Tag Archives: intake

Bee’s Knees: Pre-TKR, Another Setback?

Posted on by MaryO

On 1/23/2023 I said: “Someone pointed out that, since the new surgery is more than 30 days away, I may have to do all the clearances again…”

Thursday, February 15, my heart sank when I got a call from the hospital. After being on hold forever, I talked to a person who wanted to schedule my medical clearance, again. I told her I’d done it before in February for the rescheduled surgery. She said she’d check with my surgeon to see what he wanted.

Friday, I heard nothing until 4:58 pm. He wants to do a medical clearance “revision” whatever that means. So I go back to the hospital next Thursday (March 2) for more testing. If they find some other obscure infection, that won’t be enough time to fix it before the current surgery date Thursday May 9.

March 2, 2023

So, I had the Medical Clearance Revision today and it was exactly like the Medical Clearance I did just over 30 days ago. It looks like surgery is a go. Thursday, March 9 at 12:15.

There’s extra stuff for me to do to prepare, thanks to Cushing’s, the GH deficiency, the Adrenal Insufficiency, the one kidney, etc but I can do it!

1678382100

  days

  hours  minutes  seconds

until

(K)new Knee

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Bee’s Knees: Pre-TKR, Setback

Posted on by MaryO

From the last post…1/24/2022

This post is officially done…for now. Next stop, Total Knee Replacement.

On 1/23/2023 I said:

“New, Approved-Dentist finished up everything he needed so I got Dental Clearance. This is the final piece of the clearance puzzles”

At the end of that appointment, Approved-Dentist gave me a prescription for an antibiotic, just in case.

Stupid me. I asked the intake nurse about that. She reported it to the surgeon who moved my surgery from 2/2/2023 to 3/9/2023. If someone else is rescheduled, I might be able to move mine back. Maybe.

Then, other test results came back – staph infection in my nose, maybe UTI.

Wednesday, 1/25/2023

So, I am still limping around, changing all the physical therapy appointments I’d set up for the 2/2 surgery. One of the positives is that I get more time in water aerobics building up my leg muscles.

A very positive:

1/27/23 was our 50-year anniversary. Amazing! We celebrated early with a cruise on the Wonder of the Seas. I’m still assembling those photos/posts but we went a little earlier in the month because it was cheaper 🙂 I chose this cruise because I thought it would be cool to be on the current world’s largest cruise ship. I have been on larger ships but DH has not.

We have another cruise scheduled for the Arctic Circle in July but I may not make it because of the new surgery date and recovery. I am very excited about that cruise because we tried to do something very similar and Covid changed those plans.

Someone pointed out that, since the new surgery is more than 30 days away, I may have to do all the clearances again.

Today, 1/28/23 is the 10th anniversary of the fall that started all this. My first post about my knee was really about Tom’s heart attack, and the reason for this blog in the first place. Who know that the knee thing would eclipse everything?

In that post I said:

Ice

Monday morning (for real!), I checked the weather and found that school was starting late because of icy conditions.  I put on boots and took the dog out.  It seemed to be raining – if it’s raining, it must be warm, right?  So I didn’t really pay attention (and I had other things on my mind!) and completely missed seeing the black ice.  Next thing I knew, I had fallen on one knee, my cellphone in my pocket bruised my other thigh and my left arm hurt where I’d reached out to catch myself.  Luckily, I hadn’t let go of the dog’s leash.

I ended up sitting in a puddle of icy water for a long time, figuring out how to get up.  I finally sort of crawled up the trash can that was sitting in the driveway.

The dog had an abbreviated walk, I changed my wet, cold clothes and headed to the hospital.  I was showing DH my knee and one of the staff bandaged it up for me.  I told him I hadn’t fallen at the hospital and wouldn’t sue but I guess he wanted to be sure.

(Today, Monday February 18 2013, my knee still has a huge lump under the skin and hurts when I touch it, although I’m no longer limping,  The bruise/pain from cellphone finally went away)

The very first of the Bee’s Knees series was February 28, 2016. I had no idea it would go on so very long. Like I said in the last post, I sure hope this is trus!

This post is (hopefully!) officially done…for now. Next stop, Total Knee Replacement.

Starting Cardiac Rehab

Posted on by MaryO

cardiac-rehab-fairfax

 

It’s started finally!   Tuesday, March 26, 2013 was DH’s first day in Cardiac Rehab, just over 8 weeks post-op.  This was an “intake appointment”, and much longer than the normal ones will be.

We got to choose when the future class would be – either Monday-Wednesday-Friday at 7:00 am or Monday-Wednesday-Thursday at 1:00pm.  Anyone who knows me knows that I chose the afternoon class.  I just didn’t want to get up that early and have to deal with early morning rush hour each of those days.

Diana, the intake nurse was very nice – in fact, everyone we met was.

First things first – money.  We found out that his insurance would pay for most but that there would be a $15 copay each session.  However, we did get a parking voucher saving us $5 on the parking garage.

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Description unavailable (Photo credit: pennstatenews)

We got a packet of information on all kinds of things, including food guides – what to eat, what not to eat.  Hooray!

I noticed a poster showing the image (right) for choosemyplate.gov.  I looked at that site when it first came out – and I’m looking again!

Diana was the one who set up the class times, as well.

Next was Claire, a nurse.  She checked all the meds and vitamins that DH takes.  She said that saw palmetto interfered with one of  his prescriptions and she suggested we take the list to CVS so that they can look for other interactions.

She did an EKG,  checked pulse in several locations, looked at the  scar, checked blood pressure on both arms (sitting and standing), listened to the carotids.

BP was  136/64 right,   112/60 left,   119/70 standing left.

She made an appointment with the dietician for Wednesday April 17 at  2:30, after a rehab class.

Turns out that there are patient meetings on the second Tuesday of each month.  We’re getting very busy with patient meetings, Mended Hearts and rehab plus doctor appointments!

 

They were out of t-shirts his size so we got one that was very large.  Another one will be forthcoming…sometime.

These shirts are special because they have a pocket for the portable EKG machine over the heart in addition to the obligatory logo on the back.  As luck would have it, DH was wearing a t-shirt with a pocket.

DH was hooked up to the EKG.  I gathered that he’ll do that himself in the future.

Next up – Shelly, an exercise physiologist.  She talked a bit, asked DH how often he got new shoes.  She said that it should be every 6 months.  Who knew?

She said to drink water every 15 minutes while exercising.

DH started off slow – Treadmill 5 minutes; Bike 15 minutes; Walked on indoor track for 4 laps

When he was done, we went to the Healthy Heart Cafe for a bit of lunch.

Wednesday, Day 2

We got there in plenty of time.  DH turned out to be the only person in this class, at least for now.

He did his exercises but was told he needed to eat breakfast in the future – his blood pressure was too low.

It’s becoming a habit – when he was done, we went to the Healthy Heart Cafe for another bit of lunch.

I had bought him a Groupon for a local garden shop as a Christmas gift.  Of course, I had no idea then that he wouldn’t be doing much gardening this year.  In any event, it was going to expire on March 30, so we went there after rehab and got a few things 🙂  They may all become house plants – we’ll see!

Absolute exhaustion by the time we got home.

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