Sunday, July 13, 2014

Mind Lost in Time

  When I started searching the internet for information on knee replacement, I came across a number of  patient-authored, detailed journals.  Some described the entire hospital stay, including the surgical experience and what happened afterward.  I found it helpful and informative, and I thought I'd try to do the same.  I can only assume that the authors of the articles  had assistance because I failed miserably to write any consistent account.  I'd written several notations on a notepad, but, while some entries are clear, others are not.  The sequence is doubtful.  Some events I would have recalled; others would have been completely forgotten if I hadn't read them, though in reading them, I do remember.
      I had thought that I'd left the hospital the second morning after surgery without having seen the surgeon.  But my "journal" entry reveals that at some point, I had been walking, using the walker I suppose, and accompanied by someone, I also have to suppose, when the surgeon asked how I was doing.  I answered that the knee felt sideways.  His reply, according to my notes, was, "I can assure you that one thing we do not do is install knees sideways."   I told him that of course I didn't mean that the knee was sideways, but that I felt like I was veering  sideways when I was walking on it.  Ah, veering!  Wouldn't you think doctors would know the effects of anesthesia?

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