The Recovery....

So for Christmas I got knee surgery... yup knee surgery. I know I could hardly contain my excitement when I realize that I would be on crutches for about 12 weeks throughout winter.

On the 22 of December my mom and dad took me up to the U of MN Fairview Clinic to have surgery. When we got there they took me into a little room and made me put on this paper gown that had openings for hot air to circulate through... I know it sounds as exciting as it was in person. Then I had a nurse ask me all sorts of questions and take my heart rate etc... Then she took my temperature with this fancy thermometer that they roll across your forehead... they were all about technology at this place I tell ya.

Then after being there for about 2 hours the doctor that does surgery came back and talked to me and put her initials on my leg to make sure she knew what she was operating on and okayed a femoral nerve block, which was weird! The anesthesiologist came in and the stuck his ultrasound on my leg until he found the muscles that controlled the knee cap and then he stuck some big needle in it and made it go numb.

The last thing I remember before the surgery was asking if I was in the operating room because it didn't look like one to me, I never heard the answer and next thing I know I am waking up in the recovery room. It's weird that I had no idea that I was under for 3 hours and I had no sense that I was even out.

From there I was sort of in and out of it. I don't remember getting wheeled to my room or when exactly my parents showed up. I ordered strawberry jell-o and water for supper, my parents watched Home Alone on the tv and then left me. I had the privilege of getting pain killers every 3 hours-ish and went through 5 wonderful nurses while I was there.

The morning after surgery I got sick from the pain medicine (not that anyone really is wanting to know all about this but I figured you might as well get the full effect), and in the afternoon the physical therapist came in and made me do some standing and leg exercises. She wanted me to try the stairs but I still didn't feel good enough so she told me she would be back around 3 to make me try. My mom made it up at around 3:30 in time for me to walk half way down the hall only to feel sick and have to go back to my room. I had to get the ok from the therapist to go home that day and to get that I had to be able to climb stairs, so she just said she would be back at 5 on her way out and if I could do it she would clear me.

At 5 she came back and I made it to the stairs, sat down in a chair, threw up all the fettuccine alfredo they made me eat, got up climbed up and down the stairs a few times and then back to my room. By the time I got back to my room I was in a lot of pain and ended up having to spend the night once again. At about 5:30 my mom got a call from my dad that the shed roof had caved in with all the snow, so that was one more thing on the to do list for the weekend.

Eric showed up at about 7 and ordered a cot and room service and my mom went home so she could get up to milk in the morning.

this blog is getting rather long so I will finish Christmas day on another blog... thank you for all the well wishes and people that have come visit me AND A BIG THANK YOU! TO ERIC, MARY, MOM, DAD, AND MY FAMILY! I appreciate everything you guys have done for me.