CP: Knees Surgery and Flute Production; Rose Engine Lathe

Irish Flute
1

Am looking forward with gusto to replacing this always sore knee. Am planning to work har at the Physical Thearpy and am rushing to get my ducks all lined up. May 9th will be the day of the Filet de Genou experience. I am expecting the first week to be hard.

After that I will be back at work designing for some CNC aided production (possibly including a wooden flute case for my keyed flutes), measuring my old Rudall, Rose and Carte, working on a very secret flute project for some crazy man named Kevin, designing and engraving end cap buttons.

I just completed my Rose Engine as a standalone and it is now in my office in the house, instead of out in the workshop. Its so nice to be able to sit down and use it - and not interfere with my primary lathe operations. The Ornamental Turners have been after me to write up and publish a design and I might get around to that.

From what folks have told me I may be able to plunge back into some degree of work after about 2 weeks. There is much I can do sitting down out in the workshop. I’m probably going to wait until the first of June. So I essentially will only be shut down for 3 weeks at the most in terms of flute production.

If anyone is going to need one of my Folk Flutes for summer camps or workshops, now is the time to order. I hope to spend a bit more time off this summer to work in the new knee and be ready for Lark Camp at the end of July - so you need to get your order in. I will be getting back to work 3-4 days after I return in August. I am hoping to schedule the other knee replacement in late September after DjangoFest.

Other news. I still have about 150-200 pieces of that surplus LeBlanc Clarinet wood that I was selling a while back for $3.50 per piece. First come First Served, and I can send it out up to May 7th. Thank you to the makers who bought this amazing wood (harvested in 1979)! Note that these can be cut and returned inside and out for Rudall Rose copy head joints with a max OD of around 28mm.

And thanks for the encouragement knee-wise. I usually hate anything involving doctors or dentists but for some reason I am totally relaxed with the process, and have no anxieties about it. The only anxieties will be getting some 68 hours of bench time done. I suspect some flute orders will have to wait until I am back at work. This week I needed to give my shoulders some rest (they’ve been inflamed since working in a very cold workshop in February) and shifted my focus to getting my home and infrastructure all ready.

Cheers!
Casey

Here is the Rose Engine Lathe in its new setting

2

Sic 'em, tiger! Good luck with it.

3

take care and wishing you a speedy recovery !

4

Just be careful not to throw yourself into stuff you’re not ready for, Casey. As you know, I’ve been there before you, about 8 years ago, when I got both knees replaced at the same time. They were equally worn out, so there wasn’t much choice. At least you are only having one done, which means you retain some “visible means of support”!

The good thing about getting back amongst it is the power of distraction. What they used to call “occupational therapy” in my youth. If you’re sufficiently intrigued with something, you are less likely to focus on the pain, inconvenience, side effects of pain killers, etc.

I’m just recuperating after prostate surgery (yes, the C word was involved), and that has gone very well so far. The surgery was a week ago, and I’m about to hit the workshop again. I think factoring in some activity, some rest, some exercises makes great sense. (Don’t forget those exercises designed to recover your full range of movement or you’ll regret it later!).

If you’re like me, you’ll find you lose quite a bit of weight, due to the appetite suppressing side-effects of the pain killers. I stupidly (at the time) didn’t take advantage of this, put the weight back on subsequently, and then decided later to take it off again, which fortunately went well. The less weight you carry obviously the less strain on the knees, so this is a good opportunity to capitalise on the side effect!

Anyway, the very best of luck, or as they say on the stage “break a leg”. Whoops, sorry, didn’t mean that literally! Your public needs you, so get back over here soon!

P.S., I was supposed to be in hospital for a week, and so said not to expect me at the session scheduled for day 6. But they let me out at day 3.5, so didn’t I have fun showing up at the session unannounced and unexpected! But I brought a cushion to sit on…

P.S.2. I expected to be miserable in hospital, and I certainly didn’t enjoy it. Awoken every two hours for observations, awful food, etc. But I was certainly not as miserable as I thought I’d be. I saw many people far worse off than I.

5

A quick note from Casey to say he’s been through the surgery and everything went well. He’s relieved and eager to get his mobility back and getting back into flute making as soon as possible.

Having had recent hospital experience, I’m with him. Flutemaking is definitely more fun!

Terry

6

Good news. You’all are irreplaceable.

7

Thanks for the update Terry. I’ve met Casey, he’s a local flute maker where I live, and I’m glad to hear he’s on the road to recovery!

8

Yes we made it home tonight. Drop dead tired in some ways due to the ordeal and at the same time buoyed by the adrenaline from the procedure, not to mention having sent out a ton of flutes, finding my sore arms from shoulders to finger tips don’t hurt from the drugs - and abstinence from flute making, and having this somewhat scary business behind me. I get to do it in October again. Also, I am taking at least all of May off from the bench out in the workshop. Flute making will resume in June depending upon the pace of my recovery. I also just need the break - its been relentless 7 dayweeks for weeks on end.

