Recently in Doing Category

Knee surgery - part I
Knee surgery - part II
Knee surgery - part III

On Tuesday night, I was changing the dressing on my knee and it started to bleed, from both the top and the bottom of the incision. Not gushing, but more than I would expect from a 12-day old wound. (I wound up with a drop on my right index toenail that looked a lot like nail polish. I couldn't bend over far enough, and had to get Carole to clean it off for me. She's a trooper…)

I wasn't sure if I needed to see Dr. Panossian about it, so on Wednesday morning I called and left a voice mail for Dawn explaining the situation and asking her to call me so we could talk about it. She called me back late Wednesday – understandably, I'm not sure she checks her voice mail that often — and said I should come in to get it looked at by the doctor. It was too late, and he does surgeries all day on Thursday, so I made an appointment for first thing Friday morning.

When I got there, he looked it over, and didn't look especially happy about it. He gave me a scrip for some anti-biotics, and told me to keep it "actively dry" until I came back for a re-check in seven days. More Saran wrap for me, which isn't so bad except for pulling the tape off my hairy leg.

I had to call Rebecca to tell her I was on anti-biotics and couldn't keep my donation appointment for Monday.

Knee surgery - part I
Knee surgery - part II

Justin, who's been my driver while my knee is in the immobilizer, took me back this afternoon for my post-op appointment with Dr. Panossian. It was nice to be able to take of my knee immobilizer for the first time in eight days.

Dawn cut off my dressings, and I got to see the incision - top to bottom, along the middle of the knee cap, closed off by twelve staples. The dressing stuck to the top one, so Dawn left it on for the time being.

The doctor came in and looked it over, and seemed happy with the results. He asked if I had any fever, redness, vomiting, etc., and I was happy to say no to all of the above.

I asked him about the tear he repaired, and he said it was in the lateral retinaculum. He cleaned it up a little, and stitched the tear together. I mentioned that the area on the outside of my knee felt a little numb, and he said it would feel that way for a few weeks or months, and that I'd always have a small dead-feeling spot in the area — it's just part of the deal, and I'm okay with it.

He wrote up a scrip for physical therapy, and said he'd see me in six weeks for a follow-up.

He asked Dawn to remove the staples, and all but one of them came out without drama. The last-but-third didn't want to come out, and I squeaked a bit when it did, but otherwise there were no problems. There was little blood from the top and the bottom of the incision, but Dawn cleaned it up, and then put on some steri-strips to hold things together for a couple of days. I have to wait until Sunday before I can shower.

When Justin picked me up out on Congress St., I decided to get in to the front seat, and had a lot of pain bending my knee for the first time in a week. I'm going to need that PT.

Last night I sent e-mails to Tony and Adam, my NFHS and ASYO referee guys (respectively) to let them know I'm out for the season. With the current environment at work, it's probably best if I lay low, and not work the weird schedule needed to cover high school game assignments.

We drove thru The Hat for lunch/dinner — I had a pastrami, fries, and a diet coke, and Justin had his usual - chili cheese fries with tomatos and a large root bear.

Here's a follow-up to my knee surgery story, started in Knee surgery - part I

The pre-OP visit went smoothly, and I was all set for surgery on August 5th. I was told to report at 12:30pm for 2:00pm surgery, which isn't fun when you have to fast beforehand. The night before, I had a big bowl of cereal at 11:55pm.

Carole drove me to the Huntington Outpatient Surgery Center, across the parking lot from Dr. Ackerson's office, and we got there right on time. After some brief paperwork, they led me back into the prep room, where I disrobed and put on a standard hospital gown. I laid down on a prep-bed, where a great RN took my vitals and hooked up an IV line. (For most hospital IV's, they really want to use a vein on the back of your hand, but my veins there just aren't setup right. We know I have great veins inside my elbow, so we finally wound up there on my left arm.)

I had a short visit with the anesthesiologist - a great guy - and a brief, business-like stop by Dr. Panossian, who had his game face on. Sometimes you can just tell by looking at someone that they're good at what they do, and I got that feeling here.

