Sunday, November 24, 2024

Knee Saga Continued.

11-24-24 SHORT HILLS: That’s quite a gap in the record. I’ll try to fill it in. I started getting sick about 11-15 with weakness and fever. Going upstairs I fell at the top and needed a rest before being helped to bed by Judy, my guardian angel. I had cough and fever and weakness, and a visit to the ER confirmed ‘walking pneumonia,’ and they gave me Rx’s for Z-pac and augmentin. I used them at home a few days without any benefit and worsening symptoms. 


A second visit to the ER resulted in my admission to St Barnabas. I received a myriad of scans—CAT, isotope, U/S, inhalation—to get to a diagnosis of pulmonary emboli in both lungs as well as the pneumonia. The antibiotics were changed a couple of times, and I was anti coagulated with heparin. I was discharged 11-22 on oral anticoagulants. 


At home we’ve been coping with being back on the walker, living on one floor. The first day I had a shower, shave, tooth brushing to make up for the week in the hospital.    


Today was the day for the visiting nurse to do her assessment. To prepare for the visit, I started to get up from the sofa by putting my feet on the floor, just as I had been doing since I was home. My new knee was suddenly, severely painful. I couldn’t move it a centimeter in any direction. To lie back down on the sofa, I moved the left leg and Judy carefully lifted the new knee so that I was lying flat with the legs on a pillow. 


Judy went to let the nurse in the house, so I was alone in the den. Suddenly there was a loud ‘Clunk’ in the knee. The pain was gone, full mobility was back in an instant. The clunk would have registered at three or four on the Richter scale. 


Now we’re trying to figure out when see Dr. Lee and get back to rehab.

 

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