We're getting old (OO medical complaints)

[LordMortis]

Go ILB!

[dbt1949]

Youngest son called and said his mom had a stroke and went to the hospital. Then he called a few hours later and says she has congestive heart failure. We shall see what happens.

[Kraken]

That's...not encouraging.

[Default]

I'm the specialty hospital, after my knee-ectomy. The left knee is pretty bendy, the right knee... Not so much. Still, as of 9:30, the actual stationary pain is minimal. We did the therapy re. bed entry and egress, and that was a challenge. Pain level is far less than the hip, and maybe equal to the bunion surgery, which is to say, more of an itch than anything else.

[Daehawk]

Can you sue them for making you a hospital?

Get well specialty.

[dbt1949]

My wife's brother was visiting her today. She seems to be okay other than a urinary tract infection and they drained the fluid around her heart. A UTI (urinary tract infection) is what she keeps having for about the last year. Somehow it causes her to cough extensively. Then it probably goes into her lungs causing the serious issues. I have no idea how they can fix this.

[jztemple2]

I'm the specialty hospital, after my knee-ectomy. The left knee is pretty bendy, the right knee... Not so much. Still, as of 9:30, the actual stationary pain is minimal. We did the therapy re. bed entry and egress, and that was a challenge. Pain level is far less than the hip, and maybe equal to the bunion surgery, which is to say, more of an itch than anything else.

I'm guessing that it's the nerve block keeping your pain away. After my foot surgery there was no pain for a couple of days. Are they at the point yet where they're measuring your knee bend with a protractor?

[Default]

I can get my calves almost back to my thighs. The limiting factor on the right leg is the kneecap pressing against the incision. The other leg has little lifting power in the shin, because the doc stretched the muscles pretty aggressively. I have a pretty high threshold of pain, probably more that most people. Also, an extra helping of pure cussedness.

[Zaxxon]

Surgery seems to have been successful. I'm hanging out at the hospital and probably going home tomorrow.

Just seeing this now. Awesome news!

[Jaymann]

Good luck! Are you home now?

[Default]

How are you making out, IALB?

[Blackhawk]

ILB and DBT - I haven't been commenting, as I don't know quite what to say to either of you that doesn't feel like 'thoughts and prayers', and that seems so... empty. But after decades you both really do mean a great deal to me, and I really do care and worry. I just don't know a meaningful way to express it.

So here's a hawk carrying a rabbit toward the sun.

[Zaxxon]

I just don't know a meaningful way to express it.

You just did the thing.

[Blackhawk]

I just don't know a meaningful way to express it.

You just did the thing.

You, sir, get a cat butt.

[ImLawBoy]

I'm at home and doing well. Pain is manageable with OTC meds, which is good. I'm getting around pretty well - just a bit slower than usual. Biggest side effect is random bouts of exhaustion as my body heals.

Of course I got home on Sunday and my wife took my oldest to the ER on Monday where he was admitted. We're not sure what exactly is going on there but he's getting the 11 year old version of bowel prep to clear him out and try to reset his system a bit. That leaves the guy recovering from a colectomy in charge of 2 energetic 7 year olds. My parents (in their 70s) have been helping out including driving to and from school, but there's only so much they can do.

[jztemple2]

I realize my issues are trivial (well, cancer and all that) compared with what some folks are going through here, but I just wanted to mention how helpful it has been to be married to a wife who doesn't listen to me. She annoyed me the other day when I was trying to line up a cardiologist for my pre-surgery clearance, giving what I thought was overly pushy advice and we had some words.

As of this morning I had managed to get an appointment for mid-June, two months away, which means the scheduling clock for my prostatectomy wouldn't start till then. A couple of hours later my wife comes in with a slip of paper. She said she hopes I wouldn't be offended (that with a look ) but she had managed to get me an appointment five weeks earlier.

I apologized profusely

[gbasden]

I'm at home and doing well. Pain is manageable with OTC meds, which is good. I'm getting around pretty well - just a bit slower than usual. Biggest side effect is random bouts of exhaustion as my body heals.

Of course I got home on Sunday and my wife took my oldest to the ER on Monday where he was admitted. We're not sure what exactly is going on there but he's getting the 11 year old version of bowel prep to clear him out and try to reset his system a bit. That leaves the guy recovering from a colectomy in charge of 2 energetic 7 year olds. My parents (in their 70s) have been helping out including driving to and from school, but there's only so much they can do.

