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From: ODAJoan@...

Subject: New Group Member

Date: June 8, 2006 5:00:33 PM PDT

notify-dg-Joint Replacement

This is my first posting; my daughter " signed me up " a few weeks ago

and I've found reading what others have gone through to be very helpful

as I'm having a total (right) knee replacement on July 14th. I bought

the book " Total Knee Replacement & Rehabilitation " by Doctors Brugioni

and Falkel and obtained a lot of good information from that too.

My daughter is deaf and had to have surgery (revision of her October

2005 cochlear implant) on May 11th, with activation on May 25th and

reprogramming scheduled for June 29th and the next one for August 29th.

Because I wanted to travel with her to San Francisco (from the Reno,

NV area) for all of these appointments, I scheduled my own surgery for

July in the hopes that I will be able to walk sufficiently well and

long enough to go with her the end of August.

I know I can use a wheelchair in the airports, but it's the other

walking/standing that I'm concerned about, as from the Oakland, CA

airport we have to take a shuttle bus to the Bay Area Rapid Transit

(BART) station, then transfer in San Francisco to the Muni to get to

the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) hospital. This

process from the airport to the hospital takes about 1-1/2 hours and

involves quite a bit of walking and using escalators (both up and down)

at all transfer points. This is an all-day trip as we get the 9:10

a.m. plane from Reno and return from Oakland on the 6:45 flight in the

evening. Tiring (to say the least) under the best of circumstances,

let alone a little over 6 weeks post TKR surgery. Has anyone done any

traveling, with quite a bit of walking, this soon after surgery? If

so, how did it go?

I was (still am) hoping for MIS surgery, as I'm sure I'd recover

quicker from that type of surgery rather than the " traditional " type,

but my surgeon says I have a large knee, so MIS probably won't be

possible. I have been a member of a local gym for many years, and in

spite of knee pain (exacerbated by a slip and fall due to wet flooring

in a grocery store April 2005) I have been able to continue with riding

the stationary bicycle (although not with as much tension or as fast as

previously), plus using three (of the five) leg press machines there

(and other upper body machines as well), so in spite of my age (turning

80 this year) I feel I am in pretty good shape for this surgery.

In addition to the trip to UCSF the end of August, my husband and I

have been planning a trip to Hawaii the end of September, and I'm

concerned about going forward with that (making plane reservations) as

well. We would drive to Sacramento, CA as we can get a non-stop 5 hour

flight from there to Honolulu, but again it's primarily the walking

while on our trip that concerns me the most. Any helpful advice would

be appreciated. Thanks! Joan