fact, he hopes the arthroscopy bought "a couple of years" for my knee. I don't see that happening. Ideally, I'd like to have it replaced before the end of this year. Of course, Mrs. Prof. would probably go ballistic if I told her that. We may soon find out. My next follow-up is in four weeks.

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I've had three minor issues so far this year.  I pulled a muscle on the right side of my back near the hip, I've had a sinus headache that just isn't responding to meds and of course I'm still having issues with my right knee.  Not to Professor Tomoe's level, of course, but I'd like to be able to sit for more than 30 minutes at a time before my knee locks up and makes standing or walking very painful.

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Hurting yourself without knowing how you hurt yourself is among the worst things in life

If you were in a dangerous situation, you should be able to remember it so you can avoid that kind of situation in the future

And if you were doing something fun or stupid, you should at least be able to look back on it with fondness or amusement

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I just had my yearly blood draw for "tests". Took way more out of me than I expected it to. Thinking strongly about taking a nap and dealing with life in the afternoon time frame. At least I don't have a headache and didn't pass out when they took the blood.

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On 1/10/2020 at 6:43 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Hurting yourself without knowing how you hurt yourself is among the worst things in life

If you were in a dangerous situation, you should be able to remember it so you can avoid that kind of situation in the future

And if you were doing something fun or stupid, you should at least be able to look back on it with fondness or amusement

The physical therapist thinks I may have done it during one of the exercises of the previous class. We won't be doing those exercises anymore, he says, mainly due to the knee replacement recommendation. PT won't help with those particular exercises.

Friday's PT class was strenuous rather than painful as a result. He worked the hell out of the areas that can benefit from PT and left the problem areas alone.

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14 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Friday's PT class was strenuous rather than painful as a result.

That's good.  Painful PT sucks.

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11 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

The physical therapist thinks I may have done it during one of the exercises of the previous class. We won't be doing those exercises anymore, he says, mainly due to the knee replacement recommendation. PT won't help with those particular exercises.

Friday's PT class was strenuous rather than painful as a result. He worked the hell out of the areas that can benefit from PT and left the problem areas alone.

Finally, a therapist who is doing what you need, instead of merely what he thinks you need.

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While all of the knee drama has been playing out, I've still been trying to get toe #2 on my right foot to heal up after it so dramatically popped on the day prior to the arthroscopy. The podiatrist removed the toenail and let the clindamycin run its course while we put Silvadene on it. He also took a culture of it and sent it off for testing. Well, I saw him today and presented a toe that still looked rather gross - as in black and peeling gross.

Turns out the culture showed Enterococcus bacteria - from a fecal source. We have one of our cats' litter boxes near the toilet in the bathroom that I frequent. Bingo. And clindamycin doesn't do a damned thing for Enterococcus.

He prescribed Augmentin and an antibacterial cream, took another culture, and told me to come back in a week. I'd gone round-trip to the doctor by myself via Uber, so I got to freak out Mrs. Prof. with the news when she got home. :D

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Had a talk with my physical therapist yesterday. I'd gone into the appointment with Level 7 pain in my left knee that didn't go away. I explained what the knee surgeon had told me about the knee replacement, including the part about having "bought 2 years" before I'd have to have the operation done. Yeah, no. I told him to tell the doctor that I felt the arthroscopic surgery had made the knee worse rather than better, and that I felt like I'd be having the operation before the end of the year.

We kind of shifted gears after that. He worked on strengthening my core, rather than focusing on my knee in exclusion of everything else. I managed to make it through the session. The ice on my knee at the end was a welcome relief.

Unfortunately, I'm having to cancel Friday's appointment. I've got a conflicting appointment with my primary care doctor to get a couple of other things checked out. More news (if there is any) after I get back.

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Okay, news from my primary care doctor's appointment. I've had some trouble swallowing on occasion over about the last six weeks. It comes and goes, and it affects liquids as well as solids. The problem is mainly on my right side.

My doctor said this is relatively common and can be caused by reflux narrowing the esophagus. He's setting me up for a barium swallow test to see exactly what's going on down there. Nothing to worry about at the moment.

He also wrote me a prescription for scopolamine patches to counter the effects of seasickness during next month's NotCon at Sea cruise to Cancun, Mexico. He advised that I start by cutting them in half and applying them so I don't get knocked out due to the interactions between it and all of the other medications I'm on.

I also was told something interesting. He and every other doctor who has dealt with my feet has claimed that I have neuropathy, which is usually caused by diabetes. Not so in my case, according to him. He believes that mine was caused by all of the trauma I've suffered through the years, mainly the double broken ankles back in 2009 after my gastric bypass. Something I'll have to pass along to my podiatrist when I see him on Monday.

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1 minute ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

That depends on dietary preferences
You will need to account for the ankles if you eat a lot of Sole Food

\me takes down the Pharaoh's name.

We will have none of that mummy dude.

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13 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

That depends on dietary preferences
You will need to account for the ankles if you eat a lot of Sole Food

Soreness in my ankles does tend to make me flounder at times.

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7 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Soreness in my ankles does tend to make me flounder at times.

\me glares.

I said none of that.  That means you too.

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Had a particularly painful physical therapy session today. You see, three days ago, my knee decided to fire all cannons at me in one of the areas where I've got both bone-on-bone arthritis and scar tissue from surgery. Standing and sitting became excruciating tasks. I finally managed to overcome most of the pain by today, but I reported it to the PT guy. He did some manipulation and found that my kneecap had scooted over to the left, off-center from where it should be. He concentrated on working the muscles along my inner leg to get things to move back, but the knee pain flared up again doing some of the work. He's reporting to the surgeon that my knee seems to be getting worse with each PT appointment.

In other news, I saw the podiatrist on Monday. My infected 2nd toe on my right foot isn't responding like it should to the antibiotics. I'm now scheduled for another MRI to test for osteomyelitis (bone infection). If it's there, I'm headed to a wound care specialist to see about putting my foot in a hyperbaric chamber.

In further other news, I reported a problem swallowing to my primary care doctor last Friday. I'm waiting for him to set me up for a barium swallow test to see what's causing it. He thinks it might be reflux, which is treatable. Thank goodness at least one of these things has a potential positive outlook.

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1 hour ago, mlooney said:

It's official. I have a cold. I'm taking NyQuil and going back to bed this morning.

And I can't sleep and the Q isn't doing it normal knock me out thing. Not sure what I'm going to do. I feel like crap but can't seem to fall asleep even under the effects of NyQuil, which normally knocks me right the [redacted] out. Bleh

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32 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

You got Benadryl? Take that. Nighty-night.

Yeah, I've got various "PM" pain pills that have the same active ingredient as Benadryl, but they aren't working today.  I'm amped, but can't do crap on any project I should be working on.  I strongly suspect I'm having a hypo-manic episode, which sucks.

 

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Today (Friday Jan. 24) is going to be fun (sarcasm). I've got physical therapy (ouch) scheduled for an hour at 2pm in Rockwall (think far east D/FW area), followed by an MRI at 5:15pm in Plano (think far north D/FW area), with 2:15 hours to get from one to another during the start of Friday rush hour. I think we may just go straight from Rockwall to Plano, have an early dinner at Chuy's, and then go in for the MRI. That's the only way I see things working.

Really hoping the MRI results show no evidence of bone infection. I don't want to lose another toe.

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