Life with NuNee

In light of a global pandemic and so much fear, uncertainty, and unrest in the world, my recent knee replacement surgery and the challenges that such a thing brings with it seem quite inconsequential.

And yet, something has been on my heart and stuck in my head, so I’d like to tell you more…

The morning of my surgery, my orthopedic surgeon asked me a question that at the time I simply could not answer and ever since has taken hold in my mind.

“How do you mentally prepare yourself for something like this?” he asked.

In that moment I had no way to reply because I had no idea what I was undertaking, the level of trauma my body would experience, nor the extent of the task ahead of me.

My answer at that time: “I honestly don’t know; I just know that to regain my quality of life, I need this.”

My surgeon and his wife are dear friends to me and Coach, so when he promised to take good care of me, I reassured him that I had total faith in him!

The problem causing my nerves and anxiety was that I had a relatively small amount of faith in myself.

Prior to that day, I read every word in the “Total Joint Replacement Guide” book that I’d received, I practiced my pre-and-post surgery exercises, and I did an inordinate amount of praying that I would be strong enough and capable to do what was necessary to make this surgery successful.

And yet, I still wasn’t sure what to expect. I wasn’t sure that I, someone with very low pain tolerance and little-to-no self-discipline, could do it.

It encompassed everything necessary to recover and rehabilitate at the highest level of achievement and the greatest level of success. In short, I knew even then that I want this new knee – my “NuNee” as I’ve named my incredible companion – to work as perfectly as is humanly AND prosthetically possible.

That was a pretty big it.

In fact, it has proven to be very, very big. Huge, even.

Larger and more demanding than I knew how to imagine.

I’ve had ups and downs. I have had several struggles, many tears, and lots of pain.

I’m sure there are many things I could have and should have handled better, and yet after my one-month check up yesterday, I am excited to report that I’m on the right track.

According to the physician’s assistant, I am a “rockstar” and way ahead of schedule. My physical therapist spoils me with compliments that I am “truly an overachiever” and possibly her best knee patient ever. My surgeon praises me with words like “top 1% of all knee replacements” and reminds me that he told me all along that I would do really well.

And then he asked me again, “How do you mentally prepare yourself for something like this?”

This time I have a better answer.

One I want to share in a series of posts about my experiences in getting a new knee at the age of 45 as well as posts about my life with NuNee.

Luckily, most all of you reading this will not deal with anything like a total joint replacement anytime soon, if ever!

But you might know an acquaintance from church, or a co-worker, or a neighbor who might benefit from what I’ve done and what I’ve learned, and in that case – if even one person feels more at peace as they face this frightening endeavor – I am very, very happy to share.

One key to success is exercises.

I’ll talk more about them later, so for now suffice it to know that they must be done RELIGIOUSLY. My physical therapist says 2-3 rounds a day, so I do 3. Every exercise she’s prescribed, done to their fullest, three times a day. NO EXCEPTIONS.

And since it’s getting quite late and I have one more round to go, I’m signing off to go tackle them.

Thank you for supporting this journey by being along for the ride – having friends to “talk” to through my writing is a special therapy in and of itself!

Be watching for my #LifeWithNuNee posts in the future.

With love and hugs,

Ashli