Bad Knees

[Rockin RK]

Thanks For the update i've been wondering how it went.

 

[westbrooklawn]

Thought about him several times and was anxious to see an update... sounds good!

 

[Reg]

BIRD UPDATE

I sent an email to Bird's daughter this morning and got the following progress report from his daughter, Holly:


""He did GREAT! The surgery went very well and he was in a little
discomfort, but not any true pain yesterday. I had to come to work
today so I haven't seen or talked to him yet, but will be there tonight.
He will be in the hospital until Thursday and then we will get him home."

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I was sure everyone would want to know this good news.

Thanks SO MUCH for the news.
Please send back my best wishes & everyone else's too I'm sure.

Won't be long before he's back here saying "nothing to it, wish I'd done it sooner"
and Ya know I'll jump on him with "told Ya so" (-:

 

[jinman]

I just got off the phone with Bird in his hospital room. They've taken all his IVs, etc. off and he is up walking with a walker. As a matter of fact, yesterday, they told him not to walk without someone to help him, but today they told him he could walk up and down the hallway by himself if he is careful. He's only taking oral pain medicine as required and is looking forward to getting home tomorrow. I think I can safely say that so far it looks like Bird is doing exceptionally well.:thumbsup:

I told him how everyone was asking about him and sending good wishes his way. He said he sure appreciated everyone thinking about him and pulling for him.

Oh yes... He said that the hospital was as good or better than they had told him. The food is great, his room is private, and everyone is caring and wants to help. He's very pleased with this hospital.

 

[MarkV]

Again, Good news Jim. Thanks for keeping us up to date. It sounds as if Bird will be back with us on the forum shortly.

MarkV

 

[texbaylea]

Oh yes... He said that the hospital was as good or better than they had told him. The food is great, his room is private, and everyone is caring and wants to help. He's very pleased with this hospital.

Sounds like that he lucked out.The food was just short of terrible the two times I was in hospital in the last year and that was two different hospitals. The food while I was in in-patient physical therapy was quite good however.

I will PM him after he has been home a while.

Vernon

 

[RadarTech]

AWESOME news Jim!

Please keep up the the updates.. and do let Bird know we miss his insight and helpful info!!!


Best wishes....

J

 

[tommu56]

I'll bet if Bird had one of the new fangled phones with him in the hospital he still could be posting :laughing:

glad to hear he is doing well too.
tom

 

[jinman]

I'll bet if Bird had one of the new fangled phones with him in the hospital he still could be posting :laughing:

glad to hear he is doing well too.
tom

:laughing: He did tell me that he may have to spend two days catchin' up on just reading emails when he gets home. If I were a betting man, my money would be on his posting here before today is over.

 

[dmccarty]

Oh yes... He said that the hospital was as good or better than they had told him. The food is great, his room is private, and everyone is caring and wants to help. He's very pleased with this hospital.

Jim,

Thanks for the Bird Update. :thumbsup:

A friend of ours was in the hospital a few weeks ago and he liked the food. We did not taste the dinner but we wanted too. I sure looked and smelled good. :laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[heehaw]

my wife had her knee replaced on the 25th: was in the hospital 2 nights an they have a system with food service, that you call in what you want to eat from a menu: we didn't find anything i would call good: eatable an not to bad but i would have been really upset if we had gone out to eat somewhere an they tried to feed us something like that: its amazing the difference between therapy an Drs that are doing this knee surgery: my wife is suppose to use the constant motion machine for 6 hours every day: plus in therapy for an hour an a half: in the same therapy office, folks that used different surgeons, go to therapy 3 times a week: an only used the constant motion torture while in the hospital..she is making a lot better progress than i ever dreamed she would, so i'm not gripping, just stating info.
heehaw

 

[sweettractors]

my wife had her knee replaced on the 25th: was in the hospital 2 nights an they have a system with food service, that you call in what you want to eat from a menu: we didn't find anything i would call good: eatable an not to bad but i would have been really upset if we had gone out to eat somewhere an they tried to feed us something like that: its amazing the difference between therapy an Drs that are doing this knee surgery: my wife is suppose to use the constant motion machine for 6 hours every day: plus in therapy for an hour an a half: in the same therapy office, folks that used different surgeons, go to therapy 3 times a week: an only used the constant motion torture while in the hospital..she is making a lot better progress than i ever dreamed she would, so i'm not gripping, just stating info.
heehaw

My BIL had therapy as prescribed after surgery and his knee would not make the full range of movement the Dr wanted. So, He went back in and they put him out and did the therapy while he could feel no pain. He is fine now. Ken Sweet

 

[Bird]

I got home before 2 p.m. and had lots of stuff to read while Margaret went to get prescriptions filled for coumadin and hydroco/APAP.