So I will be doing more than laying around feeling sorry for myself. Instead, several instrument designing projects, instruments to measure, and some to play some music as my hands don’t hurt. They and my inflamed shoulders were hurting as bad as my knee feels now! Tylenol is much more effective in a smaller dose more frequently as the half-lives overlap better. I have found a way to potentially push the ergonomics of my low flutes really far to make these accessible to everyone. Also extend down to D if possible. Some acoustical research and prototyping and getting a Carbide3D Shapeoko mill. My keyed flute case maker retired so no more of his flute cases after I run out. So I might get into designing and making a 3D milled flute case. Other tasks include more Guilloche design development, composing my Eclipse Opera, working on a few literary tomes, some paleo prep and curating the family collection of Native American Artifacts that we mostly surface collected in the 1960s. There is much data in these and these will end up in the Condon Museum in Eugene. I want to analyze these though myself getting down to the chip by chip level to see if I can discern a “school” level or even a “craftsperson” specific level of artistry. This may be being done or it may be a new possible approach. Been on my list to get to for years.

Thank you for your great well wishes and thoughts, especially my fellow Bionic Knee Veteran Terry who has been most helpful and encouraging!!!

Casey

9

Ah, very good, Casey, great to be home again. And I know what you mean by tired. It’s not like normal tired, it’s deeply entrenched tired, I guess a natural response from the body saying “no, put that half-finished flute down, your job for the moment is to rest”.

Sounds like you have some great upcoming projects that will help take your mind off minor discomfits. Great to have such a variety - sometimes sitting at the computer is fine, but then sometimes the body just says no, go do something else!

Do be careful when you decide to get into anything more strenuous - it is easy to overdo things and then you pay later. Short bursts of activity well separated by rest is safer than sudden binging.

Just had all the paraphernalia relating to my recent surgery removed, and that’s a pleasure. There was one big patch that was labelled “use alcohol when removing”. My mind naturally turned to Jamiesons…

10

Very glad to hear you’re on the mend, Casey.

It’s great to have occasional forced down time from one’s primary activity in order to catch up on other important stuff. You sure have some interesting stuff to go through.

11

Am thinking my expectations don’t match reality. I was being a bit cavalier as far as my use of things to take the pain away - until the pain asserted itself Sunday night after the anesthetic from the catheter wore off. So for now I am using the tools available to me to make the pain manageable and stay ahead of it. Bottom line is that I don’t expect to see my workshop anytime soon and the other tasks I set out to work on here at my desk will also be delayed somewhat. I don’t haver the attention span! My job is resting, getting up to walk, and doing my PT exercises every 2 hours for the next month, and generally hurting much of the time (this is something that everyone who goes through this doesn’t really talk about that much)! It will be a slow slog but time will pass. Thankfully my clients are wonderfully patient!

I’m looking forward to the point where the pain in my knee is less than what it was standing at the lathe bone-on-bone before the operation! June if I am lucky!

Casey

12

Am back on my meds and feeling much better this afternoon. Getting ahead of the pain is the key to this funny business. I’ve been kind of a minimalist on the Oxycodone and have decided that being able to do my exercises is much more important at this point, than worrying about becoming another part of the Opioid problem. My sister has been on and off this stuff loads for several surgeries and has never had any addictive proclivities.

Since I am unable to actually work work, now is not a bad time to answer technical questions, especially of an acoustical nature or flute making aspects. Or about the Guilloche´. Usually when I am in flute making mode I am too busy to be verbose but right now I think I would enjoy the inquiry - as it helps me focus not to mention get my mind off what pain lingers. So please ask away - though in a separate topic.

Casery

13

I think “forgetting” the pain might be a survival mechanism, rather similar to women forgetting the pain of childbirth. But at the time, it’s very, very real. It’s all a bit of a blur in my mind now, but my knee replacements were done in late 2010.

But the good news is, it will pass. Indeed, the worst of it passes fairly quickly, as soon as you get your meds under control. (This remains a fiddle, as we are all different, and what worked for me is unlikely to work for you.) Then there’s a period of more discomfit than pain, and then, one fine day, you suddenly realise, hey, I’m good again!

And don’t worry about any risk of opiod addiction. The quantities involved are too low. Constipation is the worst likely side effect. Keep up the liquids and fibre intake!

Eight and a bit years later, I’m brilliant. When asked by old friends how the knees are going, I dance a little jig and tell them I’m in negotiations to join Riverdance. Feel free to borrow the line…