Rampidbyter Rampid byter: A byte of my .Net developing life.

I tell yah this time around with knee surgery my recovery time has been ever increasing. I took almost an entire week off during the week of the surgery from Tuesday until Monday of the following week. I ended up going back to work on Monday with some difficulty and a total lack of mobility in my leg other than to walk stiffly with one crutch. Tuesday served no better as I still ended up bobbling around like a stiff legged gimp, and even have the new office name of Hobbly. However, my knee started to feel like a heat rock after a while, still had a large volume of fluids behind my knee, and I’ve developed a temperature that started at the beginning of the week. It’s a weak temperature but everyone keeps telling me I’m giving off the signs of beginning of infection.

I keep hearing that. My physical therapist scolded me, as I mentioned in my last post, and since then I took two additional days off this week from Wednesday until today being Friday.

Yesterday I had another physical therapy appointment with a new person who put me through another gauntlet of exercises, leg lifts, and leg electrocutions. I still find it so amazing that they literally shock your leg into a muscle spasm as part of therapy. It’s awesome though when you felt the juice running through your leg, and then baam your leg is convulsing like an extreme flex. I can imagine this is the same principal behind those lapband electrode things I saw on the infomercial channel back in the day. I think they’re illegal to sell anymore because of electrocutions that happened when sweat made its way through the poorly crafted child-labor manufactured product. At least I think so, and now that I think about it they had someone on beetle juice who died of one. It was some horror movie if I can remember right, or maybe it was on the comedy channel. Hrm.

Anyway, I’m sitting here in the office with my leg on my guest chair, and I’ve pulled everything closer to me. I’m glad I took one of the nicest cubes in the office. I’m in the 30+ years of working here area where you’ve had to have been here more than 30 years to get a cube. I will probably feel the wrath of the other side of the office whose cubes I could probably fit three into mine. I tell you, when I’m done here, and have to go back downtown I’m going to get claustrophobia from having to sit back in the old cube isle or bullpen as it’s affectionately known.

There has been one advantage at least. I’ve made great headway through the Microsoft Robotics Studio book, at least as much that will be helpful in addition to the available tutorials. I think it’s reached is usefulness to me until I can actually sit in front of the computer for a while. I’ve also managed to make it more than half way through my MCTS Framework 2.0 Web development study guides. I’m going to register for the exams within the next week or so. Stay tuned for more! I know I will!

I went to my physical therapy appointment today for the second time. I told the therapist about the heat coming off the knee, and she most definitely agreed. After fiddling around with my knee she said that I’d overdone using it, and have caused swelling/fluid build up behind my knee. I guess it wasn’t too hard to tell since there is a giant freaking buldge of skin right behind my knee that forms a giant ring. If you poke it the buldge is firm yet squishy.

Anyway, so I’ve been told to stay off it, shoot guess I shouldn’t be in the computer room with my leg on the tower, but I’m going to have to stay home from work again until Friday. She made it pretty clear, either stay off it, or instead of six weeks of recovery look at six months. I have another evaluation on Thursday but until then she said if I didn’t take it easy the swelling will get worse, could cause infection, and either way will halt healing. Apparently my quad hasn’t started working right yet in order to flush the fluids out. Did you know after an operation like this your muscles STOP working? I had no idea. At least I didn’t until they started hooking electrodes up to my leg and shocking my muscles for 10 minutes at a time. It’s freaking weird I tell you.

So I’m kind of bummed, but at the same time I guess I get to finish my Microsoft Robotics Studio book, and continue reading the Miscrosoft certification exam books. Twenty more pages to finish the MSRS book, and I’ve got two more certifications books to skim through before I’m ready. Here I come Mr. MCSD & MCPD.

It’s rough when you can’t drive. This is the second work day I’ve not been able to get to work on my own volition. I woke up a little late this morning because, lets face it, and it’s hard to sleep on your back balancing an ice bag on your knee. One wrong twist and the bag falls off removing the needed numbing cold, and often spilling freezing cold contents onto other exposed areas near the afflicted area.

I got ready as fast as I could, which is still half the speed of normal, and made my way to the truck. I packed my necessities, rolled up towel, ice bags, pain pills, three 20oz drinks, and pop tarts. When I made it out to the truck I got in, after shoving my non-compliant knee into the position to make it through the door of the cab. I shoved the leg over near the gas pedal, and I sat there for a moment feeling the strain from just getting in the cab.

