One month in...finally, physical therapy in site!

First week of work was hard but I managed to make it the whole week thanks to wonderful co-workers who picked me up for work, brought me pumpkin spice lattes and made sure I had lunch and anything else I needed all week.

The hardest thing about being at work ALL day was sitting.  Since I can't bend my left leg (in a straight full leg brace) I am always sitting crooked which puts a strain on my back. I have been trying some different things with chairs, pillows, blankets, my exercise ball, etc. to make my day more comfortable. Needless to say my office looks like a hospital room with so much stuff.

This past weekend my youngest daughter came down with the worst case of STREP ever! Ended up sitting in the ER with her Saturday.

Now my older daughter and I are sick too. We haven't slept in days...sigh! Hoping we are all better by Friday because trick-or-treating is this weekend and we have costumes that need to be worn! 

Began my second week back at work Monday. Being busy helps the hours go by, but its still  hard because of  the back pain. My knee pain is minimal at this point, however I am not doing much with it since I am still non-weight bearing and its in a brace.

Yesterday I completed ONE month since my surgery and no walking. One down, two to go! Defiantly feeling like its been a month! Today I had another follow-up with my surgeon. I am slightly behind on my knee flexibility. Only at a 45 degree bend and I should be at about 65 degrees at this point. Because of this my surgeon is having me start physical therapy two weeks sooner than originally planned. I am excited about this because it will feel like I am actually doing something to progress my healing and get me on the road to running again. I go for me physical therapy eval this Friday.

It's Saturday night...hospital gown anyone?

Saturday night was supposed to be an exciting evening for me. I had been showering like this for the past 18 days:

and I was excited because this was THE NIGHT, the night I was FINALLY going to be able to shower without Saran wrap from thigh to ankle...and this meant I could finally shave my leg! Now I know this might not ring out as an "exciting evening" for some of you, but when you have been bedridden for the past 3 weeks, trust me, even an evening shower and shaving your leg seems like an exciting adventure.

I got in the shower and realized my leg was numb from calf to ankle (not good), so I decided shaving was going to have to wait (didn't want to end up cutting myself, since I couldn't feel the razor). I finished showering and then immediately called my surgeon. He told me I needed to go straight to the hospital and get tested for blood clots (I had other symptoms too: cold calf and foot, no pulse on the top of my foot, and occasional shooting pain up my leg).

Obviously this is not how I anticipated my evening going. I called my sister, who graciously agreed to watch my girls and my ex-husband who, without hesitation, agreed to take me to the ER.

I got to the ER around 7:00pm. I let them know that although my symptoms were not necessarily typical of DVTs of the leg, my surgeon wanted them to make sure, since it is the biggest concern for patients post-op. They agreed and called in the technician, who had already gone home. We had to wait for him to drive back to the hospital, which took some time.

While waiting for the technician, I got to change into this fashionable get up:

I of course brought along my blanket. God knows it is always cold in the hospital and hospital blankets are always stiff and scratchy, not to mention not nearly as fashionable as mine:

Luis got a little tired/bored waiting for that technician, but he was a trooper none the less, never complaining about spending his Saturday night in the ER with me. But lets be honest, ER or not, spending any evening with me is pretty special! :) 

The tech finally showed up and I got wheeled down to this little room to have an ultrasound done of the veins and arteries in my legs. Umm, ladies...even though its October, in the Midwest, and you have no plans of wearing a bathing suit  for months, you should NEVER neglect your bikini line...you just never know when you might have to have THIS done to you:

This is what the imaging looks like on the screen when they are checking for blood clots in your veins/arteries. The technician told me mine looked like an Olympic champion's...ehh, I think that's a good thing!

The testing took quite awhile, but good news, NO BLOOD CLOTS! Still not sure what all the weird symptoms are all about, but following up with my Surgeon on Monday.

Left the hospital and got home around 11:00pm. I decided the best way to finish out my exciting evening was with some Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. Perfect end to my evening!

Super great Saturday evening! That's how I roll, at least until I can get both feet back on the ground...running!

16 days, a cocktail of drugs and 3 amazing men...

Its been 16 days since my knee surgery to fix my torn PCL and resurface the end of my femur.
Things did not go quite as planned and I ended up being away from blogging MANY more days than I had anticipated. A LOT has happened during the last 16 days and it seems almost impossible to catch up on writing about all of it...but...I am going to start with today and as days go by recap on particular things that happened that I think are important, funny, memorable, or embarrassing (hey, if you can't laugh at yourself, life is going to be awfully miserable) that either I need to remember or that you might enjoy reading!

I am noticing that I have good and bad days in a pattern. Currently that pattern is every other day. So I have a good day, followed by a bad day, followed by another good day. I am still in a lot of pain (16 days later...I know right, I was surprised too) and am still taking a cocktail of drugs to get me through the days and nights. On a positive note, my kids find me more fun to be around and heck, I find I enjoy my company a little more while on narcotics as well. Negative note, no driving for this lady! It does bother me, but thank GOD for the BEST nanny in the world who drives me anywhere I need/want to go, which usually isn't far from the house since I am still feeling pretty crummy.

(Here we are on a trip to my favorite grocery store 9 days after surgery. 

I was still very bloated from all the IV fluids I received during my hospital stay.)

Recapping basic info about the past 16 days: I did have surgery on September 24th, 2013. I was anticipating 1, perhaps 2 nights in the hospital. I spent 6 days! Although the surgery went as planned, I had some issues with a numb foot that the doctors couldn't figure out (I kept telling them this happened to me in 2007 with my last knee surgery, but they had to be sure for themselves). I couldn't leave until that was sorted out and then there was the pain management. My pain was unbearable and they had quite the time trying to get it under control. When they finally did, I was so thankful (another blog post being written about this in the near future).

Probably the worst thing that happened while in the hospital, not in regards to my health, but for the life of this blog, was that my phone quit working and somehow erased over 1000 images, many being those I had taken during my time in the hospital to document my journey. Sooooo, needless to say, almost every moment I caught on camera while I was in the hospital, is gone. Boo!

I had my second follow-up appointment with my surgeon, the physician's assistant and the nurse yesterday (they work really well as a team and you always see all three of them when you go for your appointment). I got my stitches out for the incision used for the camera. The other three incisions have stitches on the inside and will dissolve over months. I also got cleared to go back to work next week (that makes 3 weeks out of work...yikes). I still am non-weight bearing on my left leg, however I am managing well on the crutches.

 My four year old and I worked on thank you gifts for the three most amazing and important men in my life at the moment. We gave them their little gifts at my appointment yesterday. Nurse Tom is Yuvia's favorite (she has a crush)!

 (Little gift bags full of candy)

 

 (The little note included with the bag of candy)

 (Nurse Tom)

(My surgeon and physician's assistant)

I am only 16 days post-op during my year of NO RUNNING...so much has happened already, I can only imagine whats next...