My new mistress....PAIN....and she must really enjoy being around me.

First, I'd like to thank you all for your positive thoughts and suggestions on how to get through this.  And then,a small contingent that have sent me notes wishing....might I say demanding, new posts?  Quite frankly, I just havent been up to it with 3 rehab sessions a day and 3 visits to the physical therapist per week.  But the reason I mention it is there have been some pretty flattering compliments on the writing itself.  Now, I know I'm not in the league of my literary idol, John Robinson, the expansive musings of Arthur Martin, or certainly can't claim to be anywhere near another classmate from Westminster, Holly Lecraw.  I think I'd put my skill at putting words to paper somewhere between my ability to hit a 4 iron and play any know "shredder" introduction on my Les Paul.  Of course, frame of reference is everything.....

I do enjoy writing, at least when I'm not forcing my knee into unnatural positions after it's been sliced and diced.  Ever since we were given a creative writing assignment in Junior English at Westminster by Mr. Rudolph, I'd always had a curiosity.  But when I realized I had no chance of putting anything together that would seem classically inspired, I began to read the local newspaper (yes, John, back then I actually did read the paper) and happened upon a story about our erstwhile governor, Lester Maddox.  Lester was know as an archetypal southern racist governor, with minors in riding a bicycle backwards and trying to intimidate minorities with pick handles that he sold at his restaurant, The Pickrick, located on what is now the Georgia Tech Campus.  Well, as absurd as some political legacies are, Lester was in a class by himself.  He looked a little like James Carville, and talked like Ross Perot.  He was married to some sweet southern wife who probably just thought him crazy and loved him anyway.  I think her name might have been Virginia.  Well anyway, we had read Oedipus Rex a year or so prior to this assignment, and in my twisted  and competitive prep school mind, I thought I could draw a parallel between the two......sounded like a good idea at the time.

So, I titled the work "Lester Rex, A Classic Tale of Hubris And Lust, Not Necessarily In That Order".  To give you the condensed story within the story, it told of a young country boy, abandoned at birth to go and find his fortune from the small hovel of Ludowicia to the great kingdom of Atlantis.  Well, Lester ended up connecting back up with his mother, Virginia, bedding her, and had great success in all things political.  In the end, the truth was discovered and all hell broke loose, with Lester taking a pulley-bone, and after the ceremonial pull, plucking his eyes out with same, to wander below the gnat line forever, alone and sans Virginia.  Mr. Rudolph gave me an A+, read the piece one rainy day in class, and sent it to the AJC as a letter to the editor.  They ended up publishing it, much to the surprise of my parents who had no clue that I could write a sentence.  I think it was the last piece of satire I ever wrote.  But I digress........  Here's the offending pre op knee, complete with two of three scars.

Somewhere along the same path, while my fellow classmates were falling asleep in either History or Old Testament Bible, I remember waking up to Mr. Crow who was known to go ranting off in tongues from time to time  "bama lama bama, Yahweh this and Yahweh that, don't have sex and don't do drugs."  But at some point, he said "Yeah, verily I say unto thee, if thine knee offends thee, pluck it out or smote it, or something equally final".  So, my knee really offended me and I smote it.....see picture  of the guilty joint pre op.  And this is what it looks like now, 10 days after the surgery and one week after 3 visits to the Dark Lord of Unspeakable Pain....or Emory Orthopaedic Physical Therapy.  The shiny stuff is a new, high tech dressing that keeps you sterile and together.  The incision itself is sealed with glue, no staples or sutures.  Ain't science grand???

A more extensive discussion of the rehab process, and pain management after leaving that marvelous hospital to come.