Knee Day

The big day! Nurses were in the ward by 5AM administering medicines to all of us. The first one that came to me asked, “And what are we doing for you today?” I thought it a bit strange that she would ask that question, especially since she was holding my medical chart, but I told her that I was having a LTKR. She gave me pills, started an IV drip and then put an “X” above my surgical knee with an ink pen.

"X" & smiley face mark the correct knee for surgery!

The ward was very active, and I was number one on the surgery list for the day. By 0730 an attendant arrived to wheel me to the theater (name used for operating room in South Africa). Upon arrival, I was greeted by a new sister (name used for a nurse in South Africa). She looked at my chart, asked me my name and DOB, then asked, “And what are we doing for you today?” Really, doesn’t anyone know what they are doing for me today? I kissed my wife and told her how much I loved her, then they wheeled me to the coldest room I have ever been in.

And away we go!

OR holding

In the theater, I was asked three more times, by three different people, “And what are we doing for you today?” Finally, when the last one asked this question I asked the OS if there was no one on his staff that knew what was going on. He laughed and assured me that it was standard operating procedure to ask the patient repeatedly what was taking place.

"And what are we doing for you today?"

Okay, I'm ready!

The anesthetist had me sit up as he administered the spinal block. He told me that my bum would start to feel a bit tingly and then it would travel down my legs – it did! They laid me back down and a sister put a breathing mask over my face and told me to breathe deeply – that’s all it took, about 5 seconds of that and I was totally out.

"Are they finished yet?"

The next thing I remember I was being wheeled back to the Orthopedic Ward. I don’t even remember being in the recovery room. I was a little groggy, but alert enough to know that my wife was with me and that was what mattered the most. I had no feeling in either leg or feet. The dressing around my surgical knee seemed enormous and there were two drain tubes extending from the wound. I had also been catheterized during the procedure. The bag collecting urine seemed to have an excessive amount of blood to me. I asked the sister about it and she had someone come to look. The head sister deflated the internal bulb a bit, stating that it might have caused a problem. About 20 minutes later another sister came by to check it and the tube had completely disengaged itself from me all on its own.

Can you wiggle your toes?

Within 4 hours most of the feeling had returned to my legs and feet, with the exception of my surgical foot. It did not seem to have much feeling at all. The sister explained to me that during the operation the OS “freezes” some of the nerves that run from the knee to the foot and it would take longer for the feeling to return to that area. Using a walker, “frame”, I was able to get out of bed and walk to the toilet with help. I passed a lot of blood in my urine.

The physical pain during the day never exceeded a 5 out of 10 for me. I was fairly comfortable all day. The OS came by to check on me, telling me that all went well and that he saw no problems except the blood in my urine. He said that he talked with the sister in the OR and she told him that she inserted the catheter with no problems and there was a good flow of urine. The OS seemed to think that they might have inflated bulb in the upper bladder. He also said that it could have inflated on a polyp. He said that he would probably order an ultra-sound on my bladder in a few days to make sure nothing was going on there. I was able to eat and walk to the toilet two more times throughout the day.