Here we go.  Heading in for knee replacement surgery on 3 March.  I’ll be replacing the right knee on that date and my left knee a few months after.  This will be my first step to getting back to being able to do the things that I want to do again. I’ve always been a big walker. I’ve not ever had a problem with walking miles to get to where I want to go.  For the past three years, I have been steadily losing my ability to walk any extended distance.  It has gotten so bad that now I am only able to walk maybe 50 feet without pain and the pain is such that I am only able to walk any distance at all through sheer willpower. I’ve known for three years that I would need to get the full replacement but still tried all the other alternatives to get pain free.  None ever worked 100%. 

I want to retire from Civil Service this year.  Then, I want to get myself a private sector job or hired into a contractor position and finally make some real money.  Before I do that, I need to take care of my surgeries and close that chapter out.  I can’t very well tell a new employer, “Ok, by the way, I need to take some time off for surgeries”.  I somehow don’t think that would go over too well. 

Finally, the limitations that this has put upon me keeps me from exercising the way I need to working out.  So my weight keeps going up and up.  Eventually, I would be going into a spiral of more weight and more pain and more limitations on my movements and sooner or later developing diabetes.  I am determined to keep that from happening. 

One thing that really does bother me is people who have no idea of what they are talking about telling my wife all these horror stories about how I will HAVE to go to a rehab facility for at least 6 weeks, and how I will be laid up for months in bed. I wonder if they are confusing hip replacement with knee replacement. Maybe they think I am 80 years old and not 55!! It is ridiculous how much bad information they are telling her. Fortunately, she was able to look up the information booklet from the hospital that gave her correct info.

Well, we will see how it goes. I’m hoping to be back at work after two to three weeks. Hopefuly, much less.