I have been posting a bit on Facebook about my knee replacement and I decided today I would just set down the whole thing here in the blog. I forget to come here. I am just out of the habit.
Seven weeks ago, tomorrow, June 15, 2026, I had my right knee replaced with a fake one. I did it because the old one hurt all the time and cortisone shots didn’t seem to work anymore. I did not explore anything beyond cortisone shots because the doctor had informed me based on my MRI that I had nothing but bone on bone under my knee cap and I had managed to tear my miniscus. So yeah, it hurt. He also said my othe knee needs replacing and is bone on bone and that this would all be so easy we could just schedule the second one sometime soon!
But the surgery was not a breeeze like orthopedist made it out to be.
I was suspicious when I was told it was day surgery at a center and that I would stand up afterward and go home. I should have listened to my own misgivings and found a surgeon or insisted that this one put me in the hospital for the night.
I tried to tell the surgeon and his PA that I am built a little differently:(. That I have chronic illnesses that make me respond to things like surgery not like a normal person. I told them, for instance, that pain control would be a problem, because of my allergies and because I have had to take opiods in the past and therefore have a higher level of tolerance than the normal patient.
I also mentioned that I have a problem staying asleep under anasthesia and that it is hard to get an IV in me.
I mentioned all of these things and more and no one really listened to me. They just nodded and acted like they were paying attention.
The day of surgery the nurse came to put the IV in and I told her I had little access, i.e. my arms are too scarred for there to be many areas left to find a vein, and she insisted on trying a couple of times and failing badly before I requested the anesthesiologist come and do it. Finally, he came over and failed as well. I asked him, “Do you have a vein finding machine?”
“Oh yeah,” he siad. “I guess we could use that.”
Damn if he didn’t use it and finally get an IV in on the fourth fucking try.
Before surgery he gave me a nerve block in my spine that he said would last for “Several days.”
While I was in surgery, I woke up. They were putting an IV in my foot because the one the dr. had put in had failed and they were too slow to keep me asleep. It was scary and disorienting to say the least.
Later, in recovery, I awoke to the worst pain I can remember since childbirth. The pain block was gone. It didn’t hold but they didn’t exactly believe me when I told them. They thought I just wanted a lot of pain medicine. It was excruciating. I nearly passed out. I asked to be taken to the hospital. They told me that would be too much trouble and that they would just stick me in ER and I wouldn’t have any better pain care there.
I was panicked and lost control and screamed. They kept giving me little bits of pain medicine in my IV but then said that was all they could give and I needed to get up and leave. I told them that was not going to be possible. Finally, I was crying so loud that another anesthesiologist heard me and came to see what was wrong.
She was very compassionate and put two nerve blocks in my knee itself to block the pain so I could, combined with enough of the hydromorphine, stand up and get into the car and home. She told me her nerve block would last me a week, at the very least, and possibly longer.
It lasted about 30 hours.
So, that was the story of the surgery. It was awful. The next two to three weeks were very rough. Stan and I slept downstairs, me in the recliner we bought for this surgery, and him on the sofa. I had to wake him up for everything. I was using the walker and going to the bathroom, etc. immediately but the pain was just awful and I was an awful patient, to be honest.
I became depressed and felt like crying all the time. This made my poor husband want to run away, which is understandable.
It was a mess.
Now, at this point, I am walking fine and doing everything for myself. I go to physical therapy three times a week and try to make sure and stretch myself on days I don’t go, usually by doing the stairs a few times. I am probably going to start driving this week because the doctor dismissed me at my appointment last Thursday.
Interesting factoid: I wrote the dr. a letter about my surgery experience. I wrote in a nice way, just informing him that things went wrong and that he might want to do things differently for patients like myself in the future.
I got ZERO response.
When I saw him last Thursday for the follow up he acted like he had never seen it and I guess that may be the case. He was really excited by my progress and said, “You are such a suprising success, sweetheart!”
Ugh. I wanted to bite him.
I will say this in his favor: He did a bang up job on the knee. It is in place and it works. I have since heard horror stories about infections and knee rejection and bad alignment and such. I have had none of that. This knee was placed through robotic surgery and it seems to be really well done.
So, Kudos to the surgeon for doing his job right.
He just has zero or negative zero bedside manner or even care for his patients once they leave the operating room, literally.
I feel like he sold me a knee. I probably needed one and it will probably work out fine in the end but I still feel a bit suckered. He even showed me pictures and videos of happy patients when he was trying to convince me what a great idea this was. He never mentioned it was going to be hell because he doesn’t concern himself with that part.
I was NOT taken care of as an individual. I was just a body with a knee and insurance.
So, I learned a lesson. Just finding a good surgeon doesn’t always mean I have found the right surgeon for me. This doctor will NOT be doing my left knee. I don’t think I even want to go back there for care of any kind. I need to find a new place.
God has given me some gifts the last few weeks: One of them is a great new therapist. I am so grateful for that. Also, I have finished all the parts of my book. In addition I have gotten all the pieces of my Bat Mitzvah ceremony put together, even though I had to put it off for another month. So, things aren’t all bad. I have even been able to do some long distance editing for a young lady I know in Thailand, which is something I enjoy.
And I am so grateful for my husband and for my son and for my daughter in law. They have all taken such good care of me. I am so damned lucky to have them.
So, Onwards and Upwards and we’ll see what the new knee can do.. who knows?
Eventually it may even feel like it isn’t a weird Frankenknee and it’s actually my body part. According to the physical therapist, that will happen between six months to a year from surgery…. another thing the doctor didn’t mention!
Oh well.
It will be a while before I let anyone touch knee number 2. That is for sure!!!