This is something to be happy about, having watched things like the Invictus Games and so on, programmes about those indomitable men and women who have come back from The Abroad (as we knew it) and yet left part of themselves behind.
Shortly, both knees will be working.
This is something to be happy about, seeing as I have spent most of the last year falling over, being unable to stand up, standing up and finding I only had one leg on the floor and the other was just dangling there, getting stuck in bed, in chairs, at work. This class have never known me to sit on the floor with a group (a place I feel some of our best learning could have been done) because the one time I did it I had to have an adult in from next door to get me up. This class haven't been out as much, because I couldn't take the chance of falling over with them and having 30 lovely children looking at me and unable to get back to school. This torn and flapping miniscus of mine has a lot to answer for.
Apparently it was a large tear. The flapping bit was going into the joint and stopping it working. The surgeon has trimmed it off and made it a 'lovely round shape again.' Not any old round shape, but a lovely one.
This morning, three days from the op, I *walked* to the bathroom. On the way back I made myself a cup of tea and carried it through *myself*. Friday and Saturday I've been stuck to the sofa like fur to velcro. Sunday I could carry my own cup of tea, but only in a travel mug. Today was that moment that I've been waiting for, when I can feel that it has worked and that I am going to be walking normally by the end of 3 weeks, maybe 2. I know it won't be for any distance to start with. I know that takes time, but today was the day when I got up and felt like it *would* happen, and soon.
I have done all this before you see. 3 years ago, I had the other knee done. Exactly the same problem. That time I didn't know what would happen, I pushed myself too far too fast, I ignored the physio because it hurt so badly that I didn't do as much as I should. I won't be making that mistake again, although I think it all hurts less this time. However, 5 days after the op, I had the feeling I have today - that it was fixed.
Yes, my fixed for 3 days knee is still swollen. It has a range of colours to go through, much like the backs of my hands where a trainee anaesthetist struggled to find a vein. I still have some post-general-anaesthesia fog to work through I suspect, which has been dire the last few days but then I had a very unenjoyable reaction this time.
The difference between last time and this time is that I *know* this will work. That is making all the difference in the world.
