Two days before surgery. The feeling I have now is that I just want the surgery to be done. From the surgeon’s point of view the day before surgery is just a regular day. I would have planned all the operations a week before so all that was left would be for me to show up. As the patient it is a different story. I am going through a checklist that my surgeon gave me in his surgical manual. I know this sounds weird but there seems to be way more stuff to do as a patient than I thought there was. I guess it was second nature to me after 3500 knee replacements but when you as a patient have only one there is a lot to do.
- Prescriptions: pain medications, blood thinner, nausea meds
- Antibacterial shower gel
- Make sure I have my walker, cane, elevation pillow, raised toilet seat, both/shower seat
- Foot pumps
- Ice packs in the freezer
- Practice incentive spirometer
I am picking up my wife, Emily, from the airport today. I can’t even imagine the stress of surgery on her. The caregiver shares in the pain and the process. Fortunately this is time-limited until I get better.
Just got a text reminder to fill out preoperative patient-retorted outcomes scores.
These forms allow my surgeon to know how I am doing throughout the process. They also allow for comparison to other patients.
I am managing a flurry of well-wishers on Facebook, Linkedin, and email and expect to get real busy today waiting for the surgery- not much else to do.
My Knee Your Knee 