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.

Beautiful Autumn Days!!

Firstly, let me just clarify - it's not Fall it's Autumn here. This is another one of those words you learn not to mention as it invites all sorts of harassment by anyone willing to give you a jab.

Call it what you want, the weather has been fantastic! This weekend I've been taking my time to do random returns and errands around Sydney. Yesterday I took the train out to Rhodes (aka the home of Ikea) to return some things I decided not to use. But today was the topper. I had to go to Manly to sign a new contract for my appliances and so decided to make a day of it. While Manly beach is known for it's surfing and long sandy beach - it is it's sleepy sibling do the South which I was more interested in. Shelly beach is about 1K south of Manly and is sheltered so there are no waves. But this isn't why I wanted to go to this beach. This is the home to a very nice aquatic reserve which has thousands of fish.

The beach had a bit more people than this but you get the idea :)

Given the swim I did earlier in the year was a dark and stormy day and we weren't able to see anything I wanted to give it another go on a nice day and see how it is. It was AMAZING!!! There were so many fish! Plus the water wasn't too cold.

Initially I started out doing a proper swim until I realised just how many fish there were around me. At which point I slowed down to enjoy a bit more of the scenery... which this was great the cold eventually got to me so I had to get out but it was a fantastic overall. I must admit I will give it another go next weekend if the weather holds up and the water isn't too cold.

Here are a couple of the fish I think I saw...

I think I saw a small Blue Groper

There were literally schools of these swimming around

Here is a picture of the schools and how they'd literally swim right past you

There were some of these too

It is days like this which make it fairly easy for me to say I won't be moving back to the states for a bit longer. :)

Farewell dear friend, you shall be missed...

We've been to fun places, met great people, and made some great memories. But alas, fate is not on our side. You have been taken from me and I am forced to move forward without you. Yes I will have to start over - take new pictures, retake those records made, and forge a new bond.

However, there will be others - because while you were near me virtually every minute of the day you were just a phone. Yes, dear iPhone - when that person decided to take you away from my comfortable and safe purse on Saturday night you began a new life.

I wish you a safe journey and a loving owner.

And now I look to see if my next companion will be a iPhone or another... we shall see.

Delayed End to Final Swim...

Today was supposed to be the final swim of the season - however the ocean gods decided it was not to be.

To start off the course had to be changed simply because the waves out the back were just too big. They were having trouble keeping the pontoons (or cans) in place to mark the course in the deeper water so they brought the course in. At first I was happy with this as it would be a course which I have swam before, plus the obvious advantage of not having to swim in the extremely deep areas.

I was all set to swim the 2.4 K, however as the 1K group was going the 4 rescue boats, jet ski, and 20+ surf life rescue people in there there were quite a few people who turned back.

Before I tell you what happens next, I'd like to just educate you on the Bondi rips. There are two permanent rips at bondi - the North Bondi rip and one at the south which is called the Backpacker Express as that's where all the backpackers get stuck. With the new course using the Northern rip to get out of the waves much faster. However the danger with this is that, if the waves are big enough you will be pushed against the rocks which are on the other side of this rip.

So with this group of people, there were some which decided about 20 meters in that they didn't want to continue, and were promptly swept into the rocks... not good! Then to complicate things even more, a massive wave came in a swept one of the pontoons out of it's secured location and into the rocks. Luckily, the pontoon didn't hit anyone on its way to the rocks.

However this turn of events was a blatant sign for the organisers to cancel the race... which they did. I must admit that I wasn't too sad as there was a pretty decident rip right where we were set to swim back to the beach. So this would have proven to be a very challenging race to say the least.

The plan is for them to reschedule the event to next Sunday, however I have a bachelorette party on Saturday night so I might not be capable of swimming. I will keep you posted on how things go. :)

In the mean time, my knee is feeling good due to my limited drinking which also means I have saved money and spent less time standing in line at the bathroom at the bar. :)

General Update

Things are chugging along here, and I figured I'm overdue for a update.

The Flat

I've furnished the living room area of the flat as all the old furniture was my old flatmates. I ended up simply making a couple trips to Ikea and am pretty happy with the results. My flat has blue carpet so I was pretty limited with what I could use without making the room too dark... so it is a very black and white decor which surprisingly works.

I allowed myself the luxury of the chase as I figure I'll more than justify it during my recovery time

My favourite part is the new HD TV :)

The second wave of furniture will come when I am able to pay down some more of my debt, so for now I still have the old dinning table

As far as flatmates go - I have a new one (obviously) and while it did take me a while to find one I also stepped out of the mold a bit. My new flatmate is a lawyer from Perth, who just moved to Sydney in January. His name is Raury and so far we are getting along great. The new part is that I typically live with girls, so this is a bit of a new adventure. So far we've sorted out the cleaning schedule and are getting all the little things sorted out so things are going well. :)

Swimming

Monday is the last swim of the season - a 2.4K swim at Bondi beach. It is a different course (picture below) and has us swimming out further than normal so that will be interesting. The group which swam today said they saw large sting rays and some other sealife before they hit a large pod of stingers. So my hope is that the sting rays and fishies are around with out the jelly fish.

The typical swims stay inside the two points, so it's quite a bit further out...

My Knee

My knee has been bothering me a bit more these days - so I am taking drastic measure and not drinking. I'm also noticing certain things which make it ache/hurt like crossing my legs. So sorry mother, but I won't be able to sit as lady like as I should as it hurts my knee. I think it has something to do with the whole fact that it puts pressure on my knee in the direction in which I don't have the ligament supporting.

I have my surgery scheduled for the 23rd of June after I get back from the states and luckily my mother is going to be able to come take care of me/keep me company while I'm recovering during the 2 weeks off.

Until then, I am allowed to swim, cycle, and run (but only in a straight line). Which makes things interesting, but at least I have some things I can do.