What are you doing on the court? What does your doctor say?

Since Christmas Eve, I have been on the tennis court here at Harbor Hills every chance I get, hitting with my backboard, Bill, and every time someone walks by, they ask if my doctor knows I'm playing tennis.  I'm been fudging the answer, but, truth be told, while he had given a reluctant OK to it as long as I didn't run, fall or twist my knee (as if you can control the latter two caveats), I have been a bit reluctant to actually play a match, even though I keep thinking my new knee will tell me if I do anything I shouldn't be doing.  So far, it is humming along.  I haven't been so pain-free or well-balanced on the tennis court for years, as I have been since this knee replacement.  

I wasn't scheduled to go back to Dr. Kerina for my final post-op appointment, where he really would turn me loose, until February 3, which is over three weeks away.  So I called his office to see if I could get in earlier, and, coincidentally, they had a cancellation for today.  Bill freed up his late afternoon schedule to go with me down to Leesburg.  But this morning, I had a date to hit with John, the pro, and that 40 minutes is quite a workout.  If the knee was ever going to swell, that would have done it.

The big guy (that would be Dr. Kerina) came in and said, "let me take a look at that knee before you tell me what you have been doing that you shouldn't have been doing."  He took a look at the new knee, and said, "Wow, that knee looks good!"  He said it was solid when I came out of surgery, and it is solid now.   Go ahead and play tennis; do what you want, but just don't fall or twist it, and I'll see you in a year.

So, nine weeks and one day from the date of the surgery, following a good-by hug, I have been released to do what I want, and my next appointment will be November 8, 2011, one year following the original surgery.