Blogger Bill

Three weeks ago my wife Glenyce underwent a total knee replacement operation which appears to have been successful. I marvel at the wonderful technology of modern science and medicine that allowed this to occur. The alternative would have been years of crippling arthritic pain, and I am grateful that I live in such a modern age.

She came home from a rehab hospital six days ago, and just three days after that she accompanied me in a 600 km round trip, staying overnight with me as I played a piano gig at the Mountain Grand Hotel, a delightful boutique guest house in Halls Gap. She coped well, albeit with judicious use of a pair of elbow crutches, but she did negotiate some steep stairs along the way.

So now we’re back together, and I’m playing nursemaid, the worst part of which is putting a pair of pressure stockings on every day. They sure are tight, and it’s a struggle, but worth it, because this helps to prevent the formation of blood clots in the veins of the leg.

Actually there was a little drama when an ultrasound detected a leg clot, but apparently it’s an old one, and no problem. But she was under a rehab doctor for that and she was prescribed injections of Clexane, which dissolve the clot - she was scheduled to to do that for weeks! And she had to learn to do it herself!! But we saw the orthopaedic surgeon today, and he took her off it, as it can cause bleeding. So that’s a relief.

All that remains is weeks of recovery, with physiotherapy a couple of times a week, and plenty of exercises to do, and application of cold packs. Meanwhile I’m doing the newly-revised skills of housekeeping, cooking, washing and so on. But you can’t keep a good gal down and she wants to take over from me again!! Heheh!

Anyway, all of this saga has been yet another medical experience in this year of a succession of minor to moderately serious experiences.

Let’s hope it’s plain sailing until the New Year!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Health and doctors.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.