When I was still flying we had what was called an “aging aircraft program”...essentially to deal with old airplanes and was an “inspect, remove or repair” program to keep them flying safely.
Well I seem to have fallen into the category of an aging airframe and some of my parts seem to warrant the “repair” criteria.
Some time ago (actually months ago) I felt a strain behind my right knee while putting the cover on our boat. Nothing unusually...I seem to mysteriously strain, cut, bruise and other wise “ding” the old airframe from time to time...never realizing it at the time and only when I see a stream of blood trickling down my arm or hand do I realize that I must have passed too close to something sharp and never even felt it!!!
Oh well....I “gimped” around for months thinking that this too would eventually heal and I’d chalk it off to old age and wear and tear. Meanwhile my “inspector” (read that as spousal support and oversight committee SSOC) kept recommending I see a doctor. I finally gave in when it was no longer an occasional limp but a full time “Chester from Gun Smoke” type of limp.
An MRI revealed a...”tear in the posterior hom of the medial meniscus”...no wonder it hurt, with a name like that!
By the time the surgery was scheduled I had long given up on the “it will heal itself” philosophy and was saying “bring it on!”
So...at “O” dark thirty (0630)” this morning the SSOC drove me to the outpatient surgery unit at the hospital and they sharpened up the knitting needles (arthroscopic surgery...poke holes and “darn up the damage”) and did their magic! After giving me a nap inducing cocktail of “happy juice” it was lights out...great nap!
No pain (I walked out on my own landing gear) and we were in Denny’s at 0950 for breakfast.
