Date: 2019-07-03
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Miles today: 0.0

On February 15, 2019, I received my first knee replacement at Copley Hospital in Morrisville, Vermont. Everything went well and I was released in a semi-drugged stupor the next morning. Everyone I encountered was unfailingly polite and friendly, and even the food was good. The breakfast omelet was noteworthy! The next two weeks was intense physical therapy including the use of a Continuous Passive Motion Machine for hours a day, a device sometimes called the Iron Maiden. It is exquisite torture, but as a result, I had full range of motion after two weeks. Even with morphine, it was a most unpleasant experience. I kept three ice packs in the freezer for use in rotation. Weeks three through six were even worse in some respects. If I didn¢t move, the knee didn¢t hurt. With a mountain of pillows, I was able to find a comfortable position at night, but invariably I would move in my sleep and wake up to a sharp pain. The association of sleep with pain leads to insomnia, the most common complaint at this stage of recovery. Sedating anti-histamines like Benadryl were recommended, but these drugs make me hyper! I had in-home physical therapy twice weekly for three weeks and then started out-patient. That¢s when I began to make rapid progress. I used a walker the first two weeks, a cane the third week, and then I was able to hobble around unaided. I returned to the Y when I was able to limp the 1/2 mile down the hill, after about six weeks. Recovering leg strength and the ability to go up and down stairs without pain has come slowly. I¢m now at 4-1/2 months and I¢m at my presurgical strength and almost back to pre-hike strength. My walking distance is now limited by my ¢old¢ knee. It starts to complain after about three miles. I still have occasional swelling in my new knee, but I¢m past the time when icing several times a day is a necessity. I am still using a roller massage stick, especially on the lower quadriceps that were brutalized during the surgery. The surgical term sounds much more gentle, but it amounts to ripping the muscle with the grain instead of cutting across it. I¢m still seeing improvement from week to week. I met with the surgeon yesterday and we agreed to do my second knee in early October. According to everyone and everything that I¢ve read, my rehabilitation has proceeded swimmingly and I¢m well ahead of schedule. Nonetheless, I somehow expected that I would be back to 100% by now. The pain, swelling, and discomfort was for other people, not for me. Ah, magical thinking! The surgeon reiterated yesterday that I will continue to see improvement for the next nine to twelve months. He asked me the critical question, ¢Are you glad you had it done?¢ I could answer with an unequivocal yes.  I had hoped to make another attempt to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail starting in April 2020. My right knee will be 14 months old then and my left knee will be six months old. More magical thinking and not this reality.  My current fantasy, and the one I¢ll carry with me into the second knee replacement, is to start in Harpers Ferry in mid-August 2020, hiking south to Springer. October is lovely time in the Smokies! Then in April 2021, I¢ll return to Harpers Ferry and hike northward to Katahdin, completing my hike before mid-August, complying with Appalachian Trail Conservancy¢s definition of thru-hiking, ¢hiking the entire A.T. in 12 months or less,¢ and earning the sobriquet of thru-hiker. Finally.