I then tried to use the pedal with my bum leg. I lifted to the gas, ok, that seemed to work, and then I tried to shift my foot to the brake. Um, ok, it’s half way there, come on a little more, and then I realized it was hopeless. I tried this enough before when my leg was pre-op and those times I had to lift my leg to and from the brake, and how in an emergency I’d pretty much be guaranteed to hit someone. I had an incident in the parking lot at the client site where a guy got pretty lucky I was on the ball. I stopped but I think I gave him a little scare, but I guess that’s what you get for jay-walking in front of an F150 since they don’t stop on a dime as is. I was only going 10 mph anyway, but still.

So again today I’m at the mercy of friends and family to get me around. I was told that Monday would be the day I’d be driving again, but I guess that’s a perfect world. I have therapy again tonight so we’ll see what’s going on. The weird thing lately is the top of my knee has been very hot to the touch. I was sitting here working yesterday, sat my hand on my knee to give it a rub, and it was hot. I was confused since my other knee was nowhere near that hot, and of course my might as well be doctor girlfriend tells me she thinks it’s infected. Wouldn’t that be the luck I have? Anyway, maybe I’ll find out later.

Wow, this week was a dozy, and it went entirely too quickly. I had surgery early on Tuesday morning after getting my work for my client auto-mated, and providing a good 53 paged document on how to do everything from configure the system to the database schema for the tables involved in the process. I was hoping there wouldn’t be a problem, but in case there was I wanted to be able to let them cover it.

I got the news about Matt early Sunday afternoon, and by late evening it was flooding over the local news stations. I started getting call after call from friends and family asking what I knew, or what I was going to do. Apparently I’m on some weird Matt watch for some of them as they think I’m going to overreact or do something stupid. I like to think I’ve matured over the years and am able to deal with these things a little better than I’m given credit for in most cases.

So I get to the hospital on Tuesday at 6am and doesn’t it figure that they ask you be there no later than 6am, and they don’t even open until 6am. So after sitting in the car for another ten minutes waiting around for them to open the doors I start thinking about the day. Man, hurry up and wait.

I did all the paperwork they asked for, paid my 200$ deductible, and then they lead me back into the prep room. I was asked to undress completely down to my socks. For knee surgery I’m not sure what going totally nude will accomplish, so I ask “even my under-roos?”, and the nurse confusedly looks at me. She then looks over at another nurse and asks “Hey, <name I can’t remember> did they ever change the policy on underwear?” The other lady said no, and Barb, my nurse, told me she never understood it either but no underwear. That throws out that whole saying your mothers used to say about always wearing fresh underwear in case you have to go to the hospital. Doesn’t matter they always make you take it off anyway it seems.

So I’m getting IV’d and hooked up all the while a few nurses come by asking me about Matt. My mom apparently is a chatty Kathy and let it slip I’d been friends with Matt. So everyone comes over and lumps condolences on me and asked questions about Matt, like how I knew him, what he was like, whether he was nice or a hard-ass. It was a little surreal to be getting surgery and fielding these questions.

A little time later they start to hook me up to this dripper machine. They take the IV, wrap it into this machine, and it starts pumping drugs at a certain interval. Unfortunately I got the broken one that wouldn’t snap at the bottom, and instead of pumping fluids it started pumping AIR. Yes, air, the stuff that when in your blood stream kills you. It kept beeping, and beeping with the alarm that there is air in the IV line. The dang thing pumped a lot of bubbles into the line. My mom, who was sitting next to me at the time, started counting them. I lost track after she passed 12 and another nurse came over because of the problems. Barb just started work after her brother died so she was just back from that, the machine was broke, and it was still 6:30am. Poor girl was having a week like mine, except I’d imagine harder because she works long hours on her feet.

They ended up changing out the machine for a new one that finally started pumping IV fluids instead of air into me. I did get a wee bit of a static sharp head ache afterwards, but that could have been my imagination. I was starting to get doped up at that point. I realized after a few moments that when IV machines arnt pumping fluids into you that your own body starts pumping fluids back out. That was so weird. I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if the IV went in right the first time. Apparently the IV got snagged upon my vein in a spot where to veins came together. So I got stuck a few times. Mike, god bless him, was pretty good about getting it done quickly. I’m still convinced getting an IV in the hand is far less painful than in the arm. I don’t bend the top of my hand nearly as much as I do at the elbow is how I look at it.

So a little time passes as they’re coming over, shaving my knee, talking to me about everyone going to be there, and my parents warn them that my last meal was really spicy. I think the last words out of my moms mouth was ‘he ate hot sauce’ to the anesthesiologist lady. She looks at me, smiles, and says that’s how she likes her food too.

