Knee Doc Seeks Advice

Knee Doc wrote:

Dear Rod,

It is very seldom that I replace both knees on a patient at one time, yet you convinced me to do that for you. I want to compliment you on being a very good patient. Your recovery is way ahead of the curve. In fact, you are doing better than 90% of my patients who get only one knee replaced. I find that pretty amazing. When checking your flexion and extension I found that you are way ahead there, too. Also, when you walk there is no tilt. It it hard to tell from your walk that you have had your knees replaced.

Is there any advice that you could give me that I could pass on to other patients?

Sincerely,

Knee Doc

Dear Knee Doc,

Thank you for the compliment. It means a lot to me since I worked and suffered so much in order to recover and impress you. Yes, there is some advice that you could pass on.

My first advice is to follow the advice of your doctor. If he says you need to work hard at your therapy, then work hard at your therapy. And the more you do early on, the quicker you will recover. There is gain with much pain.

Secondly, walk, walk, walk, and walk some more. Count the many trips to the bathroom throughout the night as a blessing. First of all, they keep your legs limber and secondly you are peeing off all the excess weight you gained in the hospital. I lost the ten pounds I gained in the hospital plus fifteen more. Hello, I'm sure there are people out there who would like to lose some pounds.

Thirdly, count it all joy when your therapist comes to your home twice a week to torment you. The truth is, do the therapy and get better. Don't do the therapy and keep hobbling around. At the end of three weeks I discarded the walker. Three days later the cane went away. At three weeks to the day I walked a mile mostly uphill (not kidding) to a Starbucks. Bragged about myself to the cashier, drank my coffee, then walked home. Thank you Bunny for your sadistic terror.

And Doc, I'm really serious about this one. I think I had an advantage because both knees were done at the same time. I had no good leg to depend on, I had to use them both. At times it took all my strength and grit, but I used them and I believe that contributed greatly to my recovery.

And finally. Doc, before you perform surgery, you need to let the patient know that by the two week visit they need to reach certain goals or you won't be happy. That was one of my biggest motivations was to come to your office at two weeks, then five weeks and get your approval.

Now that I think of it, you should pay me to do a commercial for you. That could offset the twelve grand I am out. Just kidding. Or, maybe I'm not kidding. Give it some thought.

Hope I've helped,

Rod