Dude, I am so sorry! I can't imagine needing to wrangle rampaging 7 year olds while recovering, much less have your eldest in the hospital. I hope you can get enough rest to recover quickly!

[LordMortis]

prostatectomy

Doesn't sound trivial to me.

[dbt1949]

What kind of food can you eat?

[Jaymann]

What kind of food can you eat?

Anything except Daehawktown cuisine.

[Madmarcus]

You guys make me feel positively glowing with health!

I know thoughts don't do much but mine are with all of you.

[Zarathud]

Hoping you and the oldest have a speedy recovery, ILB. Hope the twins don’t break you in the meantime.

[jztemple2]

prostatectomy

Doesn't sound trivial to me.

Well, true, the surgery is significant and recovery takes a while, but at least it's a clear path to getting over cancer.

[ImLawBoy]

What kind of food can you eat?

Starting off on a low fiber diet and avoiding making the digestive system work too hard. Biggest issue is lack of caffeine, but in hoping to work that back into things in about a week or so.

[Default]

I'm glad to hear that you are doing better. Getting old sucks.

Had a good day yesterday. Was using the walker, climbed steps in p/t, generally amazed people with how well I was moving around.
About nine I hit the wall. Knees started swelling up, and the oxycodone packed it's bags and went on vacation. By ten, it felt like someone was standing on my knees, and the pain was astounding. They ended up giving me a squirt of morphine through the IV and switched me to Vicadin, which did the trick. Better today, and I might get released or kept for a third day. Apparently, I'm the only one on the floor that had a double knee replacement.

[jztemple2]

My wife usually stayed three nights (at her insistence) after her knee replacements.

Are they still using the machine that automatically bends and straightens the knee? We would also have one at the house for a couple weeks after the surgery and I became quite adept at rigging her leg in it and adjusting the bend and force.

[Daehawk]

Sounds like a torture device.

[dbt1949]

When you get olde it is so easy to get large bruises and scrape off large chunks of skin.
When to my dog groomer for the first time in a long while. She had a knee replacement and both hips. We spent the whole time my dogs were getting groomed about the pitfalls of getting olde.

[jztemple2]

Sounds like a torture device.

It's to keep scar tissue from forming and preventing the knee from bending.

[LawBeefaroni]

I broke my ankle/foot playing soccer about a month and a half ago. Diagnosed as an avulsion fracture where the tendons don't tear but actually pull the bone apart instead. Was told that's better than a tear since bone heals faster than soft tissue. Have had a walking boot and saw the Ortho today. The bone healed up great (1000IU vitamin d, 1000mg calcium and 500mg magnesium a day) but the tendon is a bit stretched. Cleared to go sans boot unless there is pain, start phys therapy in a few weeks and will be back on the pitch soon.


The main observation here though is that the same week I broke it, several friends, or "gentlemen of a certain age" as my wife puts it, also broke/tore something. One fell stepping off a curb, tore his ACL. One slipped on ice walking his dog, broke a rib and bruised several others. Another broke his foot stepping off a ladder.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I broke my ankle/foot playing soccer about a month and a half ago. Diagnosed as an avulsion fracture where the tendons don't tear but actually pull the bone apart instead. Was told that's better than a tear since bone heals faster than soft tissue. Have had a walking boot and saw the Ortho today. The bone healed up great (1000IU vitamin d, 1000mg calcium and 500mg magnesium a day) but the tendon is a bit stretched. Cleared to go sans boot unless there is pain, start phys therapy in a few weeks and will be back on the pitch soon.


The main observation here though is that the same week I broke it, several friends, or "gentlemen of a certain age" as my wife puts it, also broke/tore something. One fell stepping off a curb, tore his ACL. One slipped on ice walking his dog, broke a rib and bruised several others. Another broke his foot stepping off a ladder.

See this? That's you and yer mates, that is :

[Daehawk]

Tore an acl on a curb? Thats a new one. Hope he makes up a better story to tell the ladies.

[Kraken]

Tore an acl on a curb? Thats a new one. Hope he makes up a better story to tell the ladies.

I say that I injured myself rushing into a burning building to rescue orphans and their puppies.

[Holman]

So a couple of weeks back I decided I had something to prove and did double my normal bicycle route, meaning 20 miles.

I guess I wasn't up for it, because I seem to have wounded the IT band (a long connective tissue "stabilizer") in my right leg.

I thought it would work itself out, but after two weeks I can still barely put weight on that leg after sleeping or even sitting for any real length of time. I always have to limp painfully around for five minutes and do a few stretches before I can walk normally again, but the pain comes back the next time I'm immobile for a while.

