Hello everyone. It’s been 12 days since my total knee replacement surgery (which I wrote more about here) I want to check in.
First I want to say thank you. I have received so many nice well-wishes and notes of support. I loved the card everyone signed at Bike Happy Hour last week, and all your messages make recovery so much easier. I’ve heard so many stories about other folks in our community who’ve had joint replacements and other injuries that I’m thinking of leading a Joint Replacement Ride during August.
Why wait until August? Because unfortunately I plan to have my other knee replaced on June 20th. I know, right?! I could have picked a better time to do all of this, but once the condition of my knees sunk in and I found a doctor to help fix them, I didn’t want to wait any longer. (I’ve had bad knees since my first (of two) ACL surgeries when I was 15!).
So far the recovery has been a roller-coaster. The best thing has been how my amazing wife Juli is taking care of me and I enjoy being at home more with her and my kiddos. The first week was really hard, but now I’m in a more predictable and manageable cycle of pain and PT. My docs and PT guy say I’m progressing well. I know it’s healing and I should be patient, but I still get frustrated at the pain and tightness and my physical limitations. Overall this is (another) very humbling experience for me as I enter my 50s. Let’s just say I underestimated the impact this would have on my body and what it would take to fully recover.
During my operation on April 11th, the doctor shaved down the surface of my upper and lower leg bones. He then attached a 3-D printed titanium implant and a polymer cushion between them. Right now, my existing bone is growing directly into the titanium. The process takes six weeks, so I don’t want anything to disturb the very crucial healing process taking place.
I’m so bummed to miss all the cool things going on! I can’t wait to get back into the full swing of working and creating stories and covering events and all the other things I took for granted for so many years. For now, I’m able to work a few hours a day and I’m trying to stay on top of things as best I can. I hope I have a window of time before my next operation on June 20th when I can get back out there.
Speaking of which, I will get back out there today for Bike Happy Hour. I’ll be at Migration Brewing on North Williams Ave from 3:00 to 6:00 pm. I’d love to see you and chat. Tell me what you’ve been up to! Pitch me stories! Let’s talk about the latest news! Share your injury journey with me!
Thanks again for all your support and understanding. Knowing that I have such an awesome community to return to is all the motivation I need to make a full and fantastic recovery.
Thanks for reading.
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Quick recovery Jonathan!
we love you!! You got this!!
Glad to hear you are healing up well!
Glad to hear everything is healing well, I had some fairly serious tendon repair in my right wrist a decade ago and can remember the frustrations with PT like they were yesterday, but oh does the patience pay off. Best of luck with the second one
Patience is a virtue. Heal first, then look forward. Love the stick!!!
Please add mine to the many wishes for your full recovery, relief from pain, and return to full activity. I’d want all that for anyone, but especially for you who has contributed so much to our community.
Add mine to many wishes for your recovery, relief and return to activity. We all want that for everyone, especially for you who’ve contributed so much to our community. “People all over the world, join hands, join in and ride this love train.
Wishing you a speedy recovery from your bilateral knee replacement! As Bob Reuter, founder/owner of Gorge Performance Surf/Snow Shop said, may years ago, “Scars tell better stories than tattoos.”
My own old age knee problems were helped in this way: I wore an elastic knee brace on my painful left knee, but eventually added a matching knee brace on my right knee which helped build a more relaxed walking gait. Try it.
That Joint Replacement Ride sounds like it could be popular based on how many people have commented with experiences similar to yours. I’d just make sure people know it’s not a ride celebrating edibles.
Seriously, I’d never wish injuries or health problems on anyone, but ones I’ve had (luckily all temporary) certainly give me an appreciation for how important simple things like handrails and ramps are, and how difficult simple daily things can be to do. And your case (and others like yours) are a reminder that people who look totally fit and healthy can need physical accommodations (temporarily or permanently) and also patience on the part of others.
Apparently in our local community we have an roadway engineer who designed many of our important local stroads in the 1970s through 1990s, who made median boulevards barely wide enough for two cars to pass between the curbs but not wide enough for bicycles, and made sure the right-of-way ended at the inner curb to exclude any possibility of building sidewalks. The irony is that he’s now confined to a mobile wheelchair and is effectively under house arrest at his sidewalkless home in the burbs, unable to either drive or get out of his house for exercise. To his credit, he recognizes the irony and regrets his past actions, according to our regional transportation planner.
Same thing happened to someone I knew who owned a company that added a story on top of their fabrication space to house their offices. He tried everything to avoid an elevator and other ADA requirements, then had a stroke and ended up needing all those same things for himself. He was grateful to everyone who denied his code appeals.
Once you’re at the point where your PT says can do a low-impact, pedaling motion, Kerr bikes has a LOT of options. I’ve rented a tandem trike to shuttle a friend around when he had knee surgery, as well as an ebike for myself when I needed what is essentially a fast wheel chair. They’re fantastic. And it’s free (under a half day)!
A complete and speedy recovery!
Glad that your keen mind and good heart have not been replaced.
I trust that your surgeons and medical staff had better training and credentials than this guy and his crew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notKtAgfwDA
Thanks for the update. I used to scoff at your mentions of “the cycling community” in Portland – until I got a flat on the Springwater a couple of years ago. So many cyclists stopped to help, including one very knowledgeable guy who stayed for five minutes to give me some key advice about how to remount the wheel onto the pesky disc brake.
That experience convinced me that there really *IS* a cycling community in Portland, and you have helped to build it. Long may it – and you – continue!
That’s a long-winded way of saying: Good luck with the rehab.
Many of us are old enough to be past the warranty. My neighbor, an avid cyclist, was similarly sidelined due to a knee replacement, but like you, is making good progress. At 18 we could grow a new leg overnight, but unfortunately those days are gone for many of us. Wishing you the best on your recovery.