Well, the day to find out what was wrong has come and gone, with positive results, and some serious “ow” factor included.
On Halloween, at 6am, I checked in to Roosevelt Hospital here in NYC and prepared for my knee arthroscopy. Fun right? At 7:30am I was administered anesthesia and by 7:31am I was completely zonked. Last thing I remember is getting on the operating table, having Dr. Kim (the anesthesiologist) say, “Ok, several things are going to happen at once” and before he could finish the list I was gone. Apparently I’m HIGHLY susceptible to anesthesia.
A little after 9:10am I woke up in the recovery area and was greeted by several nurses who checked my pulse, blood pressure, gave me a cookie and some juice and then encouraged me to use the bathroom. I’d had an IV in since the surgery began and hadn’t noticed how badly I needed to deal with the influx of liquids until they mentioned it. One nurse gave me a cane, “You may need this” while another grabbed my IV bag and followed me down the hall to the restroom. “Don’t lock the door. Just in case,” she said as she hung my IV bag on a wall hook. Not foreboding, is it?
Dr. Cohen told me, prior to my passing out, that he’d follow-up with me the next day (today) to discuss the procedure and his findings. “You’ll probably still be out by the time I have to run to my next procedure. But I’ll call you tomorrow,” and he did.
“Knee Joint Synovitis,” he said over the phone. “We knew from the MRI that you had fluid build up” and he explained that while my tendons and cartilage were perfect and that there was no sign of arthritis, he did have to remove some of the affected synovial tissue. Gross. But done!
Now I sit lay in bed at home and hobble as needed, cane in hand. The week will be a lot of downtime but I’ll be able to get a lot of personal projects done to which I haven’t been able to commit enough time. On Tuesday I have the stitches removed and in a few days I may be able to do without the cane entirely. Fingers crossed!
If you’re curious about the procedure you can watch this 2-minute clip presented by eMedTV.com or visit the Livestrong website featuring this frustrating condition.
Tommy Karr 