Progress is Slow but it's still Progress

It is now Day 5 after my surgery and progress is slow but somewhat steady. The swelling continues to go down, however my knee is still quite large. The oh so important range of motion is getting a bit better. I have a couple exercises to work on this but what I can do is mainly move my leg as far as I can until the swelling makes it uncomfortable.

The maximum I can do for my exercise to pull my heel up as far as I can along the floor

The weather has been amazing (60 degrees and cloudless skies) so we've been trying to get out to the local park when we can to soak up a bit of vitamin D. When we're not doing that we're confined to my flat and have been playing a number of games - Uno, Scrabble, and Battleship have been the main games so far.

One thing I find a bit weird is that I was prescribed more anti-inflammatory drugs than pain killers... so when I go to the doctor next week I'm going to have to ask about that. Its not that the pain has been all that bad during the day, but at night it's a killer as I have a whole 3 or 4 positions I can sleep in since I have to wear my brace, so the pain just compounds the uncomfortable factor.

From the surgeons instructions it looks like I'll be in the brace for at least 6 more weeks and potentially with the crutches for nearly as long. I'm not too excited about the prospect of this, but it is what it is and I guess all I can do is be a good little patient and try to beat the odds and get better quickly.

First Full Day back from Surgery

The surgery went well. I was ve ry impressed at the efficiency and care that the hospital had. Granted I was the first surgery of the day for my surgeon, but I 'check in' at noon and by 12:30 I had already met with the anesthesiologist and nurse and was being taken back to put my gown on. Once back in the 'sterile area' my knee was given a Betadine bath and my surgeon came and said hello. Then within 15 minutes I was wheeled to the prep area to have my IVs and initial dose of drugs. The last thing I remember was being wheeled into the theater and asked to shimmy across to the surgical table.

I woke up later with a brace on my leg and it would have been about 3 hours later. The surgery only took about 30 minutes but for some reason that's how long it took me to come to. Once I was awake and alright I was taken to my room in the main hospital area where my mom was able to come see me again.

The pain was pretty intense but I was given a morphine drip with a lovely little button I could push every 5-10 minutes to get another hit. The nurses were recording how much I was taking of the morphine and I think the first hour I pushed the button 16 times but only got 11 pushes of drugs.

Shortly after arriving in the room it was dinner time, to which I was treated a dinner of veal, cooked carrots, green beans, mashed potatoes, a cup of soup, a roll, and a strudel dessert. I was only able to have a couple bites as I was pretty loopy with all the drugs, but I must admit I was pretty impressed with the food.

As I was so exciting and was pretty much just awake for my blood pressure to be taken mom went back to the hotel fairly early and I attempted to sleep. The night was ok aside from being woken up every hour for my blood pressure and the constant beeping of my IV machine.

The other traumatic experience was trying to pee in a bed pan. Now I've debated on whether this should be censored from the blog, however as it was such a weird experience I will leave out the gorey details and stick to the main bit. The main point is that I was unable to get out of bed, but was also told if I didn't pee I would be given a catheter. Now I DID need to pee, but peeing in a bed pan is not exactly comfortable.

Having never been in the hospital I always wondered how the whole bed pan thing works - well essentially the scooted a pan under my bum and then sat me up in the bed and I was expected to pee... while in bed... in a pan. Fortunately for me, after a couple tries, I was able to go because the doctor was about to come in and give me no choice. It is however an experience I don't want to repeat, so am glad to be home and able to hobble to the bathroom when I please.

Alas, I am now home and the swelling in my knee is starting to go down. Here are a couple pictures which taken from my new nesting point to help you get an idea of how big my knee is.

My swollen knee last night
My knee this morning - it's hard to tel but it's not AS swollen
Then there is the massive brace I have to wear when I sleep or walk... I know you're jealous! :)

Picking up the Pen... er the keyboard

My sincere apologies as I realise it has been over a month since my last post. The last month has been a bit of a blur - with taking 2 weeks off to go to my nephew's graduation and now having knee surgery and trying to fit some work in around those two vacations.

For the first two weeks of June I was in the states as my nephew graduated from good old Richland High School - yay Tyler! Tyler is now awaiting further information on when he will begin boot camp and then enter into the air force.

The trip was very relaxing and great as I was able to see friends and family which I literally haven't seen in years. The one thing which is probably blog worthy is the fact that I think I discovered I may be allergic to vodka. This was discovered as two days in a row I turned bright red and splotchy after drinking vodka - with the second day it beginning to travel down my throat. After taking a Benedril and switching to water the red went away... I'm not completely convinced so am planning an at home experiment once I'm off my pain medications to see if it is in fact a vodka allergy. I'll keep you posted. As I'm typically a Jack Daniels or rum girl I'm not too stressed about it, but it is a bit of a bummer.

The only other potential thing to mention is the fact that I had the worst hair cut I've ever had. The girl was trying to give me some extra layers and texture... however she also almost cut me with her scissors - literally! While she was working on the bottom bit of my neck line she somehow managed to snag some skin in her scissors! I was a bit shocked, but she became very flustered and apparently rushed through the rest of the cut as she was so distraught... this ended up with one side of my haircut being an inch longer than the other and there being areas of completely random layers throughout my cut.

Needless to say i went back to have it fixed, however my cut is now a good 4 inches shorter than it originally was. I'm not too stressed because at the end of the day it's hair and will grow back, but am not all that impressed overall and my mother is no longer having her cut her hair.

Today I go into surgery to fix my torn ACL. I 'check in' at the hospital at noon, which means I had to get up at 530 to have my last bits of fluids and food before I start my fast (it's 7:15 and I'm already hungry again). So over the next two weeks I'll have much more time on my hands and will be able to post more updates. My mother has come to Australia to take care of me so it's great to have her here. When I leave the hospital on Thursday I go straight to the physical therapist to get my exercises I'm supposed to do and then the real pain and work begins.

So look forward to more updates over the next couple days as I try to keep myself and my mother busy and entertained.