No news is good knees?

A quick update on my knee situation (backstory here and here), because the cashier in the supermarket was asking about it this morning and she’s had bladder problems for 6 years now and even though she’s seen a specialist (he’s the best one in Constantiaberg, you know) and had several operations (including trying botox) it’s still not any better and she needs to take drugs every month and yes the medical aid does cover it, but it’s expensive and debilitating and… hasn’t the weather turned cold?

Actually, it all started because she asked me why I was wearing shorts on such a cold, wet day.

Now, I can wear long trousers, but because of the continued swelling and sensitivity of my knee, it’s a lot more comfortable if I don’t. And so I have been wearing shorts. Fortunately, my work allows me to wear shorts, the only issue being that when wearing shorts under a lab coat it can appear that I’m not wearing anything at all. But that’s actually just a minor concern, because in fact, I am wearing shorts under the lab coat – you just can’t see them.

Safety first.

Wearing shorts was, until recently, quite beneficial too, as the Cape Town summer waned slowly and lazily towards heady autumnal days. I sneered at men in longer, less practical trousers as they sweated their way around the Mother City. Now they’re laughing at me.

Not, I must point out, that the Cape Town “cold” bothers me. I was brought up… hang on… [cue the Dvorák]… ah, that’s better. Now, as I were sayin’, I were brought up in t’ Yorkshire Pennines. I din’t even know what t’sun was ’til I went darn sarth when I were 14 an’ t’clouds broke up just past t’Toddington services.

What I’m trying to say is that what passes for “cold” here in SA was actually pretty decent weather for us on all but the hottest day of summer.

And, due to the continuing inflammatory processes within my knee joint, I have my own little heater on board anyway. It (my knee) actually gets so hot sometimes that ailing power generation SOE, Eskom got in touch to ask if they could attach a steam turbine unit to it, but I declined, fearful that it might make an awkward-shaped bulge under my lab coat.

We may have load-shedding again this winter, but I insist upon maintaining some small degree of near respectability.

But I digress. Often.

My knee is improving. There are good days, there are bad days. But as with any recovery process, it’s worth noting that the good days are slowly but surely beginning to outnumber the bad ones. I’ve been off crutches for weeks now, and I can almost walk down stairs without looking like I have suffered some sort of recent cerebral trauma.
Walking is fine, running is not. Football remains a pipe dream.
And I’m single-handedly propping up the SA non-steroidal anti-inflammatory market.

The thing is, I could possibly expedite my recovery by working harder and doing more, but equally, if I did that, I’d be more likely to hurt myself and set myself back n weeks, like I did last month. And so, it’s a balancing act. As an aside, my balancing is actually pretty good.

The goal is to be mostly completely mended by the time we head off to Europe next month. To be still struggling then would be annoying.

In other news, I’m happy to report that my bladder is fine.

Flat

It’s a Friday evening, it’s 8:12pm and I’m in bed.

I’m not sick: I’m just exhausted. This week has kicked my behind.
I lost. It won. It was a decisive victory.

A flare-up in my knee has dragged my recovery a couple of weeks backwards, and the associated time and effort to go and see the surgeon again, get another cortisone injection, get myself to another two physio sessions while feeling inflamed and sleep-deprived – on top of planning for the next two big projects at work – has finished me off.

If I sound a bit down and a bit sorry for myself, it’s because I am. But things will be better tomorrow (when you will be reading this). A good night’s sleep. The improvements that have come from those medical interventions this week. Scant plans that involve fun and exploration, while leaving time for watching some sport and enjoying some family time.

Not overdoing it. That’s important.

That’s why I’m in bed at 8:12pm on a Friday evening.

Intra-operative pic

So, long story short, it seems that my op didn’t go as well as we had hoped. The bleeding post op has been quite serious, and I’m still going to be struggling with the effects of that for at least a few weeks. I saw the surgeon again this morning to have the stitches removed and he wasn’t hugely happy with the way things have gone.

That said, this mini check-up did give him a chance to share some photos with me that he had taken during the op. And aside from the one which showed the bit that wasn’t quite right (and so which he removed), the rest of them were simply to demonstrate just how good my knee joint is (was?) actually looking.  But when he showed me this one, I had to take a quick snap of it, because I think it’s epic.

That’s a cellphone pic of his computer monitor, but I still think it’s pretty good. My cellphone is pretty good, remember?

Anyway, that was taken by an arthroscopic camera inside my knee joint, shows the scalpel making the incision for the arthroscopic instrumentation coming into the joint from the other side. (They make two incisions and use two tools, like this.) That smooth white thing at the top right is the bottom end of my femur.

You can see the writing on the blade!

This sort of photo appeals to me. It’s one thing to watch videos and see photos of scientific and medical stuff, but it’s quite another when the picture is of a bit of you that has been just there [points at knee] all your life, but you’ve never actually seen. I’d love to have been able to have a local anaesthetic and watch the whole thing live. (I… er… have done that before).

But how amazing is this photo?
Well, probably not hugely to you, but for me, it’s incredible. Because it’s me, see?

If it was you, you’d be amazed too.

My day

[Day 57 in the Big Brother House, and 6000 is getting twitchy.]

Truth is, it’s actually only Day 8. But this is post an operation that was supposed to take 3 days to recover from. And I’m nowhere near yet.

The good news is that I think that the bleeding in my knee has now stopped. So it’s now “just” a case of keeping it raised and iced and getting rid of all that fluid that’s stuck in my leg. That leg is a mess, physically and visually. My modelling career may be over (long) before it had even begun.

And while lying in bed binge-watching back episodes of Only Connect might be some peoples idea of heaven (me included, actually), it’s tempered somewhat by the pain each time I move anything anywhere.

So yes, I am a bit twitchy and a bit grumpy and a bit down. But then so might you be if you were stuck in my condition, forced to stay at home, and with this week’s lab work already a large blot on next week’s horizon.

Maybe a bit (more) of Series 12 will help with my situation…

Update

I’ve got some bleeding on my knee which has meant further tests and prodding in hospital today. I’m doing all I can to get myself sorted as soon as possible, but in the meantime it’s painful and debilitating.

So here’s something to just fill some space today.

Monochromatic barns from Caledon, taken about this time last year, before all this nonsense began.

Fingers crossed for a big improvement tomorrow.