Best foot forward
I have had knee problems now for some years, in fact my first operation was over 20 years ago and then I under went a couple of major operations in 1994, since then I had always known that the next step would be knee replacements but my surgeon wanted to get as many years out of the current situation as we could.
However in 2006 I had to go back for yet another arthroscopy but he still wouldn’t consider anything more radical. It was another 18 months before I took the decision to go back and have another go at him so in May 2008 I made an appointment to see if he could now look at further surgery. The appointment was set and he agreed that it was time, however he would make the decision on what sort of replacement I would have after he had seen the results of the MRI scan, a week later and before the results of the scan I asked if we could set a date and one was set for the following week, so 3 weeks after seeing him I was booked in. The results had shown that there was sufficient good knee on the outside to make unicompartmental replacements the best option baring in mind I would probably require more surgery in about 15 years, however I decided I wanted both knees done together but the final decision would be up to the anaesthetist.
Tuesday 27th May arrived and I booked into the hospital just after 9am, my surgeon started his theatre list just after 1pm but I didn’t know where I was on the list, time pasted slowly and I had been dressed in my gown since 2pm, I was watching an episode of Taggert and at 4.30pm the porter came to take me down, I never found out who the murderer was :) I was taken to the pre-theatre room where I was checked and given my name tag just to make sure they had the right person, then wheeled through to where the anaesthetic would be administered, as well as a general and on the advice of Mr Harper I would be having an epidural, which I thought was going to be quite painful but it wasn’t. At 5.25pm I lay back down on the trolley and that was the last I remember until I looked at the clock at 7.50pm in ITU. I had absolutely no pain, which wasn’t a surprise since I had been given the epidural, during the night I had a couple of units of blood and some antibiotics, it was a long night 
I was eventually taken back to my room at about 11.30am, my left leg was completely numb but I had already been able to do leg raises with the right. I was left in bed all day Wednesday and the epidural eventually came out first thing on Thursday morning. Clare my Physiotherapist arrived mid morning with a zimmer frame at least I would be able to get to the bathroom, with the aid of another nurse they had me on my feet but before I could take a few steps I was light headed and feeling a little queasy, so I was sat back down which was a little disappointing, but Clare would be back in the afternoon. Early afternoon Clare was back and we had a better go, now I had some independence – fantastic.
Clare was back again on Friday morning and asked if we should try crutches, I wanted to get going so off she went and the zimmer went with her, progress needs to be made and the zimmer was too much of a safety net. Having used crutches before I think I had a bit of advantage, so they weren’t a problem for me and surprisingly the knees felt pretty strong although bending them is the obvious problem. Try getting out of a chair without using your legs, even worse try getting off the toilet. I probably have an advantage over older people who undertake replacements as I have quite good upper body and arm strength, even so I don’t think there was another person on the unit who had both knees done at the same time and all the nursing staff kept saying how brave I was, I didn’t feel brave at all, I just wanted to get it all out of the way in one go. This way I get back to diving and exercise a lot sooner. I have a good couple of days doing laps of the corridors of Stafford Suite and by Saturday they decided it was time for me to go home, I had ticked all Clare’s boxes for walking and stairs, had a shower and no problems rising from chairs. So I am now at home and getting out for a walk when the weather is good, I was out for about 20 mins earlier which was good, although the worst time of the day is during the night as you just can’t get comfortable lying in bed.