Today was my Post-Op visit (Post Operation)...When I scheduled this before the surgery, I was told that Dr. Rutherford would be in surgery today. Therefore, I made it with Jackie - his Physician's Assistant.
The first thing she said to me was, "This may be a stupid question, but why are you seeing me?" Good grief. I explained that when I met with her before the surgery, she told me that she could remove the stitches if Rutherford wasn't available...
She then proceeded to remove the medical tape.... "Rrrrrrriiiippp." Off goes half the scab!
The stitches are beneath the incision... so all she had to do was to snip the ends. The top end was about 2 inches, but the bottom one had at least 4 inches of stitch sticking out.
They took two X-Rays (one is shown), and then she pulled them up. She kept saying that he did a great job, even though it may not look like it to me because of the scab. I actually think it looks great - and I'm pleased with the results.
I then asked, "Hey... what is that white line?"
Jackie looked... zoomed in... and then said, "It looks like he left a wire in there." She then called Randi, who assisted him with both surgeries. Randi looked and said, "I don't remember us leaving one in there... that's odd... but it looks like it's just in the bone, so it shouldn't be a problem."
Hmm....
Randi then left and Jackie gave me the sobering news:
No sports of any kind, including running, for the next 3 months... minimum!
Remember, this is the same woman that gave me the troubling news prior to my surgery. She told me how difficult it will be to recover from this, that I may never run again, and that I have at least 8 more painful months ahead of me.
She then said that Dr. Rutherford was here and that he could see me if I wanted to... "Uh... absolutely!"
Once he walked in, he said it was doing great. He checked my motion, the bend, and seemed fairly upbeat about everything. Shocking! All the while, Jackie is standing in the corner. He then said, "And that piece of metal in your knee isn't a wire, it's a drill." I said, "A drill? As in a drill bit?" He said, "That's exactly right." And then he pulled it up.
Apparently it broke off in Surgery #1 back in April. He zoomed in real close, and you could actually see the threads on the bit. Amazing! He assured me it shouldn't cause any problems, and that it would have been pretty difficult on me had he removed it (dug it out) during the surgery.
I then asked him about running... he said, "I'm not going to restrict you other than knee bends." He went on to say that most of my problems will be evident on the lower end of the kneecap - I lost all of that cartilage. But, he said to give it a try.
He wants me to do a lot of walking, and to do some exercises to strengthen the quadriceps muscle. But overall, it looks like I'm headed down Recovery Road!
As we all walked out, Jackie made a comment: "He's obviously not as conservative as I am in my diagnosis." Dr. Rutherford just kept walking... ha. I guess she wanted to have the last word...
Overall, I'm excited... this was good news going into Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for...
And I have a drill bit in my knee to boot! Whoo Hoo!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment