Is it Time, Already?

About 6 months ago my knee got suddenly worse. I don't suppose it was truly sudden, but rather that it crossed a threshold. The deterioration in these last months has been a bit frightening, and has disrupted my life, and caused me to restrict activities.

In January, I went back to my orthopedist whom I saw 4 years ago, asking what was going on. Long story short: not impressed with his diagnosis and discovered his specialty focus is not what I need now. (I hadn't realized until this appointment that he HAD a specialty focus!

Middle of February:  I went after a second opinion. My new doctor listened to my story, looked at my x-rays and said the words I didn't expect to hear: "You're There." He then asked me if I had heard of "Partial" knee replacement..."hmmm, no?"

So here's the thing. My knee is only bad on one side. That makes me a good candidate. AND he uses a fabulous tool: a robot that assists and makes it possible to get a nearly perfect alignment. It's called MakoPlasty and I am totally excited about it!

The surgery plan goes like this: 
1. Surgery on Monday morning
2. Physical Therapy on Monday afternoon
3. Walking, stairs, in/out of bed, in/out of a chair by Tuesday
4. Home Tuesday afternoon
5. Back to "normal" in 30-60 days. (As we age, our knees are never really "normal.")

Wow.

I can live with that!!

So I say, "what do we do now?" and my doctor (I love this!) responds: "Go home and do your homework, study on the internet, and start with these two sites: Makoplasty.com and American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons. Then email me with any questions you have. 75% of what you find is going to be accurate. Be cautious of personal stories." (Like this blog...so if you are researching, DON'T JUST READ THIS BLOG AND OTHER STORIES - GO TO THE PROFESSIONAL SOURCES

It did not take me long to decide that this is the path I want to take. So we moved forward.