I'm stepping up my stretching techniques, but I wonder if anyone has experience with this. Will I eventually be able to stretch it away, or do I need to consult an orthopedist?

I've been limping along for *months* since this issue first developed.

I did see an orthopedist in September, and he confirmed that the problem was the IT band. He gave me a bunch of stretches to do (which I didn't do faithfully enough) and recommended that I consult a physical therapist if the pain didn't go away on its own.

Since then, I experienced a gradual healing of the IT band but a gradual weakening of my right leg. The original pain made me favor the left entirely, and as the band has healed I've made my left leg do all the work of walking and climbing stairs. I'm now at the point where the IT band is fine but the muscle is too weak relative to the other leg.

I had my first physical therapy session today (after waiting far too long). The therapist confirmed that it's all about strengthening my thigh now. Hopefully this won't take too long--I've always had strong legs. I wish I'd acted sooner, but there is hope that someday I'll be able to bike again.

(tl;dr: I damaged the IT Band in my right leg last summer and have been recovering ever since.)

Man oh man.

I've done months of physical therapy from December until now. The IT band is largely healed, but the whole process has apparently exacerbated the arthritis I was already beginning to experience in my right knee. I limp less than I did last year, but climbing stairs has been at least slightly painful through the whole process, and it still is. Apparently that's the knee and not the IT band.

I'm scheduled to have some imaging on the knee, which I imagine will result in some kind of intervention. We'll see.

Apparently, bipedal primate knees evolved to last about 50 years. After that, it's up to our brains and medical technology.

[Jeff V]

More dumbass related than age related, but yesterday I was making Korean kimchi cucumbers and...well, how was I supposed to know gochoujang wasn't Korean for "blood of a spicy chef?" All I know is the cucumbers were supposed to be red when finished, so when slicing the cucumber on the mandolin, I sliced part of my pinky to give it that bright red color...

Wife was home and awake, and got the bleeding under control with a couple of bandaids. This morning, prior to showering I thought I'd take off the bandaids...usually such things are scabbed over after that amount of time, and the bandaid just slows down healing. Well, it was like a Harkonnen pulling a heart plug. Blood all over the damn place. Attempts to re-bandage it using my non-dominant hand failed, to put it mildly. It was like trying to put Scotch tape on an oil slick. I finally managed to get on a huge bandaid (the kind you'd use for skinned knee), but that had to be secured to skin that wasn't awash in flowing blood, so...duct tape! It did stop me from bleeding out, which is fortunate since my wife had an emergency at work and could not get home early enough to drive our daughter to school.

After dropping my daughter off, I stopped at Walgreens to buy a bunch of things our first aid kit was lacking -- such as gauze, medical tape, liquid bandages, and strips to close gaping wounds like the one I had. I thought about also buying some surgical scissors but decided not to. So after my wife gets home, she pulls out the rusty kitchen shears to remove the ductape/bandaid. She complains it's too big to do the job well. I mention I was thinking to buy surgical scissors, to which she replies, "Oh, I already have those, in my work bag [in the car]). That she chose to struggle with the kitchen shears...should I be concerned?

The blood had clotted enough and since the bandaid didn't stick to the flowing blood and was a buffer between the wound and the duct tape, it actually came off without further blood loss. She replaced it with a single antiseptic bandaid (which I bought today as well) and nothing else. I got her blessing to get all carry-out food for dinner so I don't have to cook, so yay?

[Daehawk]

[naednek]

So had my xray today of my knee and I now have something in common with Donald Trump. No, not constant lying... but Bone Spurs.

Joy. And thus begins the journey of the inevitable knee replacement

So shortly after the X-ray found out I have COVID. Wondering if that was why I was having knee problems. I'm COVID free now and knee feels fine

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[Default]

Still in pain, but the chief foe is stiffness. Better than yesterday, though.

[Kraken]

More dumbass related than age related, but yesterday I was making Korean kimchi cucumbers and...well, how was I supposed to know gochoujang wasn't Korean for "blood of a spicy chef?" All I know is the cucumbers were supposed to be red when finished, so when slicing the cucumber on the mandolin, I sliced part of my pinky to give it that bright red color...

I sometimes do that, albeit less dramatically, when grating carrots or cheese. I've taken some good-sized nicks out of my fingertips while adding that special secret ingredient...human blood. The older I get, the longer it takes wounds like that to close.

[Jeff V]

When my wife bought the mandolin, I told her it was notorious for being the most dangerous kitchen gadget.

She laughed.