Last week I had my one year checkup, to the day from my surgery. What a difference one year makes! As I pulled up to the medical complex at St. Francis Hospital where my doctor’s office and physical therapy is located, lots of memories flooded back. I remember struggling to get in and out of the car, being let out at the front door so I didn’t have so far to walk and shuffling in with my walker and wondering if life would ever be normal again. Today there was no chauffeur driving me to my appointment, no handicap sticker dangling from the mirror and no looking for the closest possible handicap parking spot. Instead of riding the elevator to the second floor, I smiled as I walked over to the two flights of stairs, and confidently without stopping or holding onto the hand rail walked up to my appointment-simply because I could! I came down the same way-because I could.
This was a tough year for me but each week, each month, there was improvement and I am now living a normal, pain-free life. My knees are doing well, the tell-tell knee scar is very faint and I walk without limping. I still know that I have knees, but think about them less and less.
My biggest challenge is the bend of my left knee. I don’t have the bend I have in the right. That knee has been my challenge from day one. I actually lost a little of the bend I had at the end of therapy. I can’t get down on my knees and I have a little fear of sometime falling and not being able to get back up.
Dr. Kerr did x-rays and both knees look like they are suppose to look. He doesn’t know why I struggle so much with bend in that knee. I have mostly learned to adapt and sometimes I remind myself that I am much better than I was before surgery. I need to work again on some therapy exercises because at two years, what I have, is what I have. There is no more changing the situation.
Would I recommend doing the surgery? Absolutely.
Would I want to do both knees at the same time? Absolutely.
I will tell you, it was tough. Tougher than I anticipated or was prepared for. But, it is done, over, and all behind me. The end result is a huge improvement for me. I can walk so much better and am pain-free.
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