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TKR Recovering & Getting Ready for #2

Lefty turns 3 in a week and a half!! Hard to believe, but time flies ... and all that. (And to her credit, Righty turned 3 on Oct. 30th!) Back seems to be doing great - went swimming (for the first time since before my knees!) the day before Thanksgiving, which definitely impacted my strength for our family Thanksgiving hike. At least I got into the mountains for a couple miles. Fine for a couple of long hikes last week - just working on my cardio now, as those uphills take my breath away ... literally. :headbang: Got to get that back, but it took 8 years to lose it! :heehee:

I hope everyone is doing well!
 
hmmm ... just stopped my own thread to do an update. It says I have "insufficient privileges to reply here!" and "Not open for further replies." Locked out of my own thread ... interesting. Was it something I said?:shrug:
 
OK - well I'll tell you all:
Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. Gorgeous day ... the Sainted Joe and I went hiking up in the Santa Monica Mountains (6.5 miles), when I encountered my biggest fear after all my surgeries for "new parts" :yikes:... I caught a toe and fell. Flat out on left hip, knee, and hand. Laid still a few minutes taking a mental assessment of my parts. Joe got me up , shook it off, and we carried on. Biggest casualty was my hand which required pulling out the small first aid kit. Certainly could have been much worse!! Would just as soon not do that again. Icing the knees while swallowing Aleve because I know I am going to have some strange aches and pains later! Meanwhile, the flora in the mountains is amazing ... plants galore we've never even seen before.
 
Hi there .... that used to happen to me constantly when I was coming here throughout the whole ordeal. Made me nuts! It must be something in the system that does that .... that's all I can figure.
Pound on the door ...... and someone will answer. :)
See you soon again,
abby:flwrysmile:
 
@NightQuilter .... your thread is unlocked now. So I have moved your conversation posts there......

We frequently close threads with no activity to prevent new members from posting in them (they don't get responses and can get very discouraged).
 
So glad you were not hurt worst Lynn- OMG, how scary! Also glad you were able to hike 6.5 miles.. I can't even imagine ever again being able to do hike 1/2 a mile at this point in my recovery- LOL!

Carry on oh great leader- I hope to 'some-year' catch up with you-!!

:beg:
 
Thanks Jamie - makes perfect sense. I would hate to have posted somewhere and not have gotten any feedback.
 
Oh, Suzie!! You WILL get better. Just follow the BoneSmart mantra!

There were days when I was so discouraged, but folks on here encouraged and inspired me. My knees are 3 1/2 years old now and my spinal fusion is 13 months old. I walk around now and still "see" all my recovery milestones ... the neighbor's driveway (that was a huge walk!), the end of the block, going 20 paces uphill, a mile .... Yesterday's achievement (in addition to getting up and carrying on) was the first 1/2 mile is all steep grade ... yesterday was the first time I made it without stopping! Let your knee guide you, but set some longer-term goals. Mine last year was to be ready to hike the Camino de Compostela in Spain in September - the urgent need for the spinal fusion definitely put a crimp in my training program! But I made it - 7 days and 110 km (and no falls!). Happy to be your support now!!
 
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So excited! Daughter #2 has been invited to join a UCLA anthropological research team working on mummies in Peru for a couple of weeks, starting next week! Which means ma & pa have an excuse for a trip to Peru to join her afterwards to fulfill a bucket list item - Machu Picchu. Still debating the hike from Cuzco ... need to research that a bit more! Another test of the knees and back! woohoo!
 
Fantastic, you can go to Peru, Machu Picchu, and walk all you want. I am sure your knees will be fine, and you won't even give them a thought.
 
You sound so happy! Thanks for the encouragement and sunny outlook. Peru! Wow!



RTKR January 6 2016
LTKR March 23 2016

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Well, I knew eventually I would have to deal with my neck. :censored: And the time is now ... actually next week. My back surgeon will be fusing the C5-C6 anterior approach and then flipping me over to do bilateral microdecompression at the C6-C7. Sigh. I do hope this will be the end of it!!:headbang:
 
@NightQuilter.....how are you doing after this surgery? I hope things went well for you.
 
Please do let us know. My job used to be doing the neuromonitoring for spine surgeries before my husband and I went into telemedicine for the same field.

My only words of encouragement are that of all the surgeries I monitored (over 10k), neck surgeries were generally the most successful. Be VERY strict about following the recovery guidelines. We saw far too many people back for revisions b/c they felt so much better that they would accidentally pick up their 20lb dog to put them on the bed (and other such no no's). Unfortunately, with spine surgery, pain cannot be your guide - largely, by the time you feel the pain, usually the damage is done.

Many prayers that you find great relief!

Liz
 
Hi all - thank you so much for the good wishes and good advice @L.I.T Liz.

Surgery appears to have been successful, though 12 days out and I am still feeling like a truck hit me. Wound check last Friday was normal; steri-strips starting to peel off. I am following all the protocols Liz; mine were not to pick up anything over 10 lbs. Too bad daughter's black cat got out one night and I was the only one around! He didn't get far, but I picked up his 14 lbs without a thought. :groan: Seriously underestimated the impact on throat and voice moving the trachea out of the way would have. Went off my hard meds yesterday (Bonesmart withdrawal protocols are always of value!) - they were not helping anyway.

But I am back!
 
Ah, one little disconcerting factoid ... before we went in, my OS mentioned he had shown my images to his partner, who replied, "why aren't you fusing all 3 levels!!?" Really!!?? I had hoped I was done with this going under the knife stuff. My OS thought the 2 procedures he would be doing were plenty to deal with and hopes they will stabilize me so that we don't have to fuss with the other levels!
 
Glad the surgery is behind you and you are doing well. So easy to pick your daughters cat, it sounds like you have gotten over the run away cat caper.
Hoping the two levels stabilize your neck, and you are on your way to an uneventful recovery.
 
So happy to hear that the surgery was a success, and that you are recovering well!

Sounds like your surgeon is rather conservative - and that can be a good thing. Sometimes I think surgeons can get a bit overzealous and forget about the practicality of being more aggressive (such as being able to still turn your head enough to drive properly, etc).

Keeping my fingers crossed that you continue to heal well, and that your neck forever be off limits to any more surgeons :wink:
 
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