It's been three weeks since my knee was replaced and honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 This is what the doctor installed. I saw one at a joint class and was surprised how heavy it was. The new joint cost anywhere between 4 to 8 thousand dollars!

Waiting to go into the operating room.

 I really wasn't too nervous about the surgery, I was at the point where I couldn't wait to have it done. I was more nervous about the anesthesia. I didn't have a general but a spinal, a nerve block and some twilight sleeping stuff. They said I may hear the doctor during surgery but wouldn't remember it. I remember nothing.

 I had to initial the knee that was being replaced but as I told my orthopedist it didn't matter if he did the other one in error, they are both the same, bone on bone.

The next day. If you have general anesthesia they have you up out of bed and walking that same day. If you have what I had you have to wait til the next day because your leg is  still numb. So this was the next day. I sent this picture to my kindergartners.

Twenty one staples later here it is. They were removed 13 days later and it's looking pretty good. My recovery has been going well. Apparently I'm way above where I should be in my PT. I'm young (for a knee replacement) and I have a high pain tolerance.  The absolute worse thing was a short bout of post op depression. That lasted about 10 days and I was miserable. Thank god I'm over that and am so lucky, some people suffer for much, much longer with it.

So one knee down, one to go. But not for at least 8-12 months.

I Robot

 I've had knee trouble since I was in my 30's. I really can't remember a time when I didn't have issues with them. I'd watch people run or jump and think , "Gee, I can't do that." Finally at age 40 I had an MRI and x rays My orthopedist told me he had good news and bad news. The good news was that I was only 40, the bad news; I had the knees of an 80 year old. Not only that, my knee caps were rotting away on the underside of them. Great.

For years I had shots of some medicine with 25 letters in it under my kneecap. I hated it. The doctor kept telling me I was too young for a knee replacements.  Fast forward to 2012. It was getting harder and harder to walk without a hitch in my giddy up as hubby called it. I really noticed pain while trying to Christmas shop in December. It got to the point that even when I wasn't using my knees they hurt. They hurt when I rolled over in bed at night. I had become bow legged, not a good look. My hips were bothering me. I had to get a freakin' handicap tag. Ugh. I try not to use it, I just don't want to feel like I need it. Denial I guess.  If there are spots within 5-7 spaces of one I'll park there not in the marked parking. I figure there must be someone older and more handicapped that could use the spot.

I decided it was time to see the doctor again and this time the x rays told the story. Both knees were bone on bone.It was time. On May 7 I will be having my right knee replaced with the left to follow within a year. Below is what they will be using.

 I'm happy to be doing it but not looking forward to the recovery. It'll be fine in the long run and I'll be a good girl and do all my rehab. I've seen first hand what happens when you don't follow through with it. My last surgery was brutal (36 inches of incision and over 450 stitches) and I hope this one will be easier.

This isn't my x ray but what mine will look like when this is finished.  I told my kindergartners that I was having this done and that I wouldn't be back to school until they are in first grade. I gave them the very basics of what the doctor will do. One little boy was so excited and blurted out, "Awesome, you'll have a robot knee! Will you be able to tell it what to do?" My first step on becoming a cyborg.