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April 5, 2008
Rest and recovery: Day 1
Well, I survived. The worst part of everything last night was waiting around to even get taken down to a bed (1.5 hours) and then trying to relax enough for my blood pressure to go down before they took me in. Matt was there with me the whole time and helped calm me down (or tried at least) and my friend from Georgetown also came up and sat with us while we waited for a little while. I spoke to my doctor briefly about a half hour before the surgery and he assured me that this was all very routine, which was somewhat helpful. The orthopedic resident also came in and poked and prodded my knee to find out where it hurt the most, which was comforting because I clearly wanted them to focus there!
I remember being in the operating room and being told to take deep breaths, and then (as everyone says) I was waking up and it was over. Dr. K. spoke to me briefly but I was pretty out of it--I do know that he said he took a sample of my cartilage because I might be a good candidate for a transplant sometime in the future. I expect I'll talk to him about that more when I see him to get my stitches out next week. He did tell Matt that nothing was torn, which is good in a way but also not so good because there wasn't as much to repair.
I spent another half-hour or so in the second recovery room, learning to use my crutches and all that, then we were on our way. They sent us home with a cool ice contraption--a cooler that you fill with water and ice and plug in to the wall. It attaches to a bandage that wraps around my knee and the cold water circulates through the bandage. I've basically been sitting on a chair in our living room ever since with my leg up (last night and today). The pain isn't too bad; it's more like an ache especially on the inside, where it hurt most before. They did give me a Vicodin prescription but I did not fill it and have been doing fine with Tylenol.
It was weird to wake up and not have a workout planned. I felt very decadent, and I'm sure that will morph into feelings of guilt as the week goes on. I did do my situps as best as I could and we'll see how things go. This is probably the first weekend I hadn't worked out since...1996 or something. I'm sure I'll survive. Here is a photo of my ice-bandage contraption (thankfully I got a pedicure last week):
Posted by becky at April 5, 2008 8:01 PM
Comments
Those are some nice looking toenails! I'm glad you survived the surgery, and now good luck surviving the recovery. I didn't know there was such a thing as a cartilage transplant...good to know since I might need one someday too!
I hope Matt is thankful for your ice contraption, because it must be saving him a lot of trips to the freezer.
I think everyone deserves a weekend off from exercise _at least_ once every 12 years or so :-)
Posted by: Alison at April 5, 2008 8:44 PM