Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
- Messages
- 37,925
As some know, I had a rough last six weeks. I got very ill, then developed severe joint pain, lost 10 pounds ( not everything is bad, I guess), and was getting ready for shoulder surgery on Nov 16th.
I got well enough to pass the pre-surgery physical, even though I was pretty stiff and sore and had started walking badly on my right leg which has been a bone on bone knee for years. That is due to be replaced in this winter. They took me off my anti-inflammatory meds eight days prior to surgery. The first couple days were bearable, but not comfortable, then on day three, I had a re-bound reaction and my knee went crazy. By Tuesday, it made my foot turn out sideways and that caused my ankle to inflame. The Achilles tendon developed tendinitis, the bone from knee to ankle hurt worse than if it was broken, the ankle swollen to double size, I couldn't put my foot down without excruciating pain, and could barely hobble around with a cane ( remember, I am the guy who sews himself up when I get a cut, so pain isn't normally a problem with me). It got so bad by Wednesday, I took a Percoset, went back on my Celebrex, called the doctor and told him to cancel the surgery, and get me in his office ASAP.
They saw me the Thursday AM. After a lot of X-rays of the knees and ankles, it was confirmed that there was no new problem with the knee, an the ankle was normal, just extremely inflamed. The knee was injected, and within ten minutes it was better. The doc said he wasn't canceling the surgery, and to stay on my meds. By that evening, my ankle was 3/4 back to normal, my gait was much better, and I stopped using the cane. By Friday morning, 6AM, I was walking straight and fine. I walked into the surgery without leg pain at 7:30AM.
The arthroscopic surgery was for a SLAP tear, debridement of a few small osteophytes (AKA -spurs), and a close inspection to assure no rotator cuff repair was needed. The rotator cuff is fine, and the only new info discovered was they found evidence of an old impact fracture, which could have happened any time over my arm's 60+ rough use years.
I woke up feeling great. They had put a new take-home chiller pack machine on my shoulder. It pumps ice water through supply and return tubes from a small cooler (looks like it would hold 4 beers), which has a self contained pump, to a cold pack that will fit any leg or arm joint. It cools the joint deeply at 45-55° and does not need to be removed every 20 minutes to prevent skin damage like ice does. The deep cooling is far better than the skin near-freezing of ice. It runs 6 hours on a fill of ice and water. The supply tubes clip into a feed tube from the chiller pack for easy connect/disconnect. The great thing is I can use it on my knee when it acts up occasionally. They will give me a new one when the knee gets replaced, and this one is the exact thing to supply Nathan's chiller platen with continuous cold water all day long. A real win-win!
Feeling great today, pitched the sling already, only took two of the pain pills yesterday and am staying off them today, as I feel almost no shoulder pain now. I will take it easy for the rest of the weekend.....well, at least fairly easy.
I got well enough to pass the pre-surgery physical, even though I was pretty stiff and sore and had started walking badly on my right leg which has been a bone on bone knee for years. That is due to be replaced in this winter. They took me off my anti-inflammatory meds eight days prior to surgery. The first couple days were bearable, but not comfortable, then on day three, I had a re-bound reaction and my knee went crazy. By Tuesday, it made my foot turn out sideways and that caused my ankle to inflame. The Achilles tendon developed tendinitis, the bone from knee to ankle hurt worse than if it was broken, the ankle swollen to double size, I couldn't put my foot down without excruciating pain, and could barely hobble around with a cane ( remember, I am the guy who sews himself up when I get a cut, so pain isn't normally a problem with me). It got so bad by Wednesday, I took a Percoset, went back on my Celebrex, called the doctor and told him to cancel the surgery, and get me in his office ASAP.
They saw me the Thursday AM. After a lot of X-rays of the knees and ankles, it was confirmed that there was no new problem with the knee, an the ankle was normal, just extremely inflamed. The knee was injected, and within ten minutes it was better. The doc said he wasn't canceling the surgery, and to stay on my meds. By that evening, my ankle was 3/4 back to normal, my gait was much better, and I stopped using the cane. By Friday morning, 6AM, I was walking straight and fine. I walked into the surgery without leg pain at 7:30AM.
The arthroscopic surgery was for a SLAP tear, debridement of a few small osteophytes (AKA -spurs), and a close inspection to assure no rotator cuff repair was needed. The rotator cuff is fine, and the only new info discovered was they found evidence of an old impact fracture, which could have happened any time over my arm's 60+ rough use years.
I woke up feeling great. They had put a new take-home chiller pack machine on my shoulder. It pumps ice water through supply and return tubes from a small cooler (looks like it would hold 4 beers), which has a self contained pump, to a cold pack that will fit any leg or arm joint. It cools the joint deeply at 45-55° and does not need to be removed every 20 minutes to prevent skin damage like ice does. The deep cooling is far better than the skin near-freezing of ice. It runs 6 hours on a fill of ice and water. The supply tubes clip into a feed tube from the chiller pack for easy connect/disconnect. The great thing is I can use it on my knee when it acts up occasionally. They will give me a new one when the knee gets replaced, and this one is the exact thing to supply Nathan's chiller platen with continuous cold water all day long. A real win-win!
Feeling great today, pitched the sling already, only took two of the pain pills yesterday and am staying off them today, as I feel almost no shoulder pain now. I will take it easy for the rest of the weekend.....well, at least fairly easy.
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