It’s taken almost two and a half months to get here, but I finally have the range of motion to clip into my recumbent bike’s right pedal, and stay that way throughout a ride. I’ve been able to clip for short stretches of road, usually uphills and by shifting up/back in the seat of the bike. But now I can clip after a short warmup and just stay in for the duration of the ride.
My Physical Therapist says this will accelerate my progress quite a bit, so I try to ride at least 30 minutes a day. Sometimes with Ripley, sometimes alone. I meet with my doctor on August 6th and am really trying to avoid another procedure on the knee and just keep working it through exercise, and PT. Wish me luck!
So, with the threat of an “MUA” from my surgeon I’ve doubled down on my PT to improve my range of motion. Progress has been made! I can finally pedal a bike so I have gone on morning rides every day that I can. Some days I bring Ripley the Aussie Shepherd along because she has energy to burn. Dottie the Corgi is not ready for bike work (yet). The bike riding (and soaking/bending in the hot tub) have done wonders for my range of motion. I went from being “stuck” around an 80° bend to 110° at my most recent PT appointment. I think the doc won’t be happy until I am at 120° so I’m keeping at it.
I can’t clip in with my bike cleats on my right foot yet (not enough bend at the apex of the stroke) but I’m getting closer every day.
I’m also back at the gym. It is amazing what two months of being sedentary does to muscles at my age. It’s like starting over again.
No update on my knee from last week, sorry, but I have a good excuse: we were in Portland for Nick & Izzy’s wedding. It was a delightful, intimate, and beautiful day. The ceremony was held on the summit of Mt. Tabor, and the reception at the amazing restaurant Coquine at the bottom of the hill. When I met Linda (10 years ago!) she lived on the east side of Mt. Tabor just a few blocks from Coquine. We had a date there very early in our relationship. Turns out so did Nick & Izzy, who met in 2017 when Nick was living in Linda’s house there. They really wanted to share that dining experience with their guests for their wedding.
Linda & I rented an AirBnB very close by on Belmont Ave and it was our base of operations for the long weekend. We had a lovely dinner at Dolly Olive downtown, with the happy couple and Izzy’s parents. I did my best Charlie Goolsbee and brought an old Italian wine (2001 from Ghemme) and served alongside a bottle of Barolo from the restaurant’s list. It was fun and worked great with the family style Italian dinner. We have known Izzy’s family having spent many Thanksgivings with them on the coast. But here we are becoming officially family!
Speaking of family it was wonderful to have both my boys together in the same place (Nick lives in PDX, Chris is in Chicago, and I’m in Redmond). I picked Chris up at the airport and we had a couple of meals together just he & I over the wedding weekend.
If you recall I practiced climbing up to the top of the long stairs on Mt. Tabor a few weeks ago, but found out a few days later that they planned to rent a big van and I was to be the shuttle bus driver for the event.
Nick & the bus in front of Coquine. Yours truly taking the empty bus down the hill to pick up the next group.
Yes, I learned how to tie a bow tie, finally, at the age of 61. The weather was perfect and I successfully brought three van loads of wedding guests to the event.
There were two professional photographers so for the entirety of the show I kept my phone in my jacket pocket and just enjoyed it. Izzy’s sister Beth was the officiant and did a stellar job. Afterwards I resumed shuttle service down to Coquine, but did have to participate in family photos.
Linda and my sister MP. Izzy, Nick, and good friend Allison. Me, plus my brother in law Jay with my little sister Mary Pat. Christopher
The dinner reception at Coquine was absolutely amazing and incredibly delicious. Katy and her staff in the kitchen presented a multi-course menu of delicious food. Ksandek paired these with an amazing selection of wines.
Ksandek pouring Champagne for the newlyweds. Izzy & Nick.
We shared a table with my sister and her husband Jay, and Beth’s in-laws that we know well from Thanksgivings together in Manzanita, and Izzy’s parents Janice & Kim. There were four speakers spread between the dinner courses, Allison (a friend of Nick’s from Oregon State University), Nick’s mom Sue, Myself, and Izzy’s Dad Kim. I stood in for my parents, telling the story of my mother Carol and her giving her engagement ring to Nick to give to Izzy. I won’t repeat the tale here, but I wanted to share it with those closest to the couple as some Goolsbee family lore.
Kim Kramer speaking. Izzy & Nick thanking everyone.
It was wonderful and I am very happy for Nick, as Izzy is such a great person for him to spend his life together with. She is a welcome addition to our family.
The day after I spent the morning with Chris, who delivered a gift that he brought to me from his last trip to Japan. He is going again in a few weeks. I hope I can get to Chicago to see him and ideally a hockey game before the year ends. Nick & Izzy are heading off to Europe in a few weeks for their honeymoon. London, Paris, & Amsterdam if I recall correctly. We will probably see them again soon. The drive home back over the mountains was fine, with all the holiday weekend traffic going the opposite direction.
Saw my Orthopedic surgeon yesterday for a post op visit. He lifted all restrictions on my activities. So I can finally travel, swim, hot tub, and get back to the gym. So I immediately hit the gym and started leg work again. I have lost so much strength from being inactive for the past two months – to the point that I’m worried.
He also re-upped my PT regimen because he feels my range of motion isn’t where it should be by this point. Of course my pre-op range of motion was terrible, but I haven’t even returned to that point yet. I’m going to see him again in six weeks and if it hasn’t improved by then he will do something called “manipulation under anesthesia” which just by the sound of it, I want to avoid.
I’m hoping some hot tub time will assist with getting some flexibility into my right leg. My PT folks have really helped and I know they can get me to next 20° RoM.
Needless to say, I’m up and around and doing okay. Stiff, and still lacking full range of motion, but able to walk pretty well. Full update coming Friday after a couple of Dr & PT appointments.
