Surgery Update

Hey so the actual surgery was great!

We arrived at 6:00am, filled out some forms. I had to pee in a little jar thing (which I assume was for a pregnancy test or something because it was mandatory for females aged 12-50. Weird, right?) and I actually was able to go! That's unusual for me... usually I get nervous under all the pressure.

All the nurses were ultra nice. I started to get really anxious about all the needles (my teeth were chattering even though they kept giving me pre-warmed blankets. PRE-WARMED BLANKETS= worth any amount of surgery.) but she started with one to numb my hand and then I didn't feel any of the rest. Also I had to initial my correct leg- interesting hey? I guess they've had one too many times operating on the patient's wrong leg. How hilarious! (<-- not)Dr. Chill came in (I think he looks like a blue-eyed Richard Gere... my mom was not so smitten) and said lots of nice things then told me he was going to give me a set of pictures of the inside of my knee. I said, "COOL!" and he said, "...have they already pumped you up with drugs?" because I guess it's rare that he gets such an enthusiastic response to inner knee pictures from patients in pre-op.

But no, the drugs were yet to come. And those things were marvellous. I fell asleep just due to the sedative so I never even saw the inside of the operating room. Anyway, the surgery went well, blah blah.

But Friday was pretty awful. I couldn't eat anything or else my stomach would feel upset. If I didn't take my pain medication with food my stomach would feel upset. If I didn't take my pain medication my knee would feel like somebody was stabbing it. So I took it on a cycle of feeling barfy to feeling stabbed the whole day. In the end I only vomited twice and on Saturday I was able to start eating like a normal person again.

On Saturday we realized haha, whoops, there were some stretches I was supposed to be doing yesterday. I tried the two easiest of the six I was given and they were really painful. The worst, guys. My goal for today, Monday, is to complete the easiest four. Tomorrow I'll do all six. Maybe. They look pretty involved. My foot is super swollen (this picture is from Saturday, and its even worse today). What's that all about? Who knows. Also I'm super itchy which we realized yesterday might be an allergic reaction to the medicine. Ha! Oh well.

I stayed home from work today and I'm probably going to need at least a few more days off. It sucks to be so helpless. I just want to get up and do things like re-fill my iceman cooler thing that keeps my knee cold but it's too heavy to carry with crutches. Being so dependent makes me feel vulnerable.

Anyway I really ought to be doing some of these stretches. Happier updates to follow. Also if you're lucky, scar pictures soon enough!