Longing for a long walk in the woods

It’s very hard for me, card-carrying cynic, to say this, but it’s been going much better than I expected. The pain has been way less than it was two years ago and I am much more mobile, much sooner, than I was then. Of course the surgery was quite a bit less involved this time around: two years ago the surgeon from hell replaced my entire knee; last week the surgeon-as-savior replaced one piece and tweaked another; it makes sense that recovery from this should be easier.

Another part of the explanation though is a much better drug regimen. Last time I was mainly on Vicodin, from which I got very little relief, and Percoset, which failed me as well. This time the main pain relief is coming from Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and I am ready to buy stock in that manufacturer. It has kept me almost pain free when I am relaxing or sleeping.

Not that there’s not a lot of pain involved: that’s called physical therapy. I’m working with the same dominatrix I met two years ago and some of the stretches she puts me through make me want to cry. I both look forward to and dread her visits.

One of the worst parts of recovery though is boredom. The pain may be less than it was, but the drugs that make that so also make me lethargic as hell. I have managed to finish the book I was reading, and I did stay awake all the way through the brilliant Life of Pi, but it ain’t easy. All I really want to do is sleep. But I’m also sick to death of sleeping.

I want that long walk in the woods.

And I want that walk without the cane, pictured here. I bought it on a day trip to Inverness last summer. It has already proven its worth, and then some: although my leg was not in enough pain to warrant using a cane, I couldn’t pack it, so I was walking with it as I approached the gate in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. As I settled in at the end of maybe an hour long line, a ticket agent came to me and, pointing at the cane, said “you don’t need to wait in this line; follow me.” She then not only checked me in, but also bumped me up to Business Class. As I said, the cane has already proven worthwhile. Today it is my constant companion.

The bottom line is that the knee is better than I expected. I am better than I expected.

The scary footnote is that it’s likely we’ll do this dance all over again, with my left knee. I don’t want to think about that.