They wheeled me into the OR, and had me scootch over onto the table. It took a few tries to get centered in both X and Y. The OR nurse secured my arms to some outriggers, and that's the last thing I remember…

I woke up around 3:25pm in the recovery room, with Carole by my side. It took an hour or so before I got all the way back. Carole said the surgeon had found a tear while he was working on the bursa, and fixed it with some stitches. She wasn't sure what was torn, but I figured I'd find out at my follow-up appointment.

At the end of surgery they had put on a knee immobilizer, so I had to use crutches to move into the changing room to get dressed. They wheeled me out to the car, and I skooted into the back seat, with my right leg up across the seat.

Carole drove me back home, and got me situated. I have an appointment in eight days to check on things, but until then I'm stuck at home, with my leg straight.

Carole, as always, took fantastic care of me. Thanks!

I just made a peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich. Yum.

Back in April, 2009, I tripped on a bad section of sidewalk in downtown Glendale, walking back to my office from 24-Hour Fitness. I landed mostly on my right knee, and had a couple of days of minor soreness and bruising, but no big deal.

In July, 2009, the top of my knee began swelling. There wasn't any pain (or very little), so I didn't think to much of it, but after a month or so my family convinced me that it was time to have it checked out.

I went to see the family orthopedist, Dr. Ackerson, up by Huntington Hospital, and he diagnosed it as pre-patellar bursitis. First we tried compression wraps, which helped a little, but not enough. Next he aspirated it — cutting a 5mm incision and squeezing out the gunk. It was fun when he stuck some foreceps up into the incision to root around inside. He inserted a medicated wick, letting the end hang out to make it easy to remove and to prevent the incision from sealing up.

I had to go back literally every business day for almost two weeks, but the treatment seemed to work, and the swelling stayed away - at least for a while.

Back in May, I noticed the swelling was returning, and by late June I knew I had to go in to see Dr. Ackerson. He had told me last year that if it returned I would need to have surgery, and when I went to see him he told me it would have to be done. I asked about doing it arthroscopically, and he referred me to one of his partners, Dr. Panossian, for a consult, and sent me across the street for an MRI.

Dr. Panossian checked the MRI, and said it wasn't possible to do the surgery arthroscopically. We scheduled a full-up, regular bursectomy, and all that comes with it.

I had to go see my GP for some pre-surgery checks - EKG, chest x-ray, blood work, etc., and that all came back fine. (I had just had blood work done a few weeks ago, but the pre-surgery check has to be within 30 days, so I had to repeat it).

Over the last few weeks, the knee has gotten sore, especially after a short walk or doing chores around the house. It's not really pain, but more like the feeling you get a day or two after exercising too much.

I go see Dr. Panossian for a pre-surgery review next Tuesday, and the surgery is Thursday afternoon. My knee will be immobilized for a week, so I arranged to work from home for the week following the surgery. I'll have physical therapy afterwards, and WILL be ready for my Fall Equinox SaddleSore ride on September 21st.

Fun times.

Here's a new shaving oil recipe I brewed up this morning.

• 1 ounce Jojoba oil
• 3 drops orange oil
• 3 drops lemon oil
• 1 drop tea tree oil

I used one of the some small dropper bottles I got from The Container Store. I'll try it out on Tuesday.

The tires on the Escape are getting pretty worn - there's lots of tread left, but they're really cupped, and that causes an annoying, low-pitched hum at speed.  Above 80mph, the car shakes something fierce.

Last week, I ordered a set of tires from TireRack, an online tire retailer that we've used for tires for the Corvette.  I used their year->make->model selector, and it said the OEM tire was 235/70R16, so «in spite of the disclaimers on their website telling me to double-check the actual tire size on the car», I ordered a nice set of General Grabber tires, and had them shipped to the local Lexus dealer, where my brother-in-law is a service writer, and gets me discounts on mounting and installation.

Carole took the car to the dealer yesterday, and after they got it up on the rack they discovered that the car actually uses 225/70R15 tires.  Not good.

I called TireRack today to see what my options were, and they were very helpful.  The nice lady in customer support was able to waive the shipping charge on the replacement tires, and get me a discounted rate to ship the wrong tires back.  The guy in sales helped find me a great set of Kumho's in the right size, and had some good advice on which way to go.

All in all, they turned my mistake into a fantastic example of excellent customer service.