I’ve been waiting 36 years to make this post. Let’s start at the very beginning. Gruesome details follow. You have been warned.

Back in 1984, I had a rather massive bicycle crash that sent me sprawling over a sidewalk and several feet farther onto an asphalt parking lot. The bicycle, my sister’s ten-speed which I’d borrowed to get to a Drum Corps rehearsal (Houston Nighthawks), had serrated pedals designed to grip onto your shoes. I, on the other hand, was wearing a pair of Sperry Top-Siders with no socks, as was the fashion of the day. As a result, when I landed, the right pedal slipped and gripped instead into the top of my foot, tearing a gash downward toward the tendons. The crash also caused collateral damage of which I was unaware at the time, since I was distracted by the profuse bleeding filling up my right shoe.

To my great fortune, the pastor of a church located directly across from the accident scene witnessed my wreck and helped me out. I was going into mild shock as he brought me to the home of the Nighthawks’ director, who immediately took me to the nearest hospital. I was given six stitches beneath the skin and 14 above to seal the tear in the top of my right foot.

A few days later, I hobbled on board the Nighthawks’ tour bus for our final trip of the season, beginning with a stop in Dallas. As we entered the city, my left knee quite literally swelled up to the size of a basketball. The pain was unbelievable. I remember a brief conversation with our corps director, who asked if I could put up with the pain (“no, not really” was my answer, I think), but I remember very little from the remainder of that evening. I performed the last three shows of our corps’ existence, the final two with the aid of a wheelchair. My right foot healed, but my left knee did not.

I had arthroscopic surgery performed later that year on my left knee. It was less than successful – I was stuck with a cane for a year. In the years that have followed up to the present day, I have been off and on a cane, had medicines injected into my knee, undergone physical therapy, been placed on chronic pain management, and most recently been through another arthroscopic procedure.

Now, at long last, I have been given the prospect of real pain relief. A knee surgeon has agreed to do a total knee replacement of my left knee. Unlike the photo I’ve used for this post, my patella (kneecap) will also be replaced, since it is one of the worst causes of pain in my knee.

I’ve still got about a month to go before the surgery, which will be performed as an inpatient procedure, requiring a stay of two days after the operation. I’m going to have to undergo a lot of physical therapy, with the early stages likely more painful than what I’m experiencing now. There is a light at the end of the pain tunnel, though. If things go the way they should, I will eventually experience much less pain than I do now, with the possibility of little to no pain after 18 months’ time.

Despite the outlook of increased pain immediately following the operation, I’m looking forward to it. I know the pain won’t be permanent, and if I work hard enough, it may go away entirely. I can’t resist an outcome like that.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on how things go. Please wish me luck.

Here is the gallery from inside my knee operation:

Time for another health update. I view these as writing exercises, so please bear with me as I go through this one.

You’ll note that this update’s picture is of a knee X-ray (not of my knee). That’s because I’m having arthroscopic knee surgery, two days before Christmas. I’ve had problems with my left knee since 1984, when I crashed a bicycle into a curb and went flying ten feet over a sidewalk and into a parking lot. I tore my medial meniscus and scraped the back of my kneecap in the crash. They did arthroscopic surgery, which was still very new in 1984 – in other words, it didn’t go well. Now, I’ve got more torn and degenerated meniscus, severe arthritis on the back of my kneecap, crepitus in my knee, and severe pain when doing daily activities.

It’s going to be a rather rushed job when you factor in our family Christmas trip. How’s this for a schedule:

• December 19th – Pre-op appointment with surgeon
• December 21st – Drive to Austin for family Christmas
• December 22nd – Family Christmas, then drive back to the D/FW area
• December 23rd – Knee surgery
• December 25th – Christmas
• December 27th – Physical therapy

Quite the compressed schedule, eh? To make things worse, my surgery is scheduled for the afternoon, which means I’ll be fasting (no food, no water) all day long on the 23rd. I’m going to be miserable. The doctor’s assistant has advised me to “hyper-hydrate” for 48 hours prior to surgery, so that a) I won’t be so miserable, and b) I’ll have a good vein somewhere for them to start the I.V. (I have terrible veins – they run and hide at the mere sight of an I.V. needle).

This isn’t the only issue pending surgery. My back is screaming at me again; specifically, my left lumbar region. I’ve had a new MRI done under a 3 Tesla machine (my last one was under a 0.75 Tesla machine), and I’m waiting for an appointment in the new year to schedule another lumbar rhizotomy (due to insurance restrictions). I’m hoping the new MRI will give my doctor a more accurate map of where my problems are so that he can perform a more precise rhizotomy that will last longer this time.

I’m also looking at the possibility of surgery on the bottom of my right foot. I keep getting calluses in the spot where the doctor removed the metal shard, and a recent MRI showed that there might be a deformity below that are that he could shave down which would prevent them from building up in the future. He gave me a cortisone shot in the sole of my foot first (yikes!), but that’s wearing off. I don’t know if he’ll operate or not.

Finally, I’m recovering from an endovenous ablation of my lower right leg. The vascular surgeon accidentally damaged a nerve as she performed the procedure, causing numbness at the top of the skin and pain below. There’s also swelling along the outside of my leg from the bottom of my calf to my ankle, for which she has no clue as to why that’s happening. She could only recommend the passage of time for the swelling, but for the nerve damage she gave me gabapentin – yes, my favorite drug again – and ordered me to take 300mg 3x a day for a month.

That’s about all for the major situations going on in my life. I know none of them are really major major, but they sure add up quickly. I’ll be happy enough to subtract a few rather soon.