Knee surgery this week

Speaking of downtime, many of you know that I'm having knee surgery this Tuesday. I have a cartilage tear behind my knee cap and also my knee cap tends to slide towards the outside of my knee joint just a little bit. (This is very common in women; I'm willing to bet a fourth of you women have the same problem and have no idea). I had no idea, either, until I started teaching so many exercise classes and tore some cartilage. At first it was just a little bit bothersome and I thought it was something that would just go away. Finally it got to the point where by the end of the week (after teaching so many classes), I could barely walk and was in constant pain.

I went to physical therapy ALL summer long and now the problem is manageable but I finally decided to just go ahead and have the surgery. It locks up all the time and hurts terribly to get it 'unlocked', if I step wrong or move the wrong way it is very painful, or if I sit still for any length of time it is quite difficult to stand up and get it moving again. My doctor said I could keep living like this until it becomes bad enough that I HAVE to have surgery or I could just go ahead and do it now while I'm still young and in good shape. It's remarkable that I've been able to keep teaching Zumba all the way up until the night before surgery and hopefully, if all goes well, I will be able to start again in January.

So, I've been a little anxious about the surgery. It is arthroscopic so I like to use the word "procedure" in lieu of "surgery". I hate the idea of being put to sleep and have people do things to me that I am unaware of. What if there's a fire, or a bomb, or a natural gas explosion? Would I wake up? Would everyone just scream and run for their lives and leave me behind?

I also had a dream the other night that they put the I.V. in my face instead of the back of my hand. As they were sticking it into my cheek, I asked them what the heck they were doing. They said that this is how they do things nowadays. They proceeded to stick the needle all the way through my cheek and into my mouth where they squirted the anesthesia and I had to drink it! I was so relieved when I woke up in my comfy bed and realized it was all a dream.

Anyway, the "procedure" I'm having done is called a lateral release; where they go in and cut the retinaculum (fibers) that are pulling too hard on one side of the knee cap. And then they are also going to clean up the cartilage tear(s) behind the patella and, well, it's arthroscopic which means they stick a camera in there and see what else they might want to work on for good measure. It's supposed to be fairly simple and straightforward so I'm hoping it is and am trying to just think of it as getting a lube and oil job. All of my classes at work know I'm having knee surgery but I made a mistake one day last week. Someone asked, during class, when my surgery would be. I said it's next week; someone else, across the room asked what kind of surgery I was having. I made the mistake of saying I was getting a lube job. Mind you, there's music blaring, people talking, and so on. She thought I said I was getting a boob job! We all had a good laugh at that one.

SO, surgery is Tuesday around noon. Dave is off that day and doesn't go back to work 'til the following Monday. He gets to cook Thanksgiving all by himself! (I planned it that way, of course). Nah, he is a great cook and actually likes to be in the kitchen on holidays. Lucky for me he doesn't watch any sports! I am looking forward to milking this for every bit I can...
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!