Looks so simple eh? (That was for my Canadian readers) Well it's not. Turns out all the cartilage that was stuck to the bottom of my kneecap from my ever present osteoarthritis was scraped loose during the impact of my car accident at work in February. This created a lot of "loose bodies" floating around my knee joint. It seemed like it would be a simple and straightforward fix - like my previous 3 arthroscopies, my knee jerk would go in, shave off the remainder of the "bad" cartilage (do you like my technical terms?) and suck out the loose bodies thereby alleviating my pain. But nothing is ever easy in my world of medical mishaps.
As it turned out, once he was done shaving the back of the knee cap, all that was left was bone on bone which needless to say, is painful in its own right. So he drilled 3 holes called microfissures through the knee cap. This is a relatively new procedure whereby it encourages the stem cells to migrate through the knee cap and hopefully repopulate the underside of the knee with healthy cartilage to form a cushion.
So when I awoke suddenly and fully from my anaesthetic, trachea tube still jammed down my throat, I was taken aback by how sore my knee was which is an anomaly compared to my other surgeries in which I had only mild discomfort. But drugs are a wonderful thing and before I could start whining, they shoved some Dilaudid into my IV along with my anti-nausea stand by, Phenergan and all was well. I recovered quickly, blew off the doctor when he said it would hurt quite a bit due to the drilling of the bone and to be careful of excessive swelling due to bleeding as well as the high potential for bone infection if I get the incisions wet before 5 days have elapsed. Dilaudid infecting my every gesture, I flippantly nodded my head "sure, whatever" and went home.
Thursday morning rolled around and the tears that didn't fall for my pancreatitis, laser eye surgery, severe snow blindness and the myriad of other injuries and illnesses I've had, fell for those three holes in my knee. It's hard to put into words how excruciating the pain is. Dilaudid and Vicodin did not even touch it (although they did a nice job of finally eliminating the pain from my plantar fascitis). Now I know when people say they can feel things in their bones, down to their bones etc. why that turn of phrase is so apt. If someone had showed up at my house selling heroin door to door, I think I would have bought it. That's how much pain I've been in.
I told myself to suck it up - after all, small children with bone cancer suffer far more than I was suffering but it did no good. The tears rolled down involuntarily and the pain was unrelenting. With the doctor's urging, I doubled my doses of Vicodin and Dilaudid which I alternated and added in 600 mg of Advil to try to control the swelling. I will no doubt need a liver transplant when this is all done but for now, the pain is bearable finally after a full day of bone drilling hell.
I really had no idea what I was in for and it took me off guard. My assurances to work that I would be back after 3 weeks were laughed off by the knee jerk who said I cannot bend that knee beyond a normal walking bend for at least 3 months while the stem cells try to grow on the other side of the knee cap. At that time, we will re-evaluate and it seems fairly likely that I will need either a knee cap replacement or a realigning of my own knee as it was knocked so far off track by the impact of the accident. Both I am told, are far more involved, painful and require a hospital stay. At least I will then have that happy little bolus button to abuse. In the meantime, I hobble around the house, terrifying the polar bear as I pendulum back and forth between walls and counter tops.
As those of you who know me well can imagine, I suck as a patient and I despise sitting at home staring at the four walls and "taking it easy". So I will go back to work ASAP and work light duty just to keep my sanity. And to preserve the life of my long suffering mother who must not only put up with me but also my father who will be having a full knee replacement in November. She is a fabulous and enormously patient caregiver to perhaps the two most difficult patients that ever lived. And dad, I haven't stooped to the bell yet so I've got you beat!
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