Knee Surgery

Thursday, October 22nd: 
I had arthroscopic surgery today to repair a torn meniscus in my knee. The torn part had been flopping out of my knee joint, causing a lot of pain when it came out, and again when I shoved it back in. No other pain otherwise, though.  Here you can see the torn part of the medial meniscus:

(click the image to enlarge)

Anyway, during my original ACL surgery 3.5 years ago, both of my meniscuses were torn right in the middle of the C-shaped cartilage and were stitched back together. Unfortunately, there's very little blood flow in the knee, so it's often unlikely for cartilage to grow back. That's exactly what happened.  In the following picture, the pen scribble is circling the spot where you can see the original stiches:

(click the image to enlarge)

Luckily, the doctor said he only had to take about 25%, so that's a huge relief for me. Losing a large amount of your meniscus will hasten the on come of arthritis later.  Also, the meniscus is the cushioning between your leg bones, so losing it could cause pain while running.  Hopefully, that will not be the case.  Here is a picture with the torn piece removed.  Again, you can see where the original stitching was.

(click the image to enlarge)

The doctor said while they were in there, they checked out the other meniscus and my replaced ACL "because I couldn't complain."  Ha ha.  The good news there is that everything else looked good.  Here is a view of some dead guy's achillies tendon being used as my anterior cruciate ligament.  Looking good!  Thanks, Dead Guy!  I owe you one.

(click the image to enlarge)

After surgery, somehow I have no pain at all, except where they shoved the tube down my throat. I can walk on the leg (gently) and I can bend it 90 degrees, all without pain. The only weird thing is the knee is filled with fluid, so it gushes stuff around when I bend the knee, like when your stomach and intestines gurgle when you're hungry. It's very unsettling.

I'm not sure how much of the above is the drugs talking, but I'm really optimistic about the recovery now.

Saturday Update, Oct. 24: 
I got to pull all the bandages off my knee (except for the tape over the incisions).  It looks really great - only two small cuts, and a single tiny poke hole.  Unfortunately, the knee is starting to swell a lot, so it's getting very stiff and harder to bend.  At least the gushing is starting to go away.  And I can still walk on it without pain.

Monday Update, Oct. 26:
Went to the doctor this morning, who changed my bandages and cleared me to start doing exercises and bending the knee more than 90 degrees.  Nothing weight-bearing and no impact, but things like leg lifts, biking and the eliptical trainer are good.  I have a big packet of exercises to do.  Unfortunately, the muscles in my knee are not working so good now, and it's getting painful to walk.  Not painful in the area of the meniscus, but rather like something is out of place under the kneecap.  This scares me a lot.  On the good side, I was able to get on my bike today and gingerly ride to meet my kids walking home from school.  It was a little painful bending the knee, but not bad.

Wednesday Update, Oct. 28:
Walking is slightly easier today, or else I've gotten better not bending my knee.  I don't know.  I'm still not pleased, though.  I really hope this goes away soon.  I can bend the knee about 100 degrees.  I'm afraid to go much farther yet.  At least I was able to ride my bike better today.

Friday Update, Oct. 30:
So the trouble with bending my knee seems to be something under my kneecap that's out of place.  Hopefully this is just because of the swelling, and it will soon go away on its own.  Tonight, though, we went to the rock gym for Halloween Headlamp Climbing (all lights out in the gym, and you have to climb by headlamp).  I didn't climb, of course, but while the family was, I was stretching in the workout area.  As I was trying to bend my knee, it, as usual, got really painful and then SNAP!  Agony and then relief.  Something moved under my kneecap.  For a while after that, I could bend the leg easily.  I'm up to about 135 degrees.  Later, the pain in bending came back, but at least the breif relief gives some glimmer of hope.

Sunday Update, Nov. 1:
I was able to walk normally today, as long as I focused on the task.  I've been walking for a week with my muscles tense keeping my leg straight so it wouldn't bend and hurt, so now I have that muscle memory to overcome, along with the fear of pain.  I can will the leg to work properly, but as soon as I'm distracted, it goes back to stiff-legged limping.  Pretty weird.  I still can't go down steps at all.  Unweighted bending, though, is fine, up to the point where I feel it at the incision points.  Other than the scabs, there doesn't seem to be anything else preventing it from bending, which is great.  Biking also feels good, so I would like to start getting exercise that way.

