Today is January 5th. On my way to hospital to get both of my knee joints replaced. I am feeling pretty confident.

Karen Browning, Kale Isaacson, Stephanie and the folks at Southwest Orthopaedic Physical Therapy in Albuquerque have done a great job preparing me for this surgery. They had me work on upper body and quadracep exercises to make the recovery after my surgery more manageable.

I am a diabetic and have not eaten anything since midnight so they put me first on the schedule. The anestesiologist has prep'd me and made sure I was the right patient and is "giving me something to just relax me a bit". I don't know if it is the warm white cotton covers they put on me or the medication but I am feeling pretty good. Not euphoric but just "good"

He exolaned that my dr. uses a catheter through my femoral artery to deliver pain medication directly to the knee joints for the first few days after surgery. Sounds good to me. He also said that they are doing a spinal block (epidural) so I will have no feeling below my waist for the surgery. That is on top of the other IV medication.

My orthopedic doctor came in and said every thing looks good and they should be coming in soon to wheel me back for the surgery. within seconds, a nurse comes in and unlocks the wheels on the bed and I travel back to the operating room. once I am setup the anethesiologist tells me he has put something in the IV to make me sleep and to or me to start counting backwards from 100. "100, 99, 98,97, 9-..." Out go the lights and I am in Lala land.

Stay tuned to this blog to find out what happens "On the other side of knee replacement surgery"