Went for my surgical follow-up this morning, bright and early – 8 AM at Victoria General Hospital. It turns out that’s the intake time for most any orthopaedic visit, as there were about 30 patients waiting outside the check-in desk. Folks were either in line or seated, waiting for their number to be called. The irony didn’t escape me, making a bunch of people on crutches with leg injuries stand in a line up to be checked in.

All told, the process was quite smooth. Well sort of. After checking in, I was told to go next door and wait for an X-ray. A couple minutes after sitting down there, nurse Kelsey came and got me “sorry, there was a mix-up, you don’t need an X-ray – please follow me!” Okay.

Seated in the orthopaedics clinic, she removed my brace and cut through the bandage and gauze around my knee, exposing it to light and air for the first time in 17 days.

My first reaction? Staples! Wow, that’s a lot of staples. (For whatever reason, I thought it would be stitches.)

I forgot to ask how many, but I’m guessing around 35. Of course now you’re asking, well how big is the cut? I’d say around 10”.

Kelsey took them all out (it kinda hurt) and gave the knee a few wipes, then some steri-strips to keep things together. Then the surgeon came over.

The big take-aways: 4 more weeks of immobilization before starting any kind of rehab (boo) and I got a new brace that adds a bit more flexion and less stiffness (yay). Oh, no more prescriptions – it’s Tylenol and Advil from here on out (boo again). And, I guess, overall that the surgery looks like it worked and nothing is the matter (yay again).

I’m a bit bummed that I have to keep laying around for another month, but on second thought, I suppose a severe injury is going to take longer than a couple weeks to heal. The new brace is cool, and the added flexion is cra-azy – it really demonstrates how little stability I have in the leg now. There’s no steel rods holding me up, so while I have more mobility, I have to be quite a bit more careful in how I get around.

All in all, the message from today is that slow and steady will win the race.