Woo getting it staighter😂😂. 6 month update
Posted , 8 users are following.
Hi All,
Thanks for all your advise and encouragement.
Extension now down from -12 post op to -6 at nearly 6 months.
Keeping going as determined to get to 0 by my 12 month check.!!!
I'm now beginning to feel the benefit and managing work with a few swollen days. Feeling the other knee a bit more now but exercising that too. It's going to.need doing but a few years behind the other one. Not saying every days good but so.mych better. Brother being investigated for cancer this week puts things in perspective.
My friends are saying I look 10 years younger ha ha they are good friends.
It's been and still is a haul but we will all hopefully get there.
Thank you all who answered my long essays and shared valuable info!
I some times wish a sledge hammer could straighten my knee but have refrained from that 😊😂😂
Happy weekend all x
0 likes, 27 replies
Eizie jan01779
Posted
Great attitude Jan! So happy you're "getting there"! We all are and will with time and patience. I'll say a little prayer for your brother. You have a good weekend too. 🙏??
chris00938 jan01779
Posted
Well done Jan! So you get a 12 month check too? Is this usual for others?
I SO hope your brother is OK. It's a horrible worry getting investigated for cancer - I hope he's clear - let us know, will you?
Yes, keep away from the hammer LOL!
I think the knee op certainly makes you feel younger!!!!
jan01779 chris00938
Posted
Yes that will be my fourth follow up.:
Surgeon 8 days ( probably to check healing as on immunosuppressive drugs)
Surgeon 10 weeks and again at 7 months and then hopefully discharged at 12 months.
Phoned him had biopsy of lump on tongue spread to lymphs in neck but PEP scan showed no other tumours in body. MDT meeting next Thurday with a view to surgery, lymph excision and radiotherapy + or - chemo. He's philosophical present and has support. Thanks for asking.
No hammer meeting my girlfriend's for a charity ladies evening. Hopefully with a couple of glasses of nice wine. Not been out much socially ruddy TKR takes over lol !!
X
chris00938 jan01779
Posted
Oh Jan, I'm sorry to hear you've had this problem. I hope the surgery goes well. Good that the rest of your body is clear. Do let us know how you get on re the meeting, will you? It must have been a tougher time for you with this happening as well. You're doing so well handling it all. I know how stressful it is. Have a wonderful wonderful time at the ladies evening:-))))
Guest jan01779
Posted
Hi Jan,
Was just talking to someone yesterday who remarked how "much better i looked" since the surgery. My reply, in addition to thanking her, was now you'll get to see me not working in pain!
I look back at the progressive,and rapid deterioration of one knee then the other, also followed by arthroscopies and swelling. Limping causing the cascade of back, hips,spine getting twisted out of shape, shoes getting worn from the limping keeping the cascade effect going.
No wonder i feel so much better! I ditched my old shoes too.
Pain changes who we are while we fight back to get normal. Fortunately, we CAN be happy again once we ditch the pain. I'm in that stage where i hope there's no more setbacks so im smiling a lot more! But still holding my breath at other times...
Cheers to looking 10 years younger!!!
:D
Eizie Guest
Posted
jan01779 Guest
Posted
Pain can take years of us for sure. It's just so lovely to do stuff lol
jenny80029 jan01779
Posted
Fantastic! 😊🎈🎉🌝
CHICO_MARX jan01779
Posted
Option to the sledgehammer... Call Warner Brothers and have them send over Wiley Coyote with the 16-ton weight he always tries to drop on the Roadrunner. That will do the job...
Keep it up, kid, you still have a way to go. Isn't it better once you're out of "THE PAIN ZONE"? Now you can really concentrate on getting stronger. Hang in there...I'm at 14+ months and it was worth it.
jan01779 CHICO_MARX
Posted
Thanks for the encouragement yes it sure is and I have the determined gene in me !
Hope you are getting on well too.
marilyn10235 jan01779
Posted
Well done Jan! Whilst you're going through it it seems like it's eternal & will never end! But you suddenly realise it's, more or less, behind you & when you look back it feels sooo long ago! Weird how it goes!! 🤔
I hope your brother is ok. It's hard, even when they say the word cancer, you go cold! I wish him well.
Aren't immunosuppressants horrid! I had them 6 years back & had to have weekly blood tests because of it!! Urghhh!
Glad the hammer's been put away!!
Onwards & upwards!!
Marilyn
XX
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
I think we always remember that moment of 'it is cancer' Marilyn. So many of us have had families or ourselves with it. But we have to be thankful that there has been such progress in it and while it's awful at the time - the worst - there is so much more optimism now. But I do wish Jan and family well!!!!!
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
I think the worst was waiting for the result of the biopsy! By the time it comes you are ready for it!
