As you can see, the camera loves me.
September 28 of last year, I had my right knee replaced. It went well at first but the day after Halloween, I had to go into the Emergency Room for urgent repairs on it. I had gotten a new knee but I'd also gotten a ghastly infection — at no extra charge. They started me on antibiotics and then went back in and redid parts of the operation. So it was like I had two knee replacements but only got one new knee out of the deal.
Since then, everyone asks me, "How's the new knee, Mark?" so I figured I might as well post an update here. It's doing quite well, thank you. It doesn't feel quite like the old knee in its prime but some days, it's close. I don't have quite as much flexibility as I once had in it…but then I don't have quite as much flexibility as I once had in most parts of my body. I have enough though that now I'm back to driving, though I still take Lyft and Uber if it's a long distance or rush hour or sometimes if I'm lazy.
They also ask, "Are you glad you had it done?" as if I'm likely to reply, "No, I think it would be far better to be in constant pain and unable to walk." It's not like I had a lot of other alternatives. Before the surgery, the knee got worse and worse. Since the surgery — apart from that little problem with the infection — it has gotten better and better. How is that not a good thing?
Say, did I mention that they never figured out what the infection was? Some of the fluid that was in my knee was stuck in a petri dish which was then stuck in an incubator. The specialist told me that if it grew, that would be a good thing because then they could identify what it was and be certain that the antibiotics I was receiving were the right ones. Well, it didn't grow and finally, he told me that was a good thing because that meant that it probably wouldn't grow again inside me.
So it's good…and oddly enough, the other knee's doing fine. I could have postponed doing the right one for a few more months but I figured, "Let's get it over with," plus there was the fact that the left knee was getting kinda shaky/achey, too. It made sense to get the right one done before the left one became a problem…but the left one has not become a problem. So far.
One last thing before I close this off. I don't think I ever told you about the doctor visit in which I agreed to have my right knee replaced. I was peppering the surgeon with questions and one of them was about what kind of scar I'd wind up with. Instead of telling me, he showed me. He pulled up his trouser leg and showed me a most acceptable scar.
He said, "I had it done six years ago and it went very well. Very little pain, very little time off work, very little problem." I said okay, fine, sign me up. He said, "All right…I usually do my surgeries on Mondays."
I said, "Oh, I don't want you to do it. I want the guy who did yours."
Months later when I went in for my 50,000 mile checkup, he asked me how I was doing. I said I was doing great. He said, "So…still wish you'd had the guy who did mine?"