SeeDarkly™

I had the initial surgery on my knee last Wednesday. The timing was excellent in terms of my schedule for any events I spin and I'm certain I'll be 95-99% by Halloweek.

The recovery time was supposed to be only a few days and has been moving along as expected. I can walk again without crutches or cane but still need support with stairs and can do about 75-80% of any of the work-outs I do with GZ at home or at the gym. I haven't actually tried to do any of our gym work-outs yet. I wanted to wait until I'd gone to physical therapy at least once to get an evaluation on where I stand.

The remarkable thing is that I've had no pain and the Vicodin they prescribed won't be necessary. I'll keep it in case I encounter something unusual later, but I prefer not to use pain medications if I don't have to.

The surgery confirmed that I have portions of my cartilage that are worn all the way to the bone. This indicates that I am a candidate for the ACI procedure which can replace what I've lost with new cartilage. The doctor cleaned the area up and has taken some of the tissue to begin harvesting new cells. They grow the cells for about two weeks and then freeze them while he does the insurance dance that will ensure we get this covered. Once coverage is confirmed (and I'm optimistic about this because the doctor seems to speak of it in a way that makes it evident he knows the hoops through which he'll have to jump for the insurance company) they will thaw the cells out to grow more for another month before implantation.
I'm really hoping we can accomplish this before the end of the year but until the insurance dance is done we can't really schedule it.

I could not really go through this without the support and care of my Lady GZ and am grateful every day for her! I know what's coming will make me less able to contribute to our house duties for a while, especially during the winter when I would be the one to shovel snow, but she offers me nothing but support, encouragement, and love. I still have no idea how I got this lucky.

So in the meantime we've got costumes to complete for next week and we're running out of time. Some of the material we've had to order for our Venture Brothers characters have not come in still and we're uncertain if any of it is even coming. :(
Our Super Friends character costumes are pretty close to complete though, so we'll at least have that.
Of course, we've gone with a modernization of those characters, but they should be easy to recognize for any 70's era Super Friends fans. hee hee

p.s. Tomorrow I'll post my play lists from Plague and Jaded earlier this month.