Thursday Update, Nov. 5 (2 weeks post-surgery):
I seem to have regressed quite a lot.  I rode the stationary bike on Tuesday, and it felt ok on low resistance and slow speed.  At about 10 minutes, something really started objecting in my knee, and I quit at 15 minutes.  Wednesday and Thursday, I've been unable to walk normally at all, even with the mental concentration.  Today I biked for 20 minutes at slightly higher resistance, without pain.  So that's good.  But I still can't walk.  Going down stairs is out of the question.  Bending the knee feels fine, though, and I'm nearly back to my pre-surgery flexibility.  Took one of the bandages off today.. the cut looks fully healed.  The other was wide open when I went to the doctor that first Monday, so I'm keeping it covered.  It's being held on by some dried blood anyway, and I don't want to risk pulling the scab off.  Hoping to do some outside biking this weekend.. wish me luck.

Tuesday Update, Nov. 10:
Biking with the family and three friends went great.  I didn't push it too hard, but there was no pain at all, aside from the very first rotation of the pedals.  I'm planning to do it again today.  Also, Monday was the first time I was able to walk properly since right after my surgery.  Still walking good today.  So, other than not being able to going down steps, everything else seems to be progressing well, finally.  I hope as the swelling slowly goes down, the final piece will fall into place.

Friday Update, Nov. 13:
I walked down the steps for the first time in three weeks today!  Well, after my knee popped on the top step, the rest felt ok.  So, I guess I just need to get used to the initial agonizing pop, and all will be well.   Rich and I rode 15+ miles on our bikes yesterday, partly on gravel/dirt paths - great fun!

Thursday Update, Nov. 19 (4 weeks post-surgery):
Had a followup appointment with the doctor yesterday.  He cleared me to start impact exercises, like jogging.  He wants my leg muscles to get much stronger before I play soccer again, though.  I wasn't able to demonstrate the snapping sensation in my knee, unfortunately.  It's still doing it.  Doctor said it might be scar tissue, but I don't know.  I'm getting used to it now, at least, but I hope it doesn't last forever.  In celebration of being able to jog again, I bought some new turf soccer shoes.  Maybe it will be an incentive to work hard at exercising, which traditionally has not happened.  I did run about 2 miles today, which felt pretty good.

A star is born!

Recently, the call went out to Intel employees in Santa Clara for volunteers to appear in an Intel commercial to be shown world-wide. If you know me, I am a total introvert when it comes to real-time, face-to-face communications. But, being famous on video - that is a completely different thing altogether. Plus, there was a free t-shirt involved, so that just sealed the deal. My friend Shawn would do anything for a t-shirt, so he was in, too.
So, the process went like this:

1. send in your badge photo
2. if you're selected from #1, come in for a screen test in front of a video camera
3. if you're selected from #2, come to the set location on the day of the shoot

Now Shawn and I are both white males, so we figured our chances of being selected were slim, presuming that Intel would want to show off its diversity. Also, Santa Clara is a big site, with thousands of employees, so even just random chance was not good. However, we dutifully e-mailed our badge photos.

 

Surprisingly, both Shawn and I were selected to audition at the screen test. Clearly, they didn't care about appearances!
For the screen test, we were instructed to go in five at a time, introduce ourselves, and sing the Intel "Bong, bong Bong bong BONG!" song, all on camera. I strategically positioned myself neither first nor last in my group, though that turned out to be a bad idea anyway. The lady next to me went first, choosing not to do the simple "name, where are you from, and how long you've been at Intel", but instead deciding to go on a long shpiel about where she was born, where she grew up, what college she wet to, what was her major, what sports teams she liked, when and where she lost her virginity.... ok, not that one, but still. While she's going through all this, I'm next to her thinking, "What the heck.. how am I supposed to follow this??" All I had planned was name, rank, and serial number. Anyway, when it was my turn I meekly told only what I was asked, hoping to get extra points for following directions, though it was extremely anti-climatic after Too-Much-Information Lady before me. Shawn decided to take the strategy that uncommon things were more likely to get you selected, so he mentioned growing up on a dairy farm in Illinois. Show off.
This is what the screen test at the Intel Studio looked like:

Following the introductions, we were to listen and lip-sync to a recording of the Intel bong song, the musical "signature" at the end of every Intel commercial. Although I would know the tune instanty after just hearing the first note, I guess I had never really concentrated on the song, because my timing was way off during the practices. Still the first time we did it for real, I got it pretty close. Then the lady filming said we did a good job and chatted a little.. talking right over the second round of bong lip-syncing! I was concentrating on her conversation and completely missed the cue. At least I nailed the last one, but I thought I was done for. Shawn and I had had some debate over whether we should be animated and happy-happy while singing, or if we should be serious. Absent any direction, I chose to take the middle road and shake my head around a little for each note.
Amazingly enough, despite my boring introduction and terrible timing, somehow I managed to get selected for the actual commercial shoot!
Inexplicably, Shawn did, too.
For the day of the shoot, Saturday August 8, 2009, our only instructions were to wear "business casual". Now at Intel, that means jeans and a t-shirt for my group, but I suspected that wasn't what they meant. I ended up wearing olive green slacks with an uncomfortable tan long-sleeved Oxford shirt. Shawn picked khakis and a Polo shirt.
The filming was to be done in the gym of a local high school. Shawn and I carpooled and arrived at our assigned time. As we signed in, Shawn was immediately whisked off to woredrobe and makeup, which I thought was hilarious, since he obviously picked the wrong clothes and they had to give him something else. Also, he was butt ugly. I, myself, was pronounced "good", and didn't need a change of clothes. "Oh yea, stylin' baby!" Little did I know, the whole reason for this was that Shawn was going to be in a front row and had to look perfect, while I would end up in the back where no one could see me anyway.

At long last, we were ushered into the Wilcox High School gym where huge white panels were set up along with thermonuclear floodlights and a camera on a large boom. The gym was supposed to be air conditioned, but clearly was not. The crew was immediately sent out to buy fans at the local Walmart or something. The lights were turned off between takes, but when they were on, the gym temperature quickly rose 10 or 20 degrees. It was torture.
Interestingly, the director was Stacey Wall, who has done lots of commercials for Nike, Heinekin, MLB, NBA, T-Mobile, etc, etc. The first assistant director was Miles Johnstone, who worked on the movie "Stomp Out Loud." So the bunch of us amateurs actually got to work with true professionals! I can only imagine what they were thinking throughout the day. "Why, oh, why, did I get involved in this?!"
As I mentioned, I ended up in the back. When I realized this, I jockeyed for position in the center, hoping this would give me the best chance of being seen. However, they re-arranged all us vertically gifted folk, and I ended up in the "tall corner". Not only that, but I was told to spread my legs so I would appear shorter. And this was even after removing my shoes, since black-soled shoes were not allowed in the gym!
So picture it: shoeless, legs spread, in a 110F gym, wearing dress clothes, trying to appear happy, perky, and excited while singing the Intel song over and over and over for six hours. In addition to all the above, you try smiling while making a "bong" sound. Go ahead, I'll wait. Not really possible, is it?
Shawn and the folks up front had a makeup person dabbing the sweat from their foreheads. The guy next to me had huge beads of sweat on his face. Eventually he had to wipe his face with his sleeves, leaving great dark spots. No one cared. Clearly, we were not visible on screen at all. I think at some point, everyone in the back realized this, spirits dropped, and we stopped worrying about following cues and such. This didn't change much, though, because while the director continually gave the "talent" up front specific instructions, those of us in the peanut gallery could barely hear anything anyway. I gave up spreading my legs and just stood normally. For one take, they threw out a few Santa hats for people to wear. Of course, there was no point in giving any to those in the back, since they wouldn't be seen, so there was much grumbling from the back rows. Finally, they threw one to the back just to keep us happy (or make us shut up), and there was much rejoycing!
For those of us in the back, the highlight of the day was lunch, which was actually pretty good. The rest of the time totally sucked, and it didn't stop at the end of the day, because I got to dream about singing "Bong.. bong Bong bong BONG!" all night long as well.
Our commercial debutted on September 20, 2009 during the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards show. Despite my extreme depression at never being seen on camera, I actually got incredibly excited as the time approached. I even called my family to watch for me in the commercial. The experience was even better than I'd hoped, because in fact you COULD actually see me! In fact, in high definition, you could actually see my face and tell who I was. I was amazed! I told all my friends and family and posted to Facebook.. I just went crazy. This is what I got all excited about:

(Watch it at YouTube, because it's too wide for this blog page!)

You didn't see me? Come on! Alright, here you go:

(Click to enlarge)

So it was only 2 seconds on screen, and you won't see me unless you know where to look. It was still awesome!! Here's pretty much how that evening went for me:

Oddly enough, of the four people I know who were in the commercial, I was the only one who could be seen in all formats. Suhanya got cut off the left side. Mitra got cut off the right side. And even Shawn got cut off the old 4:3 format. He can only be seen (in crystal clear hugeness, mind you) in the widescreen format.
All kidding aside, while the filming wasn't the most fun for those of us out of the action, I have to say, seeing myself on television was the most exciting thing ever!  I can't wait for the next one!