Nine months after knee surgery

Nine months ago I had my left knee replacement. The left leg is now nearly pain-free. Now and then there's a flash of pain around the knee itself and I expect there's some remaining scar tissue getting pulled. It's not severe and it goes away fast.

The right leg and knee is another story. That side had been compensating for years because of the weakness on the left. And seriously working extra for the past four years or so.

My right foot and ankle are moderately swollen all the time and often my lower leg is as well. The sore heel can stop me in my tracks now and then.

In the past few days I have felt some serious discomfort in my right knee and down to the ankle. Often it is a deep bone pain and nothing helps much. It is particularly bad in the night, waking me around 2:00 AM every morning this week. Sitting up helps a lot, supporting the knee and lower leg on pillows helps some, Tylenol and/or Vicodin gives very little relief.

This reminds me of what I went through seven years ago when my left knee started acting up seriously. I see my MD in two weeks and hope he will refer me to an orthopedic doctor for a cortisone shot. I imagine I'll need a right knee replacement in about 18 months. I hope we still have Medicare then.

Getting the right knee done should be much simpler than the left turned out to be. Right now at least there's no sign of ligament damage on the right.

Dental cleaning

A routine cleaning and nothing serious was discovered. There are future problems probable under the new bridge, but nothing right now. I didn't need to premidicate for this work as I had been on amoxocillin for a week fighting the abcess on #29.

More tooth pain lower right side in the back

Continued dental pain in the usual spot, lower right rear, all weekend. The dentist saw me first thing Monday morning. It's an abcess below tooth # 29. It needs a root canal. He gave me 10-days worth of amoxicillin (through 10/28) and vicodin. I get an appointment for a root canal on November 9. It takes four days for the pain to go away.

This part of my mouth has been uncomfortable for almost a year now.

Flu shots for 2009/2010

Jack and I got our flu shots today at Professional Health Examiners in Pensacola on Old Spanish Trail. These were the 'seasonal' flu shots and not the kind for the H1N1 swine flu (not available yet for our age group).