A1A South

As y’all recall, SwampMan had a knee replacement in late December (we came home on Christmas day!) and at the end of March. Sorry I haven’t been more timely for those of you that may be considering joint replacement surgery. This is the almost seven month update for the right knee, and almost four month update for the left knee.

SwampMan was still having problems with pain upon walking any appreciable distance at 8 weeks postop which was the beginning of his summer vacation. Part of that may have been due to simple deconditioning; he had gotten to the point where he could barely hobble with the assistance of a cane and had to use a wheelchair if we went grocery shopping together. Due to that residual pain at the end of May, he still wanted to park in a handicapped space to minimize his walking. Unfortunately for him, I threw his permit away and told him he wasn’t handicapped anymore.

He came in this Monday afternoon when he’d been at his school and told me that, as a result of construction at the school and parking lots being closed, he’d walked a considerable distance. “I haven’t been able to walk like that in years!” he said in amazement. “And I noticed the other day when I was climbing on and off the tractor several times, it didn’t hurt at all! I was able to walk with you through Sam’s Club, too, and it wasn’t nearly as hard the second time as the first time!”

“So, your knee pain is completely gone?” I asked.

“I do get some pain when I’m standing in one place for a long time and then I have to sit down, but I feel no pain when I’m moving. It’s just incredible how much better it is!”

So there you have it. He highly recommends Dr. Heekin and the Heekin Orthopaedic Group. I’m not sure how much weight he’s lost, but his former shirts and pants just hang on him. It isn’t from dieting, it’s from being able to WALK! Instead of being a couch lump, he’s usually outside mowing grass or fixing things all day long now.

I don’t think I showed the pictures of SwampMan’s knee scars from his knee replacement surgery before staple removal and after staple removal. This was because I was too lazy to actually download the pictures off of my camera.

Update: Well, crap. Apparently my laziness knows no bounds. I *thought* I had an after the staples were removed picture on there, but noooooo. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow evening to take a picture of his knee, then he’ll be all grumpy because physical therapy is going to kick his butt tomorrow. That is one massively swollen (but nicely shaved) knee!

I walked into the house this evening to a movie that SwampMan had on. It featured snarling, bestial humanoid creatures.

“What are those, Reavers? Or Democrat union flunkies in Wisconsin?”

He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. Maybe I have, how would I be able to tell? In an exaggeratedly patient voice which one uses to a person that is being deliberately obtuse, he said “No, those are ZOMBIES. I cannot BELIEVE that you couldn’t tell the difference.”

Well. At least I could tell they weren’t werewolves. And how do you tell Democrat union stooges from Zombies, anyway? Oh, snap. Of COURSE. Zombies eat brains. Those other people’s brains have been eaten.

From Reuters:

Researchers said on Wednesday they had found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in South Asia and in Britain.

U.S. health officials said on Wednesday there had been three cases so far in the United States — all from patients who received recent medical care in India, a country where people often travel in search of affordable healthcare.

NDM-1 makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems. Experts say there are no new drugs on the horizon to tackle it.

I know that many people go to India for affordable medical care, particularly in England where the NHS turn their procedures down or delay them so long that people die before receiving care. Unfortunately, they may end up coming home with a drug-resistant bacteria that will kill them. For a life-saving procedure, it may be worth the risk. For cosmetic surgery, not so much.

In the waiting room today was a woman with a similar surgery to SwampMan’s but with a different surgeon. Another woman was speaking with her that had an arm ailment. The woman was marvelling at how wonderful the woman was doing and looked, given her age (70).

When they were called back, SwampMan mentioned to me that he wondered who her surgeon was, because her surgery sounded, in the conversation, a bit different than SwampMan’s. I told SwampMan I was waaaaaay more interested in who her plastic surgeon was.

“What? How do you know she’s had any kind of plastic surgery? There were no huge scars or anything.”

*sigh* “Nose job, face lift, neck lift, eyes, boob job, and liposuction. Great work!”

“But….well, I admit she looked nice, but how do you know it was surgery?”

“How many 70-year-old women do you know with large, full, perky, gravity-defying boobs?”

“Oh. Nose?”

“Small and absolutely perfect. Noses have a tendency to droop a bit as you age.”

“Face? Neck? Eyes?”

“She had the smooth, firm jawline of a teenager. Her eyes were well opened without any drooping brows or lids. Her face was jowl free. Despite evidence of sun damage on her skin, her face (and neck) was wrinkle free.”

“Lipo?”

“Teeny little waist and somewhat bumpy hips and full upper arms. When fat cells are sucked out, fat cells left in other locations enlarge and multiply to take up the excess calories. When was the last time you saw a 70-year-old woman with a teeny little waist? Think of your thinnest aunts…..”

“I never even thought about it.”

Nope. He just noticed that she looked good. I probably wouldn’t have thought about it if she hadn’t announced her age. Like I said, I’d like to know who her surgeon was!

From the L.A. Times:

Whooping cough is now at epidemic levels in California and the state could record the highest number of illnesses and death due to the disease in 50 years, the state’s top health official said Wednesday.

Reported cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, have quadrupled over the same time period last year, said Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health. Five infants — all under 3 months — have died, including two in Los Angeles County and one in San Bernardino County.

Whooping cough is a bacterial disease that infects the respiratory system. There have been 910 confirmed cases of the highly contagious disease in California between Jan. 1 and June 15. During the same time last year, 219 cases were confirmed.

An additional 600 possible cases are being investigated.

L.A. County has reported 148 suspected pertussis cases, said Director of Public Health Jonathan Fielding. He urged infants’ relatives and caregivers to get a booster shot.

Vaccination only works if there are enough people immune to break the cycle of infection. Here’s a related story from last year:

Tamaulipas health officials are reporting that two babies have died from whooping cough south of the border.

The MetroNoticias de Tamaulipas newspaper reported that health officials are investigating how the children contracted the disease.

Several cases of the deadly disease have recently reported among children along the Mexican side of the border.

The Tamaulipas Healthy Ministry told MetroNoticias that the two babies who died were from the border cities of Rio Bravo and Nuevo Laredo.

Rio Bravo is located cross the Rio Grande River from Donna, Texas.

I think that it is a bad idea to have illegal immigrants carrying unknown diseases mixing freely in public places with the immunocompromised and with children whose parents have refused to vaccinate them due to their belief that vaccination is worse than the diseases they are supposed to prevent, but that’s just me. Draw your own conclusions.