I then get wheeled back into the operating room where there is a large cross shaped bed waiting for me. I pull myself onto the new table and they begin strapping me down. Did you know they put a seat belt on you? I laughed, then asked whether they thought it was protection in case I was a DWI, driving a cart while intoxicated with knock out drugs. One person snickered, but I’m going to blame my lack of funny on the fuzzy headed drug. Speaking of which, they injected something shortly before the were going to gas me that started to burn inside me. It felt like a million fire armed centepides crawling inside of my heart, and inside my brain. It was crazy it burned so much inside my head it felt terrible. I heard my heart rate rising and one nurse asked me whether I’ve ever had a panic attack, which I have not, and then they quickly gassed me. Next thing I know I’m trying to fit my bandaged leg into a car. I’m tall enough as is so trying to fix a fixed leg brace into a car that doesn’t fit me to begin with just was crazy enough.

Long story short I spent the entire week in bed with ice on my leg. Short of physical therapy last Thursday was the first day I was really up that week. They undid my bandages and it looked as if I was smuggling a bag of oranges under my knee cap. Buldges everywhere I tell you. The next day I had a doctors appointment that a friend of mine too me too. I wont get into that one very much since I waited almost two hours to see the doctor for five minutes for him to go ‘oh it looks fine, doing good’ without even having looked at my leg one second.

So here it is Monday I’m back in the office with second office chair from my cube, crutch sticking through the arm holds, and my leg placed in the top portion of the crutch heel against the armpit pad. It’s holding my foot up, at least it is until the chair tips the rest of the way, while I toil over these programs. It’s still terribly sore, swollen, I’m off my pain pills, and there is no ice to be seen. I can’t even drive yet. So needless to say it’s going to be a long week.

Man, I’m starting to get nervous about the upcoming surgery. It’s always at times like this when you’re made aware of the frailty of the human form. Loss of blood pressure, bad heart, too much anestishia, staff infections, and thoughts of your own mortality start to drift through your mind. This week has been going amazingly fast, and on Tuesday morning I’ll have my knee sliced open to be repaired. I always think about the other guys I talked with, one of whom got a staph infection, and the other who still wears a knee brace when doing physical exercise. I always think, have I started to live the life I want, and what will happen if I die. It happens, my aunt is a VP of a Hospital, and my cousin’s wife is a nurse. I hear the stories, and I hear about how people just puff and die. I’m not overly concerned about these things, but I like to take a moment to hold them fresh in my mind, like swirling the last sip of pop around your mouth to lap up the taste. It’s a bitter taste to face your own mortality.

I always think back to the morning I shipped out for boot camp. It was 4am, were on the bus bright and early after having stayed up all night watching movies with my temporary roommate. Both of us were anxious to start our training, and neither of us could sleep. We watched old 40’s war movies for hours, up until we went to breakfast, and then to when we shipped out. It was a long plane ride, two connections, and I met the three guys I’d spend the next few months living with. They were nice guys, one young, the other were slightly older. I remember the plane ride, I remember being lined up at the airport and made to stand at attention, and I remember being marched out to the gray hounds waiting outside. By this time it’s getting pretty late into the evening, I’d say about 9pm. We get to the base in Georgia about 10pm, and start the beginning of the rest of our training. After sitting through a few hours of introduction to our new home, last minute offers of leniency for lying about medical conditions, and made to turn in our smuggled in electronics we finally were able to get to sleep. They gave us our blankets, and pointed us to the almost overflowing barracks. At this point it was 2am, and we finally were able to lay down to rest. I guess if you consider by the time we made our bunks, laid in them, we had about ten minutes before the wake up buzzer sounded. So much for sleep those three days. Turns out you wake up at 3:30am to start your day in boot camp. Man, I for one can sleep 10 hours standing on my head, but each night we got maybe four if you didn’t have laundry to do. Sucked balls.

Anyway, I think about these things, and I think about where I’ve been in my life. I’ve had an eventful, but unfulfilling life thus far. I have a lot more I’d like to do, and it’s always in the back of your mind. Will I wake up? What if I don’t? Have I lived a spiritual enough life? Will God accept or reject me? Is there a god? What if God is Jewish? What if I’m in front of God and I’m so nervous I fart? Can you fart when you’re dead? I tell you the list of things I think about goes on and on.

It’s surgery time. I have a torn meniscus. What’s this mean? Whelp they’re going to go in and cut out the torn section as the tear apparently never heals due to the lack of blood apparently. Anyway, that is all I know at this point. Tentatively I have surgery April 1^st, and I picked that day especially because it’s April fools day.

