Regaining my life under the knife...

For the next few weeks, lucky readers, this blog will chronicle my knee surgery and recovery.  As some of you know, in 2002, I ruptured my ACL on a ski trip.  My knee actually did really well until our move to England, where two slips on ice resulted in a much looser knee and some damaged cartilage.  A surgeon there recommended the reconstructive operation and one here in Honolulu concurred.  So tomorrow is the Big Day.

I vacillate between being really excited about getting my life back and really dreading the process.  On the one hand, the knee has increasingly limited my activities.  In London on one trip, it just collapsed on me one night.  We'd left a show and were in the tube getting to our train and it just stopped holding my weight.  I had to drag myself up the steps by the handrail.  Didn't hurt, didn't give any warning, just stopped holding me up.

Here in Hawaii, getting out of the ocean surf was always a nail biter.  The fear I felt was so strong that I was almost ashamed of it.  And after walking that 10K, I've had a heavy, swollen sensation in it.  So I'm ready.  I'm ready to be active without fear.

But on the other hand, the next 4 weeks are going to be hard, and the entire recovery process is about 9 months.  That's just a reality I have to face, though I'm doing pretty good with the denial...  I had a pre-op appointment today and was genuinely surprised when the doctor gave me a pain prescription and said "better get that filled today."  AAAAAAAGH

Ready or not, denial or not, here I come!  Join me in these next few weeks for a blow-by-blow description of recovering from an ACL reconstruction!  What a trip it will be!