The Need for Knees

Jess has been having more and more difficulty with his knees. The more he walks, the more they hurt. Stairs are a real pain, literally.

Yesterday he went to the Ortho Clinic. It's been over 2 years since he last went to have them check his knees. They tried a cortisone shot in his right knee last time, with a "that's all we can do until you're ready to replace it" kind of deal.

He's ready to replace it.

Not only is his right knee in need of replacing, however, his left knee has also given out. It causes him even more pain sometimes than his right knee.

He's ready to replace it, too.

The doctor took x-rays and agreed, time for knee replacements. Both of them. At once.

He's scheduled for surgery to replace both knees December 8th. In the meantime, they're sending him a packet of information, and November 17th he goes for bloodwork, and to a class on having knee replacements.

That date is kind of ironic, as I've been scheduled for months to go have blookwork the same day, plus a couple of pre-cancerous spots burned off, and a mammogram. We're going to give the medical establishment lots of business that day. Guess we can car pool to the doctors, ha!

They could have done the surgery sooner, but we're going to WV in a little over a week to visit my dad and family, then The Canadian Contingent is coming to visit November 11-16th, and then over Thanksgiving we're headed to Florida to visit with the Sanfords and Randy (the thankfully not-so-Phantom-son these days).

By December the pilgrimages of visiting our far flung families will be done, so he can have surgery with time to rest and recuperate and then get busy with getting his new knees functioning properly.

As you might imagine, he's a little anxious about all this. It doesn't help he watched them do knee replacement surgery on The Learning Channel and has a graphic idea of what they'll be doing while he's out. And surgery at any time is always nervewracking anyway.

So he and his knees need your prayers and good thoughts!