Today was the day !! Finally after waiting for what feels like an eternity I had my knee surgery!!
Back on April 11, 2023, I initially injured my left knee at work. After several months of physical therapy, I was finally released back to work with a full release instead of just sitting at my desk on light duty.
Well just my luck that, very week, I once again injured the same knee on Aug 20th, 2023 (different parts).
I gotta admit I realized , I was a fat a$$ that day 🤣🤣 !! I literally tore my meniscus just standing up from the couch. Casey had cut her finger in the kitchen and requested a band-aid so when I attempted to get her one kaboom 💥 heard a loud pop and it felt like I had been shanked in the back of my knee (so it’s her fault 😉)
So this time obviously Physical Therapy was not going to be enough and it was going to require surgery.
(In my humble opinion, I should have, had surgery in April. However I am not a Surgeon only a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Senior Warden, 😂)
Just like an infomercial “But Wait there is more!!!!”
So towards the end of September Casey had an odd skin rash. Which is not to unusual, at first (She has extremely sensitive skin) however, it quickly spread over various parts of her body. I ended up getting the skin infection also. So we both were on several different medications.
None of them helped. Casey had a biopsy done and the Doctor was finally able to determine what the infection was and we began a different medication.
To make a short story long, lol, for those who did not know, way back in April of 2022. I had a strep infection in my leg that ended up turning Septic and I was in hospital for over a week.
That was an experience I’d rather not repeat. The doctor said my sepsis was so severe, I was only few hours from Death. At one point, they were even considering a full right leg amputation at the hip.
This infection destroyed the lymph node in my right leg and I will have lymphedema for the rest of my life and have several scars from it. Most of the time now, it is not a big problem. However, if I walk or stand up for extended periods of time my leg will swell up a bunch. I am supposed to wear a special compression leg brace daily and have a special one to wear at nite time.
Also I have a compression machine that I should use for an hour, 3-4 times a week.
Also I am supposed to use a CPAP machine. I also have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and have to wear a wrist brace at night time and occasionally wear it during the day. (Needless to say, if a burglar ever breaks in my house and sees all this fancy attire he will probably go “damn, my bad … here take my wallet” 🤣🤣🤣🤣).
So on with the long story short, apparently the surgeon considered me a High Risk
I’m mean I’m 48 years old, size of a hippo 🦛, Diabetic, High Blood Pressure, Sleep Apnea, no big deal right?
Oh and to add insult to injury due to being 6’6” and 370lbs. I am way too large to fit in a normal MRI machine and have to drive 2 hours away to Lubbock or Amarillo to be able to use the fatty fat fat man MRI machine 🤣🤣🤣🤣. “🐿️ moment”
So the Surgeon decided not to do my surgery way back in the 1st week of October. He wanted me to take the new medication for a month and be off of the medication for two weeks before he would do the surgery.
On Tuesday November 28th, I had my pre-op consultation. That day they did all kinda lab tests and checked me out. The nurse seen I still have a few infection spots. She was like 🤔 hmm let me tattle tale on you and tell the Surgeon. My first thought was “you have got to be F@&$ing kidding me”.
However, the surgeon decided since I had been on medication already for a month, there was less of a risk of the infection going into my surgical areas. So he prescribed me the medication again, to take for the next two months. And gave me the Green Light for surgery !!!
The meniscus tear I had is called a bucket handle tear.
Of course since this is me and my injury, of course it would be the worst possible meniscus injury. The surgeon was hoping to be able to repair it, however my meniscus was shredded and unable to repaired. He salvaged what he was able to and removed what was not repairable.
In addition, He was able to repair my ACL, which was torn totally in half. There was some other cartilage damage that he was able to shave off and clean up to hopefully 🤞 fix the knee for better results.
The surgeon stated eventually I will most likely develop arthritis in this knee and will someday have to get a total knee replacement. Seeing how I already have arthritis in other areas I would assume it will happen. Yay!🙄
Of course now that I am Diabetic and overweight the recovery will take longer. Initially, the Surgeon told me I would not be able to stand or walk or even apply any pressure to that leg for 8 weeks 😩. Due to the damage that wasn’t able to be repaired I hope 🤞 this will not be the case, but will not know for sure until my follow up appointment in two weeks.
Unfortunately, he said he would not be able to give me a full release to work for 6 months 🤬. I am hoping that once I start physical therapy and recover he will allow me to return to work sooner. Not sure if y’all realize it, but I hate just sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I have already been off work for months and absolutely hate that.
I have been lucky, my staff are awesome and they have definitely been taking care of business with me not there. However, it is honestly a terrible feeling sitting at home not being there. Most people can’t wait to get out of Prison and here I am praying 🙏 to go back behind bars as quickly as possible 🤣😂🤣😂.
I am also extremely blessed to have Casey. She has definitely been my angel 😇 thru all of this. I say it all the time and truly mean it “I would not trade her for a Billion dollars 💸” (even though I jokingly tell her, it’s her fault I needed surgery to start with and giving me her cooties and delaying the surgery 🥰)
The only good thing at all out of all this time out from work, is I have been able to grow out my beard and practice for my retirement “look” for Kentucky. And yes Casey absolutely hates the beard.
Pink Squirrel Farmstead 