Yes, I know it’s gross. I call this ‘Frankenknee’. In spite of the grotesqueness of this, my recovery is going quite well. They pulled the 40 staples out of my leg a few days ago and now I’m just left with a large scar, swelling and some stiffness that I am working on with PT.
I had a nice chat with the medical folks when they pulled the staples out of my leg to get a better understanding of what they found and what they had to do to fix me up. I was very lucky. It could have been much worse. The broken part had kind of floated off and taken refuge in another part of my knee so they went on a small ‘Easter egg’ hunt to find it and extract it. That partially explains the massive scar. Fortunately, they didn’t have to remove any of the cemented-in titanium parts. They just had to replace the spacer and apparently, they tried a couple of different ones until they found one they liked.
I asked what would have happened if they would have had to replace any of the titanium hardware (which they were prepared to do) and the doctor just kind of smiled and chuckled at me and said, “You don’t want to know – it’s pretty brutal.” I’ll take it. Like I said, I was pretty lucky and the recovery is going well.
I am trying to reconstruct my plans so my motorcycle trip to SoCal in July is back on. I should be able to get back on my bicycle (and my Harley) sometime in May so I should be good to go for my bicycle trip on the San Juan islands in September and Portugal is looking like it will now happen in November.
I was watching the election in France with great interest because if Marie Le Pen would have won the election over Macron, I would seriously have rethought my plans to explore Portugal as a place for a long-term stay. Fortunately, Macron won so we’ll see what happens in another 5 years. And, of course, with Elon Musk now owning Twitter, that will likely just accelerate the craziness and decline in this country. I would bet huge sums of money that Trump will now reappear on Twitter!
All things considered, perhaps Pitcairn Island (Mutiny on the Bounty fame) might be a good place to settle!!
Researching Pitcairn Island – I trust your judgement. I think I read that is supposed to be one of the most remote places ? Cool scar ! Hope it heals well. If you’re going to have a scar – might as well have one to talk about – eh ?
Musk buying Twitter pushes me over the edge on all social media – deleting my Facebook. Never was a fan of Suckerberg making money off me to start with. They’re all bad. I didn’t go into CS and Engr to see this happen to us all.
Hmmm – might be too close to China – Still considering going South Young Man… Chile or some place remote down there. The California of South America. Before it’s too late. It the north goes Nuke… At least it will take longer for the radiation to circulate down there and kill me slowly….
I’ve spent time in Chile and it’s a great country. Also look at Uruguay. It’s probably the most stable government in South America and still very affordable.