Losing the limp and feeling fine

   Loftis

If you’ve met me anytime in the last 20 years or so (and since I’ve only been in Carroll County half that long, it’s unlikely you’d have met me before) you probably noticed that I walked with a pretty severe limp.

Osteoarthritis left me virtually without cartilage in either knee and I further injured my left knee a few years ago during a move. After that, I pretty much had to drag my left leg.

I’ve known for years that I needed both knees replaced and finally decided not to put if off any longer. I had a total replacement of my left knee on April 23 — just about three weeks ago now — and the plan is to have the right knee replaced by the end of the year.

Three weeks in, I’m mostly glad I did it. My knee seems to be healing well and I’m honestly stunned by how good it looks. I don’t think I’ll even have much of a scar.

The first few days after surgery were tough and only partly because my knee was stiff, swollen and sore. I also had the hiccups for something like six days straight, to the point that I finally wound up visiting the emergency room for a chest X-ray to make sure I didn’t have a serious complication. Thankfully, the X-ray was clear and the hiccups eventually disappeared.

I know my knee isn’t fully healed and I still have some work to do in physical therapy. But I believe it’s already better than it was before surgery. I’m still working to get full rotation on the exercise bike, but I’m much closer now. I can’t go up and down stairs like most folks yet, either, but I believe I will soon.

One thing I can do is bend my knee enough to feel as if I’m walking without a limp, although I have to consciously think about taking each step heel-to-toe. I suppose it will just take some time to develop that muscle memory.

And even though it was a little tricky, I was able to have the surgery and work on my recovery without failing to get the paper out.

I’m grateful for that, just as I’m grateful for the staff at Carroll County Community Media that helped cover for me for a few days and for the friends and readers who reached out to check on me.

Thank you all!

••• Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of Carroll County Newspapers. His email address is SLoftis@ CarrollCoNews.com.