One of the best ways to retain your sanity during recovery from knee surgery (or any surgery, for that matter) is to try to find the humor in your plight. If you’re laughing, it’s nearly impossible to be in a bad mood; If you can make somebody else laugh, even better.
My main reason for starting this blog was to kill time while recovering from surgery, since I can only watch the entire South Park series so many times before losing my mind. I decided early on that I actually wanted other people to read this thing, and it’s such an uninteresting topic that I had better try to make it funny. Nobody wants to read a bunch of bitching and complaining; there’s enough of that nonsense on Facebook. I, personally, would prefer to read things that make me chuckle, so I assume everybody else shares that preference. Also, I don’t want to be a negativity spreader. The fact is, it’s easy to sit there in your recliner and whine about how much you hate being infirm while healing up. And there’s a time and place for that too, since nobody likes a relentless Pollyanna either. But you’ll find very quickly that people aren’t going to want to hang around with you if you’re just complaining all the time.
No bueno
The truth is, recovering from surgery sucks. But 90% of the things you’ll experience are of the “I’ll look back at this and laugh” variety. I vividly remember my first sitting-down shower after surgery, when I went to so much trouble to set up my chair in the shower, climb into the shower, sit down, carefully take off my brace, then turn on the water which hit me in the face at a temperature of roughly 33 degrees. I was pretty pissed, but at the same time I thought, “That probably would have looked hilarious to somebody else.”
"He got in the shower before the water got warm! What a stupid asshole! Just look at him sitting in that dumb shower chair!"
I’m not saying you should go around just laughing your head off at every negative thing that happens to you, but it helps to put things in perspective from time to time. Is it really that big a deal that you can’t play golf for a few months? No, probably not. In the cosmic sense, does it matter that you have to sleep with a knee brace? No way. The best way to deal with these little inconveniences is to realize that 1) it’s not that big of a deal, 2) everything will soon be back to normal, and 3) it’s probably funnier than you think at the time.
Case in point: the guy on the left probably didn't find this funny at the time. I, on the other hand, find it to be hilarious
Hi Andrew , just came across your site and Thanks. I had mcl surgery 2 weeks ago today and I’m sooooooo bored. I tried to get ready for the time off by thinking ahead, groceries I wanted to munch on, books for my next course I studying for, new laptop and 2 external drivers from my students full of movies, I’ve got it made, ya right! I’m on the ice twice a week, in the gym 3 days a week, as active as I can be- I love it. I’m 51, teach at a college here in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. Buggered my left knee playing hockey.
I’ve got at least another 3 weeks in the full leg brace ( my new best friend, just don’t tell my dog ). I’m not “bitchin” about the situation, my thoughts on sports- you want to play, one day you’ll pay. I’m just bored stiff and was thinking ” is there were anyone else out there” lol. Thanks for the smile and laughs from your site. I’m doing the stool in the shower but have to admit I did start the water first.
Tim Battrick