Marilyn
XX
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
My worst time - and it WAS the worst time of my life, was after being told it was cancer and having to wait five and a half weeks for the op to remove it. I'll never forget sitting on the sofa, being the most desperate and despondent that I've been ever. Just thinking it was getting worse and worse as I was sitting there. I wasn't brave and I didn't cope well at all with that. Anxiety is my weak point and boy was I weak. I freaked. What got me through was when I prayed. And I saw myself near the edge of a round cornfield with corn much higher around me (I can still remember looking down at my shoes!) - it was all in shadow, but I remember the words - 'just keep putting one foot in front of the other in the direction you're going' and then I saw outside the shade of that circle of corn I was in was sunshine. This was about two weeks before the op and those two weeks were much easier after that.
jan01779 chris00938
Posted
You've both been through a lot. Marilyn and Chris makes the TKR seem just something of a less of a process.
I guess cancer gives one perspective on everything in life.
Xx
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
You find the strength to face these from wherever. Personally I do not believe in religion, I believe in God & I pray buy don't go to church! But I do speak to God often!
It can be such a lonely time though, as even though you are surrounded by loved ones, by nature of the cancer inside, you feel alone!
It's hard to articulate how it is! In fact I don't think I really took it all in until about a year after it was taken out!
Bearing in mind we had only buried our daughter in law almost 3 years before! I just felt I HAD to stay strong!!
Life carries on though doesn't it!
I was also lucky in that it was only 10 days between diagnosis & operation! Not too long to worry! I am checked every 3 months (6 months in oncology, 6 months in endocrinology). That will be for life!! So life is planned around hospital visits! Whoopee!
Here we are now doing the knee thing, waiting for knee no 2 to be done??!!
To be honest I cannot complain about any of the treatment I have received on the NHS. I think I have received the best they could provide for me.... I'm still here!!!! Lol
XX
chris00938 jan01779
Posted
Definitely Jan. Not comparable at all:-)))) Not that I had pain with the cancer but the anxiety was horrendous - and I don't do anxiety well. (You may have noticed LOL!)
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
It's a long story that I won't go into but we don't go to church either - disillusioned with man saying he's speaking from God basically. But yes, however caring others are around you, you still feel somewhat isolated IN it. That is so sad about your daughter in law too. Oh you were lucky with just ten days between diagnosis and op! I was initially checked every three months too, which initially was going to be for three years, but then they decided that the patient is normally the first one to know if it's returned, from bleeding, so they weren't doing follow ups anymore. The way I got my head round it was looking at the percentage of likelihood of it returning and that was no more than anyone getting cancer from scratch, and people don't generally spend their lives worrying about getting it, so i shouldn't spend my life worrying about it coming back.
I actually compared that with the likelihood of getting a knee infection through another infection and decided that was so unlikely that I could forget about that too! It helped get it in perspective!
The only thing I could complain about with the NHS was my GP overdosing me (x 3) on estrogen, which may have contributed to the cancer, but we can't really know, and then when she fast tracked me for a scan, the form was left on her desk for two weeks, so when I phoned to say I hadn't heard in the time she said I would, they then found the form! But the hospital was pretty good and the surgeon lovely. But yes - we are still here:-)))) And looking forward to that next knee done! My unoperated knee is throbbing nicely at the moment, just to remind me to look forward to the op LOL! I really do appreciate these knee ops - it really is like a gift!
jan01779 marilyn10235
Posted
Me too Marilyn my belief gives me focus but it's personal.
Everyone finds their own way but not having personal experience cannot imagine how it must have been especially having lost your daughter in law.
You are definitely seem to be a copers. The NHS does some great work in the main under immense pressure.
Have a good week.
X
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
I hope it all goes as well as this one has Chris.
XX
marilyn10235 jan01779
Posted
Thanks for your kind words Jan.
Yes we are copers, because we have to be really. The alternative is sit & cry & that solves nothing.
I think in a lot of ways the knee HAS been the hardest, as it impacted on my independence!
Marilyn
XX
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
Yes Marilyn - I do feel lucky that I'm on the list and once I get my date I can start preparing - that's important for me to plan everything LOL! I SO hope you can get a date before long!!!!! A date seems like the light at the end of the tunnel! I couldn't get to sleep until gone 7.30 am this morning because of throbbing behind the kneecap of the unoperated knee. Roll on op!
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
I didn't cope with waiting for the cancer op - I really didn't. I fell apart. It must have been so awful for my husband - HE was the coper in that case. I can deal with pain much better than I can deal with anxiety! But then, again, we're all different!
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
I'm with you on the planning! I made lists for all sorts of things once I had my date!!
What I was wearing to go into hospital, what I was taking with me. Made sure all Tel nod up to date & read everything they gave me! Talk about OCD I even went over the details many times to make sure I had them right!!
You do have light at the end of the tunnel now Chris. Sooner I hope than later. Just keep us in the loop.
XX
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
Ha ha - I've just this second mentioned OCD LOL! But I think really I ENJOYED the planning - it was like being 'on the journey', like when you go on holiday. I felt just the same excitement for going into hospital as I did going on holiday! Oh yes, I read everything they gave me several times over (and still have it all, in a folder, for this time). Now I'm over that anxiety blip and got things in perspective again, I am SO looking forward to it! Will let you know when I get my date, for sure! I SO SO hope you get yours soon!!!!! Even if it's just the date - that is everything, when you're waiting - it brings it into reality and is the 'goal'.