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TKR Yorkimom is ready to go...LTKR

That's good, Anne!

I see my own doctor on Tuesday, for repeat medications and a letter about them to the hospital.
Then I'll get my blood and urine tests the day after, and I should get a phone call from the anaesthetist, to set up a time to see him, for chest and heart clearance.

I had an ECG about 4 months ago and it was OK, so I'm not worried about that. I'm also avoiding crowds and I run a mile from anyone with a cough or cold. (Not really, but I do try to keep away!)

Now we're on the preparation path towards surgery, I really want to get this over and done with.
 
I'm with ya @Celle. Only three more weeks! it seems that I have less to do this time around. Last time my urine test showed a UTI and even with taking meds the retest showed I still had it. I took antibiotics up until the day of surgery. I was happy that this time my test came back negative. I also went to the blood bank last time to donate blood for them to give back to me after surgery. I was told today they don't do that anymore. It's interesting how things can change from one year to the next. Good luck with your tests. Anne:loveshwr:
 
I'm having BLTK Sept 10. I've done a lot of reading but will not watch the video....pry bars??? Don't want to know. I'm so ready to get this going and start my road to recovery.
 
I have to have blood drawn for cross-matching and I also have to go to the Blood Bank the day before surgery, to have more blood drawn, so that they can have a fresh pack of platelets available. Platelets have to be fresh - I think they only keep for about 48 hours. I have a bleeding disorder whereby my platelets are low in one of the chemicals that starts the clotting process. The platelets are only a precaution, because I will also have a special drug an hour prior to surgery, to try and prevent undue bleeding.

I didn't need to have any extra blood or platelets last time, so I'm hoping for a similar outcome.
 
Good luck Celle. My platelets were also very low during last surgery but improved a month later. My OS also uses that drug - I don't know the name that decreases bleeding. Hope neither if us needs a transfusion and glad the doctors are taking care of it!
 
@Celle and @Jozilla I hope neither of you have to use the platelets, but it is good that your doctors are being proactive and will be prepared. Anne:flwrysmile:
 
Jozilla said:
Good luck Celle. My platelets were also very low during last surgery but improved a month later. My OS also uses that drug - I don't know the name that decreases bleeding. Hope neither if us needs a transfusion and glad the doctors are taking care of it!
Click to expand...

Mine is DDAVP. Intravenously, or in a sub-cutaneous injection.
 
@Yorkimom Hi there, thought I would drop in and wish you a good night before I go to bed. Hope you have a great night!
 
Thanks @tiredwife This is the first chance I've had to get on today. My hubby and I went down to visit good friends of ours about an hour and a half away. We have been friends for 40 years and we always have such a good time when we get together. I was telling my friend about Bonesmart. Both her knees are very bad and she keeps putting off surgery. She cares for her daughter who was in a car accident 20 years ago and is confined to a wheelchair. I don't know how she does it....lifting her, etc. with two bad knees. The doctor told her years ago that she needs to get them done but she keeps putting it off. I'm hoping that she will come on the site, read the posts and see all the help and encouragement she would get.
I'm feeling so much better tonight than I was last night. I had a busy day yesterday, working out with the trainer, grocery shopping, doing payroll for my husband's company (I do this once a week) and then met my friend at the mall. After a couple of hours at the mall I was ready to go home, but my friend still wanted to shop and we hardly get together like we used to. After walking around for four hours I hobbled back to the car. I have been having trouble with my back lately. My hamstring in my right knee is so tight that it pulling on my back and causing pain. Between my back and my knees hurting, I finally took a muscle relaxer to be able to sleep. Relaxing and visiting with our friends today really helped. I'm trying to do stretches so I won't be so tight before surgery because I know once I have surgery, I will only be tighter.
I hope you and Steve had a good day today. Good night, Anne
 
@Yorkimom Sounds like you have been very busy. Hubby's back and hip was hurting all the time before he had his TKR from walking so badly.
He has been having anxiety attacks probably because of the Percocet, so the doctor changed his meds to Norco, hope it helps, just picked it up. He hates the way he feels on Percocet.
Hope your friend decides to get her knees done, but is probably worried about who will care for her daughter while recovering from TKRs.
Hope you have a great day!
 
