Hey there,
Since we moved here, I would Skype my mom about once a week, but when the lockdown started would call her every morning at about 5:45AM our time just so she would have a distraction. We maybe missed each other a handful of times a month, mainly cause they unplugged her iPad and it didn't have a lot of charge. The daily calls got weirder as the months went on as her brain started to devolve. I don't want to detail what made them weird as anyone that has dealt with loved ones with dementia knows that there is no coherent way to explain them and also don't want the ravings to be the thing that I remember of her. Still, every morning at 5:45 when the house is quiet, it is when I think about her. I miss those daily calls.
Rehab update time. Went to my first follow-up appointment on Wednesday, which was 15 days post-op. The ordered chaos of the place is still a sight to behold. No appointment time, but rater a window between 9 and 11:30am. We arrive, slide our National Health Insurance card into the slot and are called into the examination room in about 5 minutes after arrival and are directed to sit on a stool next to two other knee replacement recipients. There is a bunch of talk with the 3 nurses that move about the room attending to our trio and to the two other patients on the other side of the room that are candidates for the procedure in the future. The nurses cleaned my wound and answered our list of questions. More specifically, they answered Betty's questions cause this is all in Mandarin. She would relate the question to them, they'd talk for a minute and then Betty tells me yes/no.
All things considered, not knowing what is going on hasn't been too bad. I went to this follow-up with the understanding that I was to get stitches removed and that I could take a shower, but there are no removable stitches and they told me I had to wait three more days to shower (and that I need to bag up the leg for 2 more weeks in any case). Screw that...I self bagged today and showered like an elephant in Africa after the first rain of the season. Hard to describe just how satisfying it is to really scrub down after 17 days, but awesome would be a word in that description. Have been sponge bathing myself all along to keep the stink down, but there is just no substitute for really going at yourself with soap and a washcloth in those nether regions. A good thing to note when considering the other knee replacement; as it was very mild here last couple of weeks, my odor was bad, but if this was summer, the crusty smell and rash potential is off the charts.
Speaking of charts, the nurses were trying to gauge my pain level. Always have a tough time with this one as I want to be a tough guy but also want pain meds.
Quick digression...something I forgot to mention about the time in the hospital and pain meds was that I was told that they would give me Tylenol for the pain, but if I wanted stronger meds that I would have to pay more. They had two options...morphine, which sadly makes me vomit, and some other stuff that I cannot remember the name. That first night, all the numbness from the surgery is gone and the pain is really bad. Tell my caregiver who calls the nurse who then brings in a syringe, and at 2am, before she injects it into the IV, she says this will cost NT$700 (US$20). The whole scenario is just surreal in retrospect.
So at the follow-up exam they had this bell curve chart that (I think) showed that people could be at a pain level8 after two weeks and that pain can be a 3 for up to a year. Someone, maybe me, totally oversold how fast this thing was gonna feel normal cause I had about a month before I would start to forget about it. To be honest, I still have no idea when to expect it to feel normal but the initial idea of doing lefty in April is off the table. The doctor came around and we had our minute with him (he is the only one at this place that speaks any English and his is quite good). He laughed at doing the other one in April but I got that idea from him, so what's up doc? As we had most of our questions satisfied by the time he came around, the only one I had left was "When can I drive?" He makes a motion of pushing on the accelerator and says 'can you do this?" I demonstrate that I can. Then he does the motion of going from gas to brakes and asks the same question, to which I demonstrate that I can (doing so in pain but determined not to show it). 'Then you can drive now' he says. Was initially surprised cause no matter how confident I am in my ability to drive, and I am VERY confident, no question I am somewhat compromised. But then I realized that a decent percentage of the drivers in this town are partially paralyzed from the waist down/fully paralyzed from the neck up. What was most surprising was that after we Ubered home form the hospital, Betty asks me if I'll drive her to work. She is my harshest critic and that she would be cool with getting right into the car was stunning. Have driven around and it was weird at first, but feel pretty good about it now. Really feel good about the knee in general as I am completely off the walker and am using a cane and after the first couple of steps, walk relatively normally. It's been two days of the cane and today, I took two steps without it before realizing that I forgot it. B-doll even said last night that I already look better walking with the cane now than I did before the operation.
It is weird, but the knee almost feels best when I am walking on it. The pain is greatest when I am elevating it or in the middle of the night. That has been the worst part of the process to be honest. Am a side sleeper and that just does not work. Have tried, but still no way. Reflexively try to roll over in the night, which wakes me up and have a hard time getting back to sleep, and crappy sleep sucks. I feel for those folks that have insomnia and pray that that never comes into my life. Another thing that has been hard to do so far is getting up from low chairs, like the toilet. The contortions are acrobatic and while it's a ton better now, is still awkward and painful. The worst was the time I sat down to go number two and the toilet seat was up. Amazed I didn't wrench my spine on that occasion and feel bad for all those times women have complained about leaving the toilet seat up. As the only dude in the house, have only myself to blame.
The most important takeaway I have so far, and the best advice to impart to anyone going through surgery is this...don't be an idiot. Do what the doctor says, do your rehab with religious zeal, push yourself but don't think you're invincible, accept help with gratitude and remember to circle back and thank those folks that helped. None of that should be revelatory, but it is easier said than done.
In one of the few conversations I have had with adults, one asked if it is gonna set off airport metal detectors. Good question. I followed that up by telling them that it is my wish to be cremated and wonder if the parts will survive the crematorium. If they do, will request they be added to the urn so that when the kids break me out, they can shake the vessel and hear dad making a clanking sound.
And a quick follow-up to previous notes about the pork importation hot button, the government has created a pork dashboard where you can track how much pork was imported and from where, and how much was produced domestically. It is updated daily at 9am local time and you can find it here.
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