Before I get into the knee, let me catch you up on the wound healing. When the doctor looked at it during the wound care visit, he had a cotton swap to push on it and said, “Oh crap,” as he did it. My heart sank, as did Amanda’s when he said that. Both of us thought he pushed through the new fresh skin, and puss came out. But he quickly followed the oh crap with an “it’s healed” as the swab didn’t go anywhere. He had been gone for a week, so it had healed significantly since he’d seen it, surprising him. So, Amanda was officially discharged from wound care after that; yay!
There’s a bell to ring when you are finished with wound care, but Amanda wasn’t interested in ringing it. Once you’ve rang the transplant bell, they have a different feel, I think. I can remember her not wanting to ring the bell in the transplant ICU; we did not feel that we were out of the woods and there just yet. She rang the hell out of the one when we were discharged from the nearly 40-day hospital stay after the transplant, though. We felt we were there then!
Now, on to the knee. She will be having a revision of the knee replacement today. This is a total redo; all the old hardware is coming out, and a totally different style of hardware will replace the old, too. When she went to the year follow-up, the surgeon said he thought he did a good job and couldn’t do any better. After not even giving her a physical exam, he said well, see you in a year unless you want me to redo it. Amanda was pissed after that. If you don’t believe that can happen well, it can. It’s usually just directed at me when it does happen, but I got a break that day!
She talked with her physical therapist, whom she has become friends with, and has honestly checked on her more than most. We both love her, and she recommended a surgeon she’s seen great results from and who did revisions. Many won’t redo another surgeon’s work, but this guy has done many. After our first visit with him, we both liked him and felt we were in good hands. He does over 500 knee surgeries a year! Saying that confidently but not being cocky, if that makes sense. We’ve dealt with a lot of surgeons, and the cockiness and god complex runs deep in many. Reminds me of fighter pilots with their cocky attitudes. That’s all fine and dandy when you’re around other pilots or surgeons, but a little unnecessary to be that way around the general public. All that to say, we both really liked him.
He did a thorough exam, moving her leg from the knee down back and forth to the side; you could tell he was on to something. After the exam, he said it could be one of two things: first, a big infection, which he didn’t think it would be but still wanted to verify with blood work. The other was the ligaments on either side of the knee could be stretched, and the hardware wasn’t placed correctly to keep tension on them.
He sent her home with orders to get a knee brace, even showing us a cheaper one he recommended off of Amazon we could have the next day. If the stretched ligaments were the problem, the brace would make her feel better quickly, he said. Once we received the knee brace and she tried it on, her knee felt better within a couple of steps. Amanda thought it would feel better after a few days, not steps. That is when we both felt confident in not only the surgeon but also the need for a second replacement.
My biggest question was, isn’t there a limit to how many replacements you can have? I’d always heard two, and many surgeons want to wait until you are older because of that. This surgeon said he’d done the 12th on someone, saying he takes very little bone on a redo. That made me feel more confident, as well.
He left the decision on our plate, just giving us the options and not swaying us in any direction. Amanda had told him how we found out we like hiking, and now she couldn’t even think about that. Also, how her heart is doing well, and she just wants to be able to live a normal life—this was the final piece holding her back. Little did we know she had an infection brewing in her chest at that time!
That leads us to this trip, where we are currently in San Antonio for an overnight stay to make an early morning hospital arrival. We came up right after the wound care appointment and a Starbucks coffee visit with a good friend in Uvalde. He’s actually the only one I’ve allowed to stay with me during surgeries since I banished my mother years ago after she was a nervous wreck!
We ate as soon as we got to San Antonio. It was old people’s dinner time; we joked about as we walked in during happy hour with only a couple of others in the restaurant! PF Changs was Amanda’s choice; there was one in the quarry that wasn’t far from the hotel.
Amanda used to be a little nervous before surgeries and wouldn’t have much of an appetite. Those days are long gone now! We hadn’t had anything but coffee, so we dove into dinner with a couple of appetizers, soup, and entrees. We saved dessert and grabbed a few snacks from Trader Joe’s, which was close by. We conveniently missed rush hour and got to the hotel to chill. I got into chill mode a little too soon. Amanda wanted some water and a soda, so I put on my Blundstone boots with my basketball shorts and tee shirt and proudly walked to the lobby to grab them!
This is a new hospital for us, and I thought we’d been to them all! It’s Methodist Northeast in Live Oak. We chose the hospital instead of the surgery center since there would be a cardiologist and heart surgeon on duty there, just in case. We’re currently waiting to head back to preop; I’ll update you as she is in recovery later.