Researching Your Knee Replacement - Part 1

Not researching your upcoming surgery and asking your doctor questions can backfire in terms of nasty surprises and then some arising from false assumptions. Even I had a few unexpected things pop up. This is not a surgery to take lightly. It's something that *WILL* change your life to a degree and the road to recovery will take a LOT of work.

Robin's Total Knee Replacement site was the first I visited. She underwent two total knee replacements (TKR). It's got links for TKR and hip replacements sites. Her knee's inability to straighten out at first mirrors me at the moment, as seen in her TKR entry updated July 1998. Exercise and walking can help in straightening it out more, including swimming.

Marie wrote Is a Total Knee Replacement Worth It? Her experiences nearly mirror mine. It was worth it despite being in a rehab facility for 3 weeks. I went from bedbound to using a walker.

While beds in hospitals and some at nursing homes and rehab facilities are adjustable in height, your own bed may not be. It may help to keep something nearby to get up onto it if it's higher than normal.

Deaf-Blind Man Facing Child Porn Charges

Someone passed this article on to me, Deaf, sight-impaired man not competent to face child porn charges, about a deaf-blind man who is accused of uploading child porn pics to a website. Another search found me this article, Attorney General Abbott's Investigators Arrest Waco Student Following Child Porn Indictments.

The major issue I see here is that when he uploaded the pics to the website, he had to have known where he was uploading it and what he was uploading. He had to have known that what he was doing was wrong, even with low english and/or communication skills. According to AG Abbott's site, Lopez was enrolled in Texas State Technical College's Computer Maintenance Technology program. At least some good English skills are needed to get on the internet and be enrolled in college classes.

However, we know how hackers can at times remotely take over or zombie a computer. Was Lopez knowledgeable enough with his computer to know something may be wrong with it? Did he notice anything amiss like unusual slowdowns or extra files? Did he use some sort of protection on it like a firewall or malware/virus checkers?

I wonder if they've tried to make him understand the charges by rephrasing things in a lower grade level.

Technology and Equal Access

Interesting vlog titled We, Deafies have equal access to today's techology. NOT! She has MANY good points, especially when she said that we still have a long way to go in catching up.

I was in the hospital in 2003 for a bad infection and December 2008 for knee surgery. I had the same problem as RLM in the comments when he was trying to use the call button on his hospital bed. I had my hearing aids on/off and I could hear/feel them talk, but that was it. All I could do is tell them I needed them for something. At one DC Metro stop's turnstile near the elevator, when my farecard didn't work a couple times, I had to press the help button. When someone said something, I just said "I'm deaf, I can't understand you."

It shouldn't be too hard to put some sort of notification to note that a patient in a room has a hearing loss and may or may not be able to respond to the patent pressing the call button.

But, technology *CAN* be used to create things to allow someone at the other end to respond. If that's created, one problem that will be faced is those who will abuse and vandalize it.

When it's inclusive of everyone, then we know we've gotten some inroads somewhere. We've got at least some with the TTY phones in airports and other places. But in the meantime, sometimes you gotta depend on other people.

Technology, indeed. It can be good and a curse at the same time...

Seeing the Knee Doctor - Part 2

Just saw the knee surgeon again. He said my flexion (knee bending), around 85-90 degrees, is an improvement from the last appointment. However, my extension (knee straight out) is still around 10-15 degrees. I have a computer case under the desk and stretch the leg and knee on it while I'm using the computer, keyboard on lap.

I've completed the homebound phase, the inpatient therapy. I'm now in outpatient therapy. Since the last visit, I've been using the cane more. I'm trying to walk some without it, but it's not an easy thing. For some exercises, I can only do under a therapist's supervision, like bike machines and related.

However, he told me something quite interesting. In some surgeries, a TKR splits the quadriceps muscle to get at the bone, moves it aside, or something like that. In my case, he cut it, making a caret (^) shaped cut above the patella (kneecap). This most likely explains why I had so much trouble trying to do leg lifts and side to side movements for 2-3 weeks.

It's getting easier to do stovetop cooking. I did a recent dinner, and the left knee (with TKR) merely ached from being tired and the right one was hurting some and becoming a bit stiff. A far cry from when the left would hurt quite a bit.

Funny Moment 2: Free Movie Admission

Some years ago when I was living in Illinois, I watched a lot of movies in the local theatres. At one point one of the local theatres was offering free admission just for bringing a comb.

Well, I had one of those huge novelty combs.

I couldn't resist.

When I got to the ticket counter, I pulled out my huge comb from under my pants leg. The line behind me promptly went to pieces...

I got my free movie. Good movie, it was.