Surgery...

Well, this is a bit behind, but this is the first time I've felt up to posting. I had my knee surgery last week so I will fill you in on what happened.

Wednesday I had my pre-op appointment and ran some errands. On the way home, I was driving on the highway behind a semi (I was probably about 3 car lenghts behind him) and all of a sudden the semi hit a huge piece of tire that was on the side of the road causing it to fly up and hit the front of my vehicle. It hit my bumper and then I ran over it. Well, that scared me to death and I was afraid that I would have a flat tire. Got home and checked and it knocked my emergency light on my passenger side loose and there was black rubber scraped all over my bumper. Overall, my car was driveable and there are no dents in the car so that was good and my tire is okay.
Then my parents' flight was delayed so they took a shuttle from LAX to the hotel, but didn't get in until 12:30am instead of 8pm like they were suppose to. Wednesday didn't go as planned, but I was glad when my parents arrived.

The alarm went off at 6:30am on Thursday and I tried to sleep a little more as my parents went down to get some breakfast. I had maybe 3 hours of sleep that night as I was so nervous for the surgery. We left the hotel around 8am and hit traffic. Let me say, thank goodness for the car pool lane! We made it to the surgery center in LA at 9:10am and my arrival time was 9:30am. I made a couple calls to my grandma and Caleb then it was time to go in.

I had been crying from exaustion and nerves all morning so I felt like I kept getting strange looks from everyone. I filled out paperwork with the receptionist and discovered that they had me down on one sheet as a 26 year old male. I quickly corrected them. :) After paperwork, they had us sit in the waiting room for about 15 minutes and then took me back. They asked me some questions then sent me back out to get my brace from my parents. After some tearful hugs I told my parents bye and went back into the pre-op room.

The nurse was very nice and she explaned everything to me then had me put on my operating gown. She put in an IV and said they were just giving me some electrolytes before surgery. She then informed me that they were running an hour behind and so she gave me some heated blankets and an "US Weekly" from this past January to read to kill time. An hour later, the anesthesiologist came by to do my nerve blocker in my leg. He was very nice, but had a lazy eye so that made me a bit nervous as he was going to be sticking me with a needle in my hip. Luckily, he was very skilled. :)

The anesthesiologist injected something in my IV to make me relaxed then started the nerve blocker. They gave me the nerve block by using a needle and ultrasound to make my nerves in my leg sleep. I watched on a screen as he took the needle and moved it from nerve to nerve. Everytime he hit a nerve, my leg would spasm out of control and my leg would jump and twitch. It was the weirdest feeling ever. After that, they wheeled me into the operating room.

I met the male nurse who was helping with the surgery and he helped me scoot onto the operating table. I remember looking around for a minute and then the anesthesiologist said he was going to give me something to make me sleep. He injected it into the IV and my hand then began burning. The burning made me think of the Twilight books as when the vampire venom begins to turn a person into a vampire it burns. I was hoping that I wasn't turning into a vampire. :)

He then injected me with something else and I remember him saying "Now I'm going to put some oxygen on you" and I saw the mask go on and then I was out. I don't remember anything until I was waking up in a bed in the recovery room. The nurse gave me some graham crackers and I continued to try to wake up. As I was waking up, the nurses kept walking around and they kept talking. They were saying "I can't believe he is brain dead!" and "I heard he just died." Well, I thought they were talking about someone there, but it turned out to be Michael Jackson. Freaked me out a little bit because I was thinking someone died from knee or shoulder surgery.

Soon I was able to get dressed and they brought my parents back. I was SO sleepy and had a hard time staying awake. They gave my parents some paperwork and had me take a painkiller then I was headed out to the car. I had brought a couple Disneyland "I'm Celebrating" buttons and my parents gave one to the doctor and one to my nurse as I was celebrating my surgery being over.

A nice man from the surgery center wheeled me outside with my mom and we sat and waited for my dad to bring the car around. The man helped me get into the car (which was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be) and then we were off to the hotel. I remember falling asleep in the car and things are fuzzy the rest of the day on. I don't really remember getting out of the car and getting into bed after surgery. I just remember being happy that it was over.

That night, I was able to get up some on crutches and it got easier that day.

I am just thankful that it is over. I know that now it is the long road of recovery, but with the support of my family and friends, I know I'll make it.

Here is my first week Post-Op Diary - tried to keep track of what went on as this week was the hardest week that I will go through with my knee:
Day 1 - Surgery day - Had an okay night. Pretty much slept all day.

Day 2 -
I was able to get up and out of my hotel room (stayed in a hotel with my parent's the first 2 weeks after surgery - not able to stay at my home). I was told not to put weight on it until the nerve block wore off and so I was just using crutches. Spent about 4-6 hours in the Knee CPM at about 45 degrees and used my cooling machine pretty much all day. Also laying with a rolled up towel under my heel 2-3 times a day for 30 minutes to work on extension.

Day 3 -
Spent most of the day on Knee CPM at 45 - 50 degrees, but not in much pain. I think the nerve block has worn off, but unable to really tell. Blessed that the pain is not too bad. Still on pain meds. Still using the towel under the heel as well - this exercise hurts the most.
In the afternoon everything went downhill - Developed the BIGGEST headache ever that hurt way worse than my knee. Then was sick to my stomach. Called the doctor and he said it was probably the anestesia wearing off and I could take more tylenol if needed.

Day 4 -
Feeling MUCH better today. Decided to try to get off of pain meds as soon as I can in case they contributed to being ill yesterday. Spent most of the day watching movies while using the CPM at 55 degrees and towel under the heel. Able to get up and around okay using crutches.

Day 5 -
Woke up with quite a bit of pain this morning. Stiches hurt today using CPM - decided to use more pain meds. Typical day though - movies and CPM at 65 degrees. Thank goodness for movies!

Day 6 -
Motivation is high today! I see the doctor tomorrow and my goal is to have my extention back to normal! Lots of laying with a towel under my heel today as it doesn't hurt as much today. Got to 70 degrees on the CPM, but knee is sore so doesn't want to go past 70 degrees without hurting. Still able to get out of the room pretty well. Went and watched the Disneyland fireworks with my parents from the balcony.

Day 7 -
Went to the Doctor today to get stiches out. Yikes! It hurt! To me it seemed he was taking them out pretty early, but guess that is his standard procedure. The nurse took out the stiches and then put surgistrips on them. Then I was taken to get x-rays of my knee to make sure things looked good. This was frustrating as the x-ray tech didn't understand that I couldn't walk without crutches and couldn't bend my knee much at all on my own.
Doctor said everything looked good and was impressed with my extension! Yea! The hard work paid off. He prescribed PT starting the next week 3 times a week. He also gave me another prescription of pain meds. Got my new bendable knee brace, but my leg is too swollen to put it on yet.
Got to 80 degrees on the CPM today and it felt pretty good!

Day 8 - 1 week post-op!
My boyfriend flew in today to see me! It was SO great to see him after having surgery!
Got my functional brace on today, but it is still tight. I did 1 lap around the floor of our hotel room putting some weight on my leg with the aide of crutches, but it KILLED! Reached my doctor's goal of 90 degrees on the CPM today. Yea for progress and meeting a goal!
My heel on my surgery leg hurts worse than my knee. It feels like someone took a hammer and hit it. Ouch! Not fun!
Began using my Electric Stimulation machine today - I was SO scared to use it because I didn't know what it would be like. After using it, I really like it! It just kind of feels like that tingly sensation you get when your foot falls asleep. It helps with the pain quite a bit and I use it when I go out and will be sitting for a long time (for example movies, airplanes, long car rides, etc)