I guess I mentioned befire that the lady who taught the "pre-admission education class" had to have exaggerated; no hospital treats people that well. Well, I was wrong. I've never been in a hospital, even as a visitor, like the Medical Center of Lewisville. I went to surgery Monday about 11 a.m., woke up in recovery looking at a great big digital clock with big red letters "1300". By 2:30 p.m., they had the CPM (constant passive motion) machine hooked up, set to bend the knee 50 degrees. And about 3 p.m., they took me to my room. Incidentally, they put me in the bed I'd stay in while I was in the operating room so no moving from stretcher to bed. The CPM machine stayed on for 15 hours, except for 15 minutes Monday afternoon that they had me sit up on the edge of the bed.

During the night, they gradually increased the amount of knee bend 5 or 10 degrees at a time and told me they'd only do as much as I felt I could comfortably tolerate. They seemed a bit surprised when we went all the way to the maximum 90 degrees, but it never hurt. They took it off during the day, put it back on at night around 6 p.m. each night, started it off at 50 degrees, but showed me how to start and stop it and change the limits. I just promptly went to 90 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday night and left it there. It never hurt.

I guess they did make one small error in forgetting to take my order for Tuesday's breakfast and lunch. so for breakfast they brought orange juice, coffee, a pint of 2% milk, oatmeal, a biscuit, scrambled egg, bacon, margarine, sugar, salt & pepper, and mixed fruit jelly. For lunch it was a slice of ham with a full slice of pineapple on it and a marachino cherry, macaroni & cheese, steamed spinach, a big dinner roll with margarine, iced tea, and apple pie. They did ask me what I wanted for the other meals, but I told them I didn't care if they just surprised me. They had also told me if I wanted anything special to just ask. Incidentally, today we had a "graduation luncheon" in the physical therapy room (5 of us who were getting out and our spouses), so we had a big slice of roast beef with gravy, potatoes, english peas, little cocktail onions, dinner roll, mixed green salad with choice of dressing, chocolate cake, and cookies. Now I'm a big eater, but I couldn't eat everything they brought even though it was good.

The nurses work 12 hours shifts; 7 to 7. Just before shift change, the oncoming and outgoing nurses both come to your room for the outgoing nurse to brief the one coming on, so you can participate in the briefing. Both the primary nurse and the assistant carry in house "phones"; just pick up the phone in the room and dial 4 digits and you talk directly to the nurse or assistant. The numbers are on a board on the wall in your room.

The physical therapist came twice a day, the occupational therapist once a day, the Orthopedic Care Coordinator (lady who taught that class) comes once or twice a day.

It just ain't like most hospitals! One of the guys who was also leaving today had one knee replaced in February and the other one this week by the same doctor.

Oh, I asked my doctor what brand of hardware they use and it's Zimmer. He said they've never had a problem or recall.

There may be places as good or better, but if so I don't know where they are. They had a walker delvered to me this morning, and both a home health care physical therapist and a nurse are supposed to come visit tomorrow; 2 weeks of home physical therapy, and then outpatient therapy at the hospital If I think I need it.

 

[/pine]

Glad everything went so well...

if you are on coumadin they are probably trying to prevent blood clots...be sure to read the dietary literature...some things like spinach are bad news...

godspeed getting back on your feet...

 

[Bird]

Glad everything went so well...

if you are on coumadin they are probably trying to prevent blood clots...be sure to read the dietary literature...some things like spinach are bad news...

godspeed getting back on your feet...

