Knee Surgery Round 2

So, here's the story. Life was so wonderful, my knee was doing so great. I was running, zumbaing, jumping, climbing...all the ings. Then, one day, my knee decides it wants to start hurting. The worlds sharpest pain any time I did anything, really. Squating, stairs, putting shoes on, bending of any sort, running, cycling, all made it hurt. I figured it was just a stressed out tendon so I rested for months and saw no improvement. I finally saw my family practice doctor and he gave me some oral steroids to take and told me it should help. It ended up not helping at all so I decided to get an MRI. The MRI showed a fat-pad impingement. After much googling, this sounded just like my problem! I made an appointment with my surgeon and he gave me a steroid shot and said if that didn't help it, we would have to go in and scope it again to clean it out. And, guess what? No improvement. So, a couple weeks later was surgery day. 

I was more excited this time than nervous because I knew there was something there to fix, unlike last time. My mom came with me so Jesse could go to his mandatory Air Force class. Ryan checked us in, I peed in a cup to make sure I wasn't pregnant (I wasn't… dang it! ;)), and then it was IV time. The nurse asked me, "How are your veins? They usually get IV's in okay?" I very optimistically responded, "Oh yeah! I've got awesome veins. I've never had anyone miss." Well, I apparently jinxed the nurse. She tried twice in my left arm and then another nurse tried another time in my right arm and missed, and finally got it on the 4th time. It was so weird! I literally have hoses for veins and have never had a problem. It was an off day, I guess! Anywho, we waited for a while and Ryan came to visit, and then the doctor came in and we got me some meds to get going! 

I remember going back into the OR and laughing and joking with the nurses and then two seconds later I was looking up, taking deep breaths in this mask. Next thing ya know, I'm in the recovery room. Anesthesia is some crazy stuff. I kind of love it a lot… hahaha. 

The rest of the day included feeling extremely nauseous, percocet, the couch, and House Hunters. Jess came home with treats and a smoothie… the man knows the way to my heart. He watched house hunters with me for hours while I laid on his lap. When I decided to switch couches, he set up a little bed on the couch for me with all my pillows. I sure love the guy. And guess what? The next day when I wanted to shower, I was nervous about not getting my wrap wet and feeling nauseous and everything. So, I sat on the shower floor and Jess wrapped my leg with a towel and then held the shower head above me while I washed my hair and stuff. I'm sure that was a real attractive sight… haha, but it was sweet and I appreciated it so much. 

Well, the next couple days I stayed nice and drugged on percocet and literally watched hours upon hours of HGTV and Food Network. It was wonderful. The knee slowly but surely gained more mobility and strength. The doctor told met that I should be as active as possible and even said to go cycle the next day! But, after a couple days of feeling good, I got this terrible pain on the right side, which shot up to my butt. It felt like a tight IT band plus something else. It was baaaaaddd pain. I had to use the crutches for a little bit and I was so upset cause I was feeling so good. At my check up two weeks later, I mentioned this, and the doctor told me to wait it out and gave me some medicine. It is feeling much better now, thankfully. 

I am feeling fat and chubby and unhealthy, but now that I can do more, I am trying to get back into a gym routine! Some things are still hurting my knee…. but I am hoping with time that I will be back to my old self. 

I am so grateful for modern medicine. And for my dad for getting his surgery before me so mine was completely free!!! It was such a blessing. Me and my struggling body are going to try to keep ourselves out of the hospital for a while… :)

Tellin' Jess I was on my way! 

 My cute working brother

 Four tries later… 

 She's a keeper, I tell you. 

 Any time I have anesthesia I can never keep my oxygen saturation up afterwards… especially when I fall asleep. So they always have to put O2 on me… rude. Just let me sleep! 

 Dr. Jackson said there was a bunch of fat and he took out almost all of the pad. Much more than last time. 

 J's sweet setup! 

The day after my surgery I thought I could go to dinner with Jesse and my siblings… that turned out to be a real bad idea. I got so nauseous and had to lay in the car a lot of the time. :( 

 I didn't cycle the day after like the doc said I could, but three days later is good too. I probably looked like a retard just wobbling around at the gym, cycling slower than anyone ever. But, it's fine. It felt good to get off the couch. 

 The doctor said it bled a lot during the scope, so I should expect a lot of swelling. But I didn't expect it to be so big! It was huge. And was swollen for soooo long! 

 Hahaha… I'm a sad, sad human being. 

 Finally getting to sweat out all the crap I ate in the sauna. With my gross bruised knee. 

 This picture was taken a couple days ago, so about three weeks after my surgery, and it's incredible the amount of atrophy that has happened! I guess not even from the surgery, cause I really haven't been using my right leg at all for about 5 months. But it's so much smaller and lost all it's muscle… it's the worst. But I'm gonna do my best to get it back! For the mean time, my left leg can just look like a giants leg.