Recovery
My knee surgery was on Thursday, May 6th. When I was rolled into the operating theater, I was asked a usual battery of confirmation questions: What’s my name? When is my birthday? Can I tell the nurse what procedure I was there for that day?
I said, “Guranto Paipa. Rokugatsu jugo nichi, sen kyuhyaku rokujuni nen. Showa sanjunana. Migi shitsu gaikotsu kosetsu shita.” Easy.
I was lucky that my surgeon spoke nearly fluent, colloquial English. He was educated in the U.S. My nurses, though, spoke no English at all. Our communication relied on my Japanese. We got along okay. The same was true of my physiotherapists.
I was discharged on Saturday, May 8th. I had a relatively normal post-operation fever and I told the nurses and my doctor that I felt bad and that I wanted to rest in hospital for a couple more days, but they were having none of that. I was sent home.
Walking with crutches is hard work. It’s exhausting because it takes a lot of energy - at least, when you’re a middle aged man who hasn’t used crutches since he was nine years old. Movement is excruciatingly slow. Moving on the streets or in the hospital is fairly easy because there’s lots of space. But in the home, everything is in the way: furniture, shoes on the floor, cables, even rugs. The feet of the crutches get caught on every damn thing because the height to which I can easily lift them is limited to the space between my armpit and the armrest at the top of the sticks, which is only two or three centimeters. The space at home is tighter, confined and confining, too.
I quickly developed calluses on the palms of my hands from the crutches - my body weight on the handles combined with friction.
I learned how to walk with crutches on different surfaces - and to be wary of them: wet and dry surfaces; matte and polished surfaces; uphill and downhill slopes.
My stitches were removed on Wednesday, May 26th. I worried that the skin of the scar would rupture open with the force of all the stretching and flexing exercises I was doing at home. I said so to my surgeon and he said, “I don’t think so.”"
“Why not?”
“Because I’m a genius.”
I noticed as I hobbled around the city on crutches that my eyes were habitually cast down and staring at the ground about one meter in front of me - sort of like a pedestrian staring at her iPhone. Very dangerous. But the reason for it is that I was hyper-sensitive to slippery surfaces and I wanted to watch where the rubber feet of the crutches were resting.
On Friday, June 4th my physiotherapist, Ms. Usui, taught me a couple new stretches to do at home. The flexibility in my knee noticeably improved quickly. At first, I was concerned about increasing my joint flexibility. Flexibility is what I needed to do the most important things, like dressing myself and using the toilet. Flexibility increased quickly week after week.
Ms. Usui said that I cannot stand up and sit down unassisted unless I can bend my knees about 100º in order to get them under my center of gravity. I either have to bend my legs that much in order to position them properly under my seat before pushing up or, I have to bend them a great deal before leaning my torso forward to achieve the same effect. I never thought about it before, but it seems fairly obvious now that I am observing it. The first time I tried it in the rehabilitation room - standing up from a sitting position on the edge of the massage table - I collapsed backward in pain. That failure helped move my attention from flexibility alone to muscle strength. I noticed the difference between flexibility and muscle strength and I began to be more concerned with the latter. I began doing endurances exercises on my leg like a junior high school P.E. class specifically targeting the muscles.
My rehabilitation session were/are habitually, but not exclusively on Friday mornings. I was surprised that massage actually works! I never took the idea of massage very seriously before. I know it’s a serious profession. I know that sports teams have entire staffs of physio-therapists. But I just never had much regard for it. Until now. I asked Ms. Usui why my sessions were only once a week? Wouldn’t I recover faster if I had more frequent sessions? Surely professional athletes would have hours of daily rehabilitation to get their bodies back into performing condition. She said there was no physical reason not to have daily rehabilitation. The problem was staffing. For the number of patients receiving rehabilitation there are not enough rehabilitation staff at the hospital and no budget to increase staff to the level of a professional sports team.
I stopped wearing my knee brace on Monday, May 24th.
Now I know what a “hamstring” is.
On Monday, June 7th, I rode on the subway for the first time in over a month. The next day, I did it again. But for the rest of June I split my transportation between taxis and trains, depending on the weather.
I have more sympathy for the elderly and disabled - people with retarded mobility. I understand now some of their mobility issues. I also understand why old people are constantly in everybody’s way. It’s simple. First, they’re clueless, and second, they just don’t give a damn!
On Friday, June 4th I took my first shower since leaving the hospital. During May I relied solely on alternative bathing options. Even after June 4th, alternative options remained my primary bathing routine for some time, but showering became part of the rotation until I finally felt strong enough to return to normal bathing.
The end of June and beginning of July looked like this:
Friday, June 25 - dermatologist + internist + ophthalmologist
Monday, June 28 - rehabilitation
Friday, July 2 - X-ray and orthopedist
Sunday, July 4 - coronavirus vaccination
Money, July 5 - dentist
And it continues like that. This regimen of medical appointments is getting a little out of hand. It’s pissing me off!
Interestingly, I encountered the same taxi drivers a number of times over the course of weeks. I was standing on the same street corner trying to flag a taxi at the same time as some drivers patrolled by on consecutive days. Or, I waited at the same taxi stand outside the same commuter station and was met by the same driver as before. I guess drivers have designated areas (or, at least preferred areas) to patrol. No matter where in the city their fares take them, they immediately begin heading back to their habitual areas. More than once I got in a taxi on the street and the driver already knew me and knew my destination without me having to say anything.
People often told me how good I looked. It looked like I’d lost weight and I looked good. But when I was weighed on June 25th for the first time since February, I discovered that I had gained 100g!
I always thought those early morning stretching exercise TV shows were silly. You know the ones - where three female PE instructors (or, maybe they are models or actors) perform a routine of easy exercises aimed at the elderly. Now, because I am in rehabilitation myself, I understand for the first time what those women are doing, what muscles they are stretching, why they are stretching them, and what the benefits of stretching are. Not as silly as I used to think - but still a little silly.