I had knee surgery on Thursday, October 16.  I thought it was arthroscopic knee surgery, but it turns out that the arthroscopic part was for diagnosis, and the rest was regular surgery, darn it!  I’m not into medical terms, or medicine in general, so my translation of “arthroscopic” means “you heal faster”.   OK – just to be thorough – here’s a link, from medline plus – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002972.htm.   I got squicked out just by reading the article!

I’m in the process of getting better.   Even though it was “regular” surgery, this is not expected to be a long drawn out kind of recovery.  Two things I really like are the following: artificial ice and my cane.

Artificial Ice.  I decided to ice my knee myself, instead of renting the “keep it cool” medical device you plug in.  The big breakthrough –  the blue stuff you put in a cooler, when you are going on a picnic.  At Walgreens I bought an artificial ice pack designed just for knees.  The freezer part has the liguid suspended in little globes on a sturdy piece of plastic.  Even after you freeze it, the sheet is bendable.  It comes with a velcro cloth pack.  You stuff the sheet of artificial ice into the cloth pack and attach it to your knee with the attached velcro strap.  The “ice” pack is easy to use and really swell.

I like my cane even better.  I got my cane at Walgreens, the same place I got the artificial ice for my knee.   I’d give you the brand name of the cane, but I took off all the tags.  My cane is a marvel of design – light aluminum,  adjustable, sturdy tip, padded handle, a strap, and it’s a pretty bronze color.  It’s so well designed that it fits over a door knob or the back of a chair, without falling off.  This is not the type of cane that you see on television shows like House, a cane just for pretty – this is a cane you can use.   I’m going to keep my cane in case I ever need knee surgery again.

Here’s a picture of my cane.  I shot it from the door of my place.  My cane is resting against the railing of the second floor walkway. 

My Cane

I love my cane!

amarez – mszv