See that big square of gravel? I really wanted to build a garage/shop there and had it in the works but some stuff may have back-burnered that idea for a while. This is where we park things that won’t fit inside our far too small garage. Linda’s Horse Trailer. My flatbed trailer. My winter beater Subaru, and our tow vehicle, Linda’s pickup. That patch of ground has not held up well to that use. Also the curve of the driveway on the left had a STEEP drop-off that often made for difficulty negotiating that corner, especially when maneuvering a trailer. So I ordered 15 yards of gravel, which arrived on Tuesday.
The morning of that day I laid down some ground cover sheets in an attempt to control the cheatgrass which is the scourge of the Intermountain West. Of course the wind and the dump truck that delivered the gravel conspired to ruin my carefully crafted ground covering.
Using the tractor that Linda bought for her big horse property down in Klamath, I spread out the gravel to the best of my ability. I think I did a good job. Like my college professor James Howze said about the Tank he commanded in the Korean War, having a tractor is like having a pet rhinoceros. It can do things for you that would take forever and way too much effort by hand. It makes short, if inelegant work of tasks like this.
Linda meanwhile is making our fenced-in dog area in front of the house something of an amazing garden space, complete with pond and waterfall. I didn’t know she had it in her, but I think taking care of me for my month of uselessness recovering from surgery made her a bit stir crazy.
Stay tuned for an update on Friday on my knee, complete with post-op X-rays!
Sorry for the radio silence. I usually write these on Fridays and last Friday was a busy day for me. Linda flew to PDX the night before, and I had a lot to do on Friday: drop off two of the dogs (Ripley & Dottie) with our dog sitter, go to my Physical Therapy appointment, then drive to Portland with our old dog (Marky), to spend the weekend. Linda was doing some relief shifts at a Veterinary Hospital just outside Portland, and we booked a hotel stay downtown. We met with Nick & Izzy for dinner that night (only a few weeks until their wedding!) I served as Dr. Goolsbee’s driver to get her to/from the clinic every day. On Saturday, I took Marky to Mount Tabor and climbed the stairs to the summit where the wedding will take place. I wanted to make sure I could accomplish the climb on my own. Using my cane, the climb was actually easy, and I was able to climb the ~300 stairs easily. Their pitch is lower than a household staircase, so I had no problem going up the stairs normally with my right leg.
Mount Tabor stairs, Portland, OR.
Going back down was a tad tougher, and I had to do the two steps per stair method using my cane and the railing.
Sunday I enjoyed a nice Father’s Day brunch with Nick.
Sunday night we had Mexican food with Stewart.
We drove home Monday morning. All in all a good weekend.
Since then I have stopped using my cane most of the time. That’s a pretty big milestone in recovery from knee replacement surgery. There are times I miss it, but for most daily activity I don’t really need it anymore. I have my post-op appointment with my surgeon next week, and hope to be signed off for most things I would like to do, such as driving my regular car (manual transmission!), getting in the hot tub, swimming, going to the gym, etc.
My Range of Motion is increasing little by little every PT session. I was able to turn the pedals of a stationary bike at the clinic today (Friday 6/20) for the first time ever, though it was turning the pedals backwards and was quite difficult. I’m not ready to ride yet, but I hope that is coming soon. As soon as I can ride, I will take Ripley (and maybe Dottie) for laps around the neighborhood to start rebuilding my leg muscles. I saw myself in a full-length mirror while in Portland and my legs have lost a lot of muscle mass. Not good! I worked SO hard for so many months to get my legs in shape prior to my surgery, and I’m thankful that worked out well, as it made the immediate post-op process easier (things like getting up from sitting.) But now is the time to build them back up again from nearly two months of inactivity/recovery.
My incision, one month post-op. The skin texture is due to the compression stockings they have me wearing during the day.
Today is June 2nd. My Total Knee Replacement Surgery was on May 2nd, so today marks one month. As you can see all of my bandages have fallen away, revealing my full incision. Linda, who is both a seamstress (recreationally) and a surgeon (professionally) says these are some of the best sutures she has ever seen. Given what happens during a TKR procedure it is amazing it looks so good. (They basically cut you vertically, pull you all apart, including sliding your kneecap off to the side, and do all the horizontal bone-cutting with the knee wide open!) I have seen many people’s photos of their incisions and this one is a work of art by most comparisons. Dr. King is very good at what he does.
So how am I doing?
Making slow progress. On the upside I am able to walk (mostly with a cane) and I have actually driven a few times (just short trips into town for errands, PT appointments, and taking the dogs to the park.) I am back to cooking our meals, which I am sure Linda is very grateful for (she is not a chef!) I made it to the gym (!) to begin working out again.
The downsides, I still have very little stamina in terms of mobility. I have to stop, sit, and run the ice & compression machine on my knee after any amount of activity. My range of motion is still very limited. I can’t straighten, nor bend my leg very far. I have increased it by maybe 10% in total after two weeks of PT. That is a bit disappointing to be honest. The knee is just VERY stiff. To illustrate, I can turn my bike pedals about 190° of the 360° rotation. When I first attempted I was a bit under 180°. My therapist tortures me twice a week pulling and bending my leg to the limits of my pain threshold, which is about as unfun as it sounds. I do exercises at home too. As soon as I can spin those pedals fully I will be riding laps around my neighborhood to begin to rebuild my leg muscles.
I mentioned going to the gym. It was shocking how much strength I lost in a month of inactivity. I only did upper body exercises, and only “push” lifts at that. The “push to failure” was easy to get to. Oh boy. Therapist says no leg work yet, so skipping leg day for now.
TLDR: I’m happy with the appearance of my incision, but not happy with my range of motion and decline in overall condition.
