13 Days after Surgery

I have an 11:15 appointment to have my sutures removed at Dr. Ranawat's office at the Hospital for Special Surgery.  This will be my first post-surgical encounter with public transportation, and I'm a little apprehensive.

Typically the 86th crosstown bus moves so slowly that even though I miss it at Columbus Avenue, I'm able to limp to Central Park West and catch it there.  It's nearly empty, so I put down my hip cushion and sit.  It's 10:15 by the time I get to York Avenue. After a 20-minute wait with no M31 in sight, I decide to walk downtown to 70th Street. This requires some careful navigation to avoid some corners where ice has formed or the slush is deep.  This is the longest distance I've walked to date.   I make the appointment with 5 minutes to spare but am kept waiting nearly an hour until a room becomes available.  It occurs to me that I may be a 2nd tier patient and I spend some of the time musing about health care rationing.  As if it didn't already exist!

The young, efficient nurse instructs me to put on a pair of what appear to be the lowest quality cotton gym shorts.  She works quickly and scolds me gently for walking as far as I have, especially without a cane in this weather, but also adds that walking is the best possible therapy.  "If you overdid it today, you'll definitely feel it tomorrow" she warns.

I mention the New York Times article about the recall of titanium prosthetics that appeared the day before my surgery.  "Dr. Ranawat's father is an orthopedic god," she tells me.  "He predicted exactly that outcome--the release of metals into the blood stream--in a paper that he published years ago."

She also agrees to give me a refill for my percoset supply, which is dwindling.  I've been taking no more than 4 pills a day, supplementing the dosage with in-between consumption of acetaminophen, as the Duane Reade pharmacist advised.  She suggests taking tramadol instead.  Fortunately, I still have a supply prescribed by Dr. Goldstein months ago. I stopped taking them when they didn't do much to relieve my pain.

I assure the nurse that I will take the bus home but it takes enormous effort to wait more than half an hour for the M31 to pick me up.  I do some light grocery shopping and return to my apartment a little after 2 p.m., utterly exhausted.