Knee Update Day 1

Hello All,

Hope you're well.  I'm doing o.k.  Just trying to get through this knee thing.  Here's a little update of all the goings on from the past week.  Please excuse the bad-quality pictures; most of them are from my non-smart phone.

The kids went to school and David drove me to the surgery center. We checked in at the set time, 10:30.  Surgery was set for 12:30 p.m.  They swiftly processed paperwork, placed arm bands on me and walked me back to the pre-surgery prep room.

I changed into the lovely typical hospital gown, had my leg scrubbed down with a yellow/orange iodine scrub and then was covered with a super-warm blanket (they keep them in a warming oven!)  Good thing, too.  it was freezing in there!  The IV was inserted and then all that was left was to wait until 12:30.

The nursing staff at Physicians Surgical Care Center was wonderful; caring, professional and knowledgeable.  Kudos to them all.

David was allowed in to wait with me after I was all set up.  He read a video game guide to me, LOL, Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning.  This guide is huge (close to 600 pages), has beautiful hard cover art and tons of game play info.  So I endured it.

At precisely 12:30, they came and wheeled me to the operating room.  I remember being told I was getting an oxygen mask on, seeing the mask and then nada.  That's it.  Next thing I remember is hearing "Oh there, I think she's waking up."  I was back in the post-surgery area.  How'd that happen??

I was allowed time to "wake up," given some water and graham crackers to nibble (I had not eaten or had a drink since 7 p.m. the night before; it was around 2 p.m. by now) and then got dressed and was sent home with David, who was chock full of post-op information given to him by the doctor while I was still out of it.

Jacob left school early to go to Isabel's school and walk her home.   The ride home was not too bad.  Thankfully, Jacob's aunt Denise had crutches and a walker she loaned me, so we would not have to buy any.  That walker has been a divine intervention.

My knee was pretty bandaged up, from thigh to foot.  AND I could not get it wet for 3 days!  Ugh. Isabel insisted on drawing on my "cast" (bandages) but I put her off until the morning.

So, who wants to see what was done on the inside?  No worries! Nothing gory, or at least not from my POV.

The top two show the tears he found in my knee.  The next show the acl, which was fine, a view of the knee cap, also fine.

The third set down are the "after" shots, after he shaved the tears out.  The final two are other angles/views of my knee showing healthy stuff.  The main ones are rows 1 & 3.

The rest of the evening was spent right there on the couch, eating soup, drinking water and coffee and watching either David play "Reckoning" or Cartoon Network with the kids.  The knee was feeling fine, but ooooh, that was just a false feeling.  It was those drugs still pumped in my system.