I’m alive! Yesterday was funny, woke up, extremely dehydrated, and had to go to the hospital in weather most people skipped work for. Got there, went through the insurance settlement process, and they told me they didn’t have an account of me paying the $100 fee. I paid the night before over the phone, and nobody was there to account for it. So after some annoyance the girl finally called the receptionist from the previous night whom accidentally forgot to include the receipt in my file, or that was paid.

Anyway, went to the hospital (not for the faint of heart) was made to put on a dress with no back, and just my luck they don’t make one my height. So I’m standing there with a gown I’d imagine some stripper pretending to be a patient would wear, but thankfully they gave me a warm blanket for my legs since it was freezing in there. The lady then came in with her needle box. Joy! I love IV lines. They’re really not that bad to get honestly, but I just don’t like it when they miss veins. So first thing I tell her is that I have a fantastic vein my left hand that’s straight and thick even when I’m dehydrated, but unfortunately she tells me I’ll be laying on my left side so that hand was out. So she takes my right hand, starts smacking it, and eventually bends my wrist and sticks the needle right into my wrist. Worst problem is the vein moved, or was too dehydrated to even start pumping blood. So she’s wiggling in there trying to poke it, eventually gets it in, and opens the needle up to see how much blood pumps. Just a drop came out. So she agreed she should have done my left hand in the vein I suggested, and eventually went over to my left hand after having violated my wrist for about five minutes of wiggling an IV needle down in and around my wrist veins. I’ve got a nice little bruise area there now, but my tried and true IV vein came through yet again giving her plenty of blood, and a good spot to get me hydrated again.

Long story short things were normal. So I’m beyond pleased. I was accidentally a year early for the procedure, and the doctor told me the way I am now I can skip coming in every 10 years to only coming back when I’m 40. Yay! So good news and I got to sleep all day due to the nice drugs they gave me. 14 hours of sleep and lying half conscious on the couch all day was well deserved. ;)

Now if only my leg were like that. I looked at the medical sheet they’re giving me the MRI for today. The doctor wrote he believes I have a torn ligament under my knee. So too early to tell at the moment, but in another week I’ll update you all on the situation. Either that or I’ll update myself on the situation via journal/blog.

Bummer, went to the doctor today and had them check out my knee. Took some x-rays and things looked normal. Other than the pre-existing condition I’ve had that I loving refer to snap-crackle-pop knee noises the x-rays didn’t show much. However, the symptoms I’ve described, and given this pre-existing condition the doctor thinks that I’ve torn either a ligament, or tendon. I’m not sure which he said honestly as all I heard was ‘ripped’ and lost attention and I thought he said the ligament was torn. Something about it getting caught on then getting stuck on the bone, which is why I’m getting the ‘pop’ and the searing pain before the pop. So Wednesday I get the MRI, next week I figure out whether I just need surgery, or whether it’s back to physical therapy. Woo, more surgery! So stay tuned for more news. In the meantime I have another appointment tomorrow morning at 10a.m. to see how my risk is for cancer. What a fantastic week this is turning out to be.

Today is the day I get my knee checked out. I’ve been having problems with it for the last few years, but just recently things have seemed to get worse. It started a few weeks ago while watching the movie “Hot Fuzz” over at a friend’s house. I was sitting there minding my own business with my right leg propped up on the left leg. I then went to shift positions by extending my right leg out to put the left on it for a while. The next thing I know I feel this sudden deep searing pain to the left of my right knee cap, and a sudden pop. The pop of the knee cap, while reliving some of the pain instantly, left my knee with a deep aching pain right in the center of the knee area.

Since then my knee has started to do the same thing after long periods of being bent. Considering my profession is sitting in a chair for long periods of time it’s becoming more frequent in that I’ll go to move, stand up, or stretch out only to experience these very troublesome knee pains. I’m all for one for leaving this to heal itself, or I was until this past week when I went to the play “Mary’s Wedding” (more on that later) and while sitting in the audience my knee started burning. The kinds of burning where it feels like you’ve overextended your muscles to the point where they’re ripping. So needless to say two hours into the play I was doing everything but trying to saw my knee off with my truck key.

So today is the day I figure out what is going on with it. I’m hoping there is something wrong with it just so I don’t look like a complete goof that can’t handle minor pain. Though, at the same time I hope there isn’t anything wrong so I can continue on as I’ve done ignoring the nuisances that my knee provides on a day to day basis. I really hope they figure something out because the knee locking is getting very old and I don’t like yelping out of the blue because I’ve been surprised by a sudden shock wave of pain from my knee popping. Either way I hate going to the doctor. I’ve been saying all along I’d only go if there were things dangling off me that should be attached, but we’ll see what happens with this one.