Week 3 - 4
Well its been now 3 weeks going into week 4 and I have some GOOD NEWS! I went for a check-up yesterday with my OS and looking at the blood results, he is happy to proceed with the 2nd phase of the surgery on the 28th November, which is exactly 6 weeks from original surgery. My CRP level has gone down from 17.9 to 9.5. The benchmark is 5 and below but he told me that anything in single digits is fine because there might be still quite a bit of inflammation. I will be doing further bloods on the 25th November again to confirm, but so far so good. The process has been quite quick for me not that I'm complaining but I just want to ensure that the infection is totally eradicated before the next op, although he did inform me that at time of surgery, once opened if the knee don't look good, then the spacer would remain. Very happy with this result so far!!!
Pain
I am totally off pain killers, but still experience quite a bit of stiffness and swelling.
Thoughts
I've taken this journey in its strides do far, but I just cant shake the idea that at any time I can have another infection. I spoke to one of the healthcare professionals and they told me that infection can happen though skin bites, dental procedures, skin abrasions, in grown toenails, not even mentioning in-hospital infections etc. etc. This is of course not a given, but a probability, but the fact that it can happen so easily is quite scary. There are millions of people having hip and knee replacements these days, mostly everyone sees excellent longevity and results from the procedure, so I guess my question is, is infection something that only certain people are prone to or just is just bad luck or is it that through vigilance one can reduce the risk to non-existent? I have a friend younger than me who had two knee replacements not at the same time, and he mentioned to me the other day that it was the best decision he made, no complications 100%. This is of course fantastic and one of the reasons I decided to go for the operation but reflecting back on getting an infection in year 2 after my replacement, I wonder if there could of been anything I could have done differently in order to prevent it from happening? Any thoughts on this?
Well before I drive myself nuts and dwell too much on this, my only strategy here on out is to focus on :
1) clearing infection, going for 2nd op and recovering
2) be extra vigilant and cautious with regards to my body and just taking good care of myself
3) Enjoy my mobility and capabilities as a result of my new knee.
4) Live LIFE!
Anyway thanks all, have a good week!
Kind regards,
Kurt