• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

Status
Not open for further replies.
#3,761
spankdaplank said:
Okay, a little update on my knee replacement surgery. It's been almost five weeks since the slice n' dice and I'm doing pretty good. The good news first: I'm walking without a cane, up and down stairs normally (not one at a time), driving my brother's Mustang GT and working on my daughter's latest release on Free Trade Records.
Now the bad news. The pain is mostly manageable, EXCEPT, every night between two and three a.m. I get woken by the almost worse pain of all. Yeah I have the pain pills but I hate taking them as it takes a heavy dose to control the pain. After I finally get up later and ice it, I'm all set for the day. I just had to vent here because all in all this is the only problem in a basically super fast and easy recovery.

As for the knee fairy, it took a lot of convincing for the doctor to let me take my old knee home and it was a little messy putting it under my pillow, but the SOB left me a Telecaster thinline! I don't want no stinking guitar! So I called Jerry, that's the knee fairy, and said why no bass? And he tells me basses are his brother Bernie the HIP fairie's gig.
That's my story.
Click to expand...
Good news except for EXCEPT! Did you tell the doc about that pain?

He might want an xray to see if thats where the missing hemostats are!

Maybe set an alarm for about 1 AM and take half a pill? One side effect of those codene derivative drugs is they make it hard to get to sleep. If I take one while still half asleep though, I dont have any problem getting back to sleep. They are more effective if taken before the onset of pain too.

I think it would be good to at least call the office and talk to the nurse to see if you need to see the doc. Unless you already have an appointment coming up or yer just diggin that GT too much to let go:D:laugh::D

Do hope that pain goes away soon so you can get back home!

Must be fun working on your daughters music in the studio! :bassist::hyper::bassist:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 99Z3
#3,762
Thanks for your concern. I've been told that pain after knee replacement surgery can be horrible. I've been extremely fortunate that in general my pain is at least very manageable. Most of the pain that I experience is a result of the aggressive physical therapy that is necessary for the best and quickest outcome. They give me the oxycodone in order to tolerate and continue the physical therapy. I'm also surprisingly motivated to do it. Normally I am a fat lazy slug when it comes to exercise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BadExample
#3,763
I belive W O R K is a four letter word! And excercise is just a bunch of w o r k that produces nothing but pain and exhaustion! I am also a slug and have no desire to change!

Getting home to the Ph. is a great motivator! I wish we were closer to the big move.
 
#3,765
"We're just not getting older. We're getting bitter!"

Ok. 61 here, my own amp tech out of necessity more often than not who will happily say the bass amp hit it's apogee with the Ampeg B-15 and SVT and the Acoustic Control Corp 360 series - and has been going steadily downhill ever since. (just kidding on the last part.)

Is that sufficient to qualify?

If not, I'll just uncork a bottle of Blue Nun, listen to some vinyl, and lurk. :laugh:
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BadExample
#3,766
Hes probably afraid of blood clots from 12 hrs confined to a chair. I am afraid of that without a recent bionic implant! Too bad 1st class is sooooo expensive flying to the far east. If it were the typical double price like domestic, I would save up for it. Neither of us have the best cardiovascular health. I sure would hate to get off the flight, walk out into the tropical air and get dead from a blood cut going to the lungs.
 
#3,769
The suggestion of taking a smaller dose of pain meds a couple hours before the pain ramps up is a good one. The pain could be because of the different forces from laying down/sleeping. After a while, the forces cause the pain to start.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 99Z3 and BadExample
#3,775
You are doing very well, sir. It's your strong will and perseverance with the therapy I think. Of course your lovely wife and daughter half a globe away is pretty good incentive! I hate being away from my wife for more than a couple of days. We are overly dependent on each other; both doing what we are best at to contribute to our nightmare. I mean our good life.
 
#3,776
40Hz said:
"We're just not getting older. We're getting bitter!"

Ok. 61 here, my own amp tech out of necessity more often than not who will happily say the bass amp hit it's apogee with the Ampeg B-15 and SVT and the Acoustic Control Corp 360 series - and has been going steadily downhill ever since. (just kidding on the last part.)

Is that sufficient to qualify?

If not, I'll just uncork a bottle of Blue Nun, listen to some vinyl, and lurk. :laugh:
Click to expand...

The magician who passes out the numbers might be @B-string. He gave me my number. Hold on @40Hz I thought you were a member a long time ago? Where have I been???

Well, sad to share with you that I found out I'm pre diabetic. My numbers were too high. But I'm taking medication and have altered my diet and starting to become more active than I was. This was a scary wakeup call but my doctor says we can turn it around and it will be a rest-of -my-life life change. I was so angry for a while and my wife pointed it out. I have noone to blame but myself. I've come to grips with it now and have able to transform my view of sugar from something tasty to the insidious Devil that wants to suck the life from me.

