"Knee"d No More Excuses

On Thursday the 15th I had surgery on my left knee.  I could have picked a better day.  The day before both Cormac and Rex had fevers and were just out of sorts.  That night the twins were sick with fevers and up most of the night.  Both Darren and I were exhausted that morning, but lucky for me my check in wasn't until 9:45.  My friend Karla and her kids came to babysit for us.  What a blessing it was to have them come watch sick kids and not even bat an eye.

The nurse who was preparing me for the surgery had a paramedic student put my IV in.  The first time didn't work.  The second time didn't work.  The third time it finally took.  I have to admit I was a bit panicky at this point.  I had been dealing with the emotions that were bound to come with having surgery in the same hospital again.  This was one of the triggers that brought those emotions to the surface.  The nurse had said something about how they tried to stay away from putting the IV higher than my hand or wrist area so that if I needed blood they would have access to the good areas.  Trigger...trigger!!!!  Then she asked me if I could be pregnant.  No, I can't be, hysterectomy. Ok, then I didn't need to give a urine sample.

After that they moved me to the "staging" area.  The nurse in this area was different so she had to ask some of the same questions.  She was asking if I had given a urine sample yet.  No. Did you do something permanent like tubes tied or hysterectomy. Yes. Half of a trigger.  This is when I met the doctor and he explained a little about what he was going to do to my knee.  The plan was to clean up the cartilage and cut a ligament that pulled one way. This is suppose to help it from being "pulled out" of place.  He did say that with my hypermobile issues this could end up making it worse and I would have to have another surgery.  Regardless, this is the first step. 

The surgery itself was fairly straightforward and short.  I had two stages of recovery and I did fine through both of them.  No nausea or problems from the surgery.  When they were ready to discharge me I got dressed by myself and put on my own socks and shoes.  That was a big accomplishment.

 Here is my knee all wrapped up.

 This is with the wrap off.

 Seriously - two holes.  Wow, all this discomfort for two holes.  

I have a brace on all the time.  I stopped taking the pain pills almost 24 hours ago.  My knee is sore, but it isn't terribly uncomfortable yet.  It does feel very loose.  I'm not sure what it is actually doing though.  Thankful for the brace right now.

 This is what my amazing sister-in-law sent me.  I can say that because I know it was Maria's idea and not John's.  I'm not saying John wouldn't have thought of it, he just wouldn't have ever acted on the thought.  It sure made my day better.

The first one I opened - yes...life is good.