Grandma Henke

My poor man says this whole experience of getting a total knee replacement is “Less than fun” and he’s not looking forward to having the other leg done in two weeks.     The link to total knee replacement is a virtual surgery and gives you the role of being the surgeon.   It’s kind of interesting.

It seems like there are quite a few baby boomers in this unit of the hospital … lots of white haired people limping up and down the hall with walkers favoring hips and knees.    They all meet together in a dining room for meals and sympathize with each other.

He has a spinal headache now and isn’t going to the dining room.  Whenever he isn’t eating or in therapy he has to lay flat on his back with his head down to get any relief.   He takes turns deciding which is the worst pain, his head or his knee.   So far, his head is the winner.    If it hasn’t gone away in a week they will take him in and do what is called a “patch”.  To administer a blood patch, the anesthesiologist inserts a needle into the same space as, or right next to, the area in which the anesthetic was injected. The doctor then takes a small amount of blood from the patient and injects it into the epidural space. The blood clots and seals the hole that caused the leak.     Of course, he is on Coumadin to help prevent blood clots … so they don’t want to do that unless it is absolutely necessary.   They are telling him he has to drink lots of caffeine … like “push caffeine”  and the nurses even make an extra trip to the staff lounge to get him Diet Dr. Pepper, which is his caffeine of choice.    Imagine being told to “push” caffeine!   He is given one drink after another and because I don’t want him to go through this experience alone I am drinking plenty of Diet Coke’s to keep him company.

It’s not going to be easy for him to turn around and do the other knee, which is scheduled for March 26th.   In fact, he has already suggested to me that he might put it off until late summer but I am holding firm since the doctor actually feels that doing the two close together is best because it makes it so he can’t favor the “bad leg” since they are both hurting.

Overall he has been a real trouper with a smile on his face, even though each day seems  more painful than the day before in both his knee and his head.    I love this man and will be taking care of him with extra tender loving care until he is feeling better.     He likes to wear his University of Utah shorts and T-shirt for extra pain support, but his red shorts got doused with Gatorade and are home in the dryer.     He keeps getting doused with Gatorade for some reason.   Two full bottles have been emptied either in his bed or on the floor.   Maybe it is his subconscious way of celebrating victory that he got through the surgery.