On a different note, yesterday wife and I were finished shopping at our grocery store, and we were in line at the video kiosk. A young fellow looking sloppy and very stoned informed my wife that she cut in line before him and he wanted his place back! My wife is sometimes a little absent minded and I'm sure it was unintentional. But this young maggot was insistent. So I pulled my wife towards me and said, "go, go go," to the young man in a very irritated manner. He responded back, " I wil I will I will." Then tossed me a nasty look. I'm telling you, I felt 30 years old and even at 64 I'm fit enough I could have wiped the floor with this @$$hole. But I kept my temper in check and we stood way back. The wife dismissed it but I'm still mildly fuming and if I see the young maggot again, I'm going to remind him that driving while stoned is a DUI and he'll never know when he's going to see blue lights in his rear view mirror.

I'm not that kind of person, I'm normally very forgiving and becoming a bit wiser as I grow older, but it had been such a bad week this was the capper. I'm praying and working on getting rid of the rage I feel towards that person.

Other than that, I'm having a great weekend! :confused:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 99Z3 and G-Dog
#3,780
alaskaleftybass said:
The magician who passes out the numbers might be @B-string. He gave me my number. Hold on @40Hz I thought you were a member a long time ago? Where have I been???

Well, sad to share with you that I found out I'm pre diabetic. My numbers were too high. But I'm taking medication and have altered my diet and starting to become more active than I was. This was a scary wakeup call but my doctor says we can turn it around and it will be a rest-of -my-life life change. I was so angry for a while and my wife pointed it out. I have noone to blame but myself. I've come to grips with it now and have able to transform my view of sugar from something tasty to the insidious Devil that wants to suck the life from me.

On a different note, yesterday wife and I were finished shopping at our grocery store, and we were in line at the video kiosk. A young fellow looking sloppy and very stoned informed my wife that she cut in line before him and he wanted his place back! My wife is sometimes a little absent minded and I'm sure it was unintentional. But this young maggot was insistent. So I pulled my wife towards me and said, "go, go go," to the young man in a very irritated manner. He responded back, " I wil I will I will." Then tossed me a nasty look. I'm telling you, I felt 30 years old and even at 64 I'm fit enough I could have wiped the floor with this @$$hole. But I kept my temper in check and we stood way back. The wife dismissed it but I'm still mildly fuming and if I see the young maggot again, I'm going to remind him that driving while stoned is a DUI and he'll never know when he's going to see blue lights in his rear view mirror.

I'm not that kind of person, I'm normally very forgiving and becoming a bit wiser as I grow older, but it had been such a bad week this was the capper. I'm praying and working on getting rid of the rage I feel towards that person.

Other than that, I'm having a great weekend! :confused:
Click to expand...


Hey!

I don't really care too much about getting a number. I just though I should drop by and out myself since I blather so much around TB whether anybody wants to read it or not. If I did announce myself here earlier, I don't remember. So that's my "proof of age" right there. :laugh:

And wow! Sorry about that diagnosis. Better than my wake up call on September 6, 2014 when I walked into my living room and hit the floor about half a minute later with my left side completely out of commission and unable to talk or move and - as the doctor's put it - "actively dying." Seems I had a stroke. One very fast ambulance ride, a visit to the ER (boy can those people do the step&fetch when they need to!) and a long week in ICU and I've got a better than 95% of it all back - which makes me far luckier than most of the people that happens to.

My dad spent the last 13 years of his life partially paralyzed for the same reason. Other than some annoying vestiges (i.e. headaches, brief bouts of vertigo, some general muscle weakness compared to before, and a fretting hand that doesn't always do what I ask it to the precise moment I ask it) I'm doing fine. Thank god for a nifty drug called IPA which dissolves blood clots and minimizes the permanent damage strokes do if the doctors can get it into you fast enough. There's only a 1-3 hour window they have to administer it. I lucked out and got it with an hour thanks to my GF figuring out what happened and making an immediate call to our town's incredibly quick and responsive emergency service.

That was my wake-up call. I don't recommend getting one that way.

Oddly enough, they still can't tell me why it happened - or what caused it. I had zero warning before it happened. But despite being moderately overweight, my cholesterol numbers are better than ideal, my blood pressure was only slightly higher than normal, I don't do drugs, barely drink alcohol, and have no heart abnormalities. They couldn't find any other arterial clotting or other problems anywhere in me despite a couple of ultrasounds and cardiograms (of various flavors) plus three separate MRI scans. So they concluded it was "a cosmic event." Some blood clot somewhere in me (for god only knows how long it was there) made it past the body's safeguards and hit the part of the brain that controls motor activity and autonomic functions like breathing. And that flipped my "off" switch.

They also said my recovery was very unusual - so I was a "highly anomalous" (but in a good way) case. Doctor talk for: damn lucky!

In retrospect it was a good experience for me. Changed up a lot of what I was doing, putting up with, and getting involved in. And I'm a lot calmer and happier for it.

One thing for sure. I realized how important playing bass actually was to me in the wake of that. All I could keep thinking about was getting home and seeing if I could still play. And yeah, maybe I'm not as technically proficient, nor can I now play as fast and as effortlessly as I once could. But I'm still not that bad. And that'll do for me just fine. :thumbsup:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back