TKR Week 5

  Went to P.T. this morning at 8:00 a.m.  Felt a little creaky, maybe because of the rainy weather, if that's indeed a factor.  Some new exercises aimed at different muscles--not too bad, though repetition makes them surprisingly tiring, especially if leg weights are added. For many of the step exercises, I have the strength, but am lacking in balance.  Thanks owed to the hand rails.  Range of motion still at 115 degrees, with "assistance."  Tomorrow is the last day for the therapy at Samaritan.  On Monday they will be relocated to Massry Pavilion. To make sure we patients can find our way, we were given a tote bag, red, emblazoned with "St. Peter's Health Care Partners."  I will add it to my collection of totes, which over the last 15 years has grown to about 30.  Most have Migrant emblem.  I don't carry the totes but they are useful for storage, file-wise.  St. Peter's also included a nice ball-point pen. 
   After the P.T., I drove to the Troy Ophthalmologist's office because I couldn't find my eyeglasses after last Friday's visit.  Their telephone service was out earlier in the week, so I dropped in, and sure enough, my glasses were there.  The tech always takes them to verify the diopter strength, and so we lose track.
     I drove up Hoosick Street through the city to the Ortho office on Empire Drive in East Greenbush for  a 5-week checkup with the surgeon.  All went well; he is very personable, as am I when it suits the need.  He showed me the X-rays taken at my 2-week visit.  Amazing when you think of it.  There are  those 3 artificial components clear as day inside my knee, and I have no awareness of them.  The before picture shows a bowed-out leg, (or maybe it's bowed-in).  At any rate it was crooked and now is straight.  Dr. C. said he took out all the bad stuff, and now there's no more arthritis. He said the kneecap had to be mostly removed, and fitted on the inside with a plastic "button,"  leaving only a thin original layer.  I said it was great that such procedures exist, because of the inevitability of further damage.  He said it never gets better, left alone.  He measured my range of motion at 100, and asked what the therapist got.  I said 115, but that she was much tougher, and inflicted much more pain to get that number.   He said that was good, because it shows it's possible to achieve. I mentioned that there was still some numbness in the heel and back of my foot and asked if it was usual.  He said it was not usual but probably the result of a nerve that was stretched and will most likely go away, as it does seem to be doing.  He wrote a new script for another 3-4 weeks. I'll miss the first week because we'll most likely be in Cape Cod.  When we return, the P.T. will be at the new site. And I see the Ortho Doc in 3 months----just before I shop for the Thanksgiving turkey.