Perhaps, given the benefit of hindsight, I was a tad over-optimistic in regard to my recovery timeline. I realize now that people who undergo a total knee replacement are unlikely to be performing somersaults on the pool deck just a few days after the fact.
Now, I really did not expect to be performing somersaults, but I must admit to some naivety about how quickly I could spring back into the job.
My knee replacement was on the afternoon of March 17th. All went well. After one uneventful night in the hospital, I was discharged, provided a walker, and sent home. We had prepared for this, of course. Critical equipment was moved from my upstairs home office to a temporary office set up in the living room. I had envisioned that after a day or two at home, I would be able to gracefully work back to a semi-regular work schedule.
Silly me.
Don’t get me wrong. I have indeed established a regular cadence, but it is more along the lines of make a call, take a nap. Send an email. Take a nap. Review contracts, take a longer nap. And of course, I would be remiss to neglect to mention my Marquis de Sade trained Physical Therapist, who stops by every day to show me that, with just a modicum of pain, I can indeed bend that knee further than ever thought humanly possible. I am not sure, but I believe his ultimate goal is to touch the ball of my foot to the back of my head. Seems to be the direction we are headed in.
And since this is a blog (sometimes) oriented to workers’ compensation issues, I must also mention the assigned pain control regimen we have in place. Prior to leaving the hospital, I discussed with the medical professionals my concern regarding opioids. They did send me home with a prescription for Oxycodone but also provided one for Tramadol, a less potent option. Ultimately, I did use Oxycodone in combination with Tylenol for a couple of days after returning home, and then one Oxy at bedtime for several nights to help me sleep. I’ve been only using Tylenol since this past Thursday. The Tramadol prescription was never filled.
I had never used any Opioid before, so did not know what to expect. I can honestly say that, while it did help with the pain that I felt no other odd reaction. The dreaded opioid-induced constipation that everyone had warned me about did not occur. I attribute that, however, to the brilliance of my wife.
The hospital had recommended that I take Colace twice a day to help reduce any potential Opioid-related issues in this area. I did that, but I also followed my wife’s suggestion that prune juice might be quite helpful in this area. Boy, was she right about that. Forget oil. Prune juice is the new black gold. The elixir of health. The magic bullet of digestive regularity.
I think you get the point.
So, in an attempt to get back to some work regularity (no pun intended), this week I move from the reclining sofa back to my temporary office setup – at least between my naps. This post is another attempt to return to normalcy. I figured an inane rambling about whatever is rolling through my mind at the moment would work just fine. And as always, I attempt to include a useful lesson.
And the lesson this week is prune juice. What is old is new again. When the wheels of digestive progress have stopped, prune juice will keep the world moving. That is the takeaway for today.
No need to thank me. It is what I do. I’m going to go take a nap now.