@tiredwife I hope the new meds help Steve. I'm sure having anxiety attacks is scary and even more so on top of his knee pain.
I received "rinse free 2% Chlorhexidine Gluconate antiseptic solution cloths" in the mail from the joint center today. I have to use them on my knee the night before and morning of surgery. This is making it feel more real to me. Three weeks to go.
 
@Yorkimom Hubby had to shower with special soap the night before and the morning off, and had to have clean sheets on the bed, and clean pjs (If he wore them). 3 weeks will go by fast. Then you will be on the recovery side!
 
I have a tube of antiseptic soap/cream that I have to use to shower and wash my hair with, the night before and the morning of the operation.
 
@Celle I find it interesting how things changed from my last surgery. Last time I had to donate a pint of blood and they administered it back to me the day after surgery. Now they don't do that. Last time there were no special instructions right before surgery, except of course no eating after midnight. Now I have the special solution cloths to use, and like @tiredwife said I have to have clean sheets and clean pj's.
 
Fashions change, in medicine as swell as in other aspects of life.

I think that the concept of donating your own blood prior to surgery might be dying out because to give blood so close to your operation means that you have depleted your own supply, which you will need for the surgery. So you're short at a time when you need it - and then they give it back after the event. It's a lot of fuss if you don't need the blood anyway. I believe that option is still available for people who have very strong objections to receiving someone else's blood.

Since not everyone needs a blood transfusion and since I know how carefully donated blood is tested, I am happy to rely on the blood bank to have some ready for me, should I need it.

Clean sheets and PJs - of course I'd expect to have those. I intend to pack several sets of nightwear, so I can have a clean set every day. And clean sheets are so nice to come home to. I wonder if the hospital used to assume that people would make sure everything was clean, but now they feel a need to state it, to cover themselves. That way no one can blame the hospital and say "Nobody told me that."

The antiseptic wipes/wash have been pretty standard in a lot of places for some time now.

I'm wishing the next few weeks will go past quickly! I have a list of things to do and I am working down that list quite fast.
 
Hi @Celle. It did make me laugh when they said clean sheets and pj's. I'm planning on bringing a couple of nightgowns, but I remember last time they made me stay in the hospital gown except during the day when I wore shorts and tee shirt for PT.
The time is winding down for us. It is really coming fast. Take care. Anne
 
I had to donate a pint of my own blood for both surgeries last summer and they were given back to me. I was in a large university hospital in Chicago. I didn't have to wash with anything special the day before either. It's amazing there are so many different protocols for surgery in this day and age. None of them are necessarily right or wrong, but there sure are huge variations among doctors and hospitals, aren't there?


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They gave me a drug to reduce blood loss and it worked like a charm. My surgeon was quite excited by the lack of blood loss.
 
Yorkimom said:
but I remember last time they made me stay in the hospital gown except during the day when I wore shorts and tee shirt for PT.
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Oh yes, those hospital gowns. I think that must be a North America thing. We don't have to wear them here in New Zealand, except for a theatre gown on the day of operation.

I remember when my husband was unexpectedly in hospital in Vancouver (Canada) last year. No one insisted that he wore anything special. He always wears a nightshirt, hates PJs. So, he wore his own nightshirt, with a pair of shorts underneath. He didn't have a dressing gown (we were travelling light) so he used one of those hospital gowns, worn back to front, as a dressing gown.
 
I made my family watch a video of the surgery this past weekend. I'm going to watch it after my procedure, while icing and elevating! My daughter-in-law said, "Think about it as a nasty root canal and crown." (Maybe with a slightly longer recovery period!)
 
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