Yep, that's the purpose of the coumadin. In addition to the information sheets you get from the pharmacy, the nurse at the hospital gave me a booklet and another information sheet, and the dietician at the hospital gave me a list of foods (mostly green leafy vegetables) that are high in Vitamin K. I think the home health nurse will be taking daily blook samples to make sure the dosage is right and to check my blood count.

 

[/pine]

coumadin is tricky...it takes a while to get the dosage right so they have to keep testing...

the only good thing good about being on coumadin is ...bruises/hickies go away fast...

 

[RadarTech]

I got home before 2 p.m. and had lots of stuff to read while Margaret went to get prescriptions filled for coumadin and hydroco/APAP.

I guess I mentioned befire that the lady who taught the "pre-admission education class" had to have exaggerated; no hospital treats people that well. Well, I was wrong. I've never been in a hospital, even as a visitor, like the Medical Center of Lewisville. I went to surgery Monday about 11 a.m., woke up in recovery looking at a great big digital clock with big red letters "1300". By 2:30 p.m., they had the CPM (constant passive motion) machine hooked up, set to bend the knee 50 degrees. And about 3 p.m., they took me to my room. Incidentally, they put me in the bed I'd stay in while I was in the operating room so no moving from stretcher to bed. The CPM machine stayed on for 15 hours, except for 15 minutes Monday afternoon that they had me sit up on the edge of the bed.

During the night, they gradually increased the amount of knee bend 5 or 10 degrees at a time and told me they'd only do as much as I felt I could comfortably tolerate. They seemed a bit surprised when we went all the way to the maximum 90 degrees, but it never hurt. They took it off during the day, put it back on at night around 6 p.m. each night, started it off at 50 degrees, but showed me how to start and stop it and change the limits. I just promptly went to 90 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday night and left it there. It never hurt.

I guess they did make one small error in forgetting to take my order for Tuesday's breakfast and lunch. so for breakfast they brought orange juice, coffee, a pint of 2% milk, oatmeal, a biscuit, scrambled egg, bacon, margarine, sugar, salt & pepper, and mixed fruit jelly. For lunch it was a slice of ham with a full slice of pineapple on it and a marachino cherry, macaroni & cheese, steamed spinach, a big dinner roll with margarine, iced tea, and apple pie. They did ask me what I wanted for the other meals, but I told them I didn't care if they just surprised me. They had also told me if I wanted anything special to just ask. Incidentally, today we had a "graduation luncheon" in the physical therapy room (5 of us who were getting out and our spouses), so we had a big slice of roast beef with gravy, potatoes, english peas, little cocktail onions, dinner roll, mixed green salad with choice of dressing, chocolate cake, and cookies. Now I'm a big eater, but I couldn't eat everything they brought even though it was good.

The nurses work 12 hours shifts; 7 to 7. Just before shift change, the oncoming and outgoing nurses both come to your room for the outgoing nurse to brief the one coming on, so you can participate in the briefing. Both the primary nurse and the assistant carry in house "phones"; just pick up the phone in the room and dial 4 digits and you talk directly to the nurse or assistant. The numbers are on a board on the wall in your room.

The physical therapist came twice a day, the occupational therapist once a day, the Orthopedic Care Coordinator (lady who taught that class) comes once or twice a day.

It just ain't like most hospitals! One of the guys who was also leaving today had one knee replaced in February and the other one this week by the same doctor.

Oh, I asked my doctor what brand of hardware they use and it's Zimmer. He said they've never had a problem or recall.

There may be places as good or better, but if so I don't know where they are. They had a walker delvered to me this morning, and both a home health care physical therapist and a nurse are supposed to come visit tomorrow; 2 weeks of home physical therapy, and then outpatient therapy at the hospital If I think I need it.

Great news Bird!!!

will you post pics of you on the 5K run you are sure to run now?

in all regards glad to have you back!


J

 

[MarkV]

I knew they could not keep you down for long Bird. I am so glad to hear it went so well. To get up to 90% mobility that fast is really, really good. As I am sure you know, be proactive with the Physical Therapy. It makes all the difference. Welcome back.

MarkV

 

[dmccarty]

Welcome back Bird! :thumbsup:

Later,
Dan

 

[dave1949]

Glad to hear you are back home and sounds like you are doing very well. You will be dancing a jig in no time at all :thumbsup:
Dave.