T-2: Surgery on Thursday

After years of indecision, I'm going ahead with total knee replacement surgery on January 14, 2010. The surgery is scheduled for 8:00 AM on Thursday, at the University of Minnesota Medical Center - Fairview, Riverside Campus. My surgeon is the wonderful Dr. Elizabeth Arendt, who gave me 16 pretty good years out of this right knee after a successful operation in 1993.

The original plan was to replace the left knee, the one that has been nothing but trouble since the mid-nineties, and only marginally helped by two "bandaid" arthroscopic interventions in the last 6 years. However,the "good" right knee, objectively in worse shape, has been very painful since last summer so, in December, we made a decision to go forward with the right knee. To my dismay, the left has returned to its habitual painful state in recent weeks.

I really hope this surgery helps, since I've tried pretty much everything else (other than losing buckets of blubber), and everyone (including me) is tired of hearing about it. Here's some information on the procedure http://www.uofmmedicalcenter.org/healthlibrary/content/aha_totkne_sha.htm.

I expect to be out of work for about six weeks, a prospect that I find more frightening than the surgery itself. My sense of self, and of self-worth, is tied up with work -- and I'm not sure I will do so well with three nights in the hospital and the possibility of transitional care if I'm not ready to go home yet. I'll post updates as soon as I can type!