Best of luck, Aude! After all you've been through, I'm sure you'll handle this beautifully.
Wish Me Well: Surgery Tomorrow
by AudeSapere 68 Replies latest jw friends
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alamb
All my best!
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UnConfused
Aude - save the first dance for me! In the meantime I'll keep tabs on you the best I can. How long do you expect to be down?
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What-A-Coincidence
Hope it goes well Aude!!! Let me know if you need some help :-)
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bernadette
hope you hace a speedy recovery
bernadette
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AudeSapere
WOW!!! So many responses to my thread~~~! I am truly touched that so many people commented. You guys are the BEST.
Surgery seems to have gone well. I got home at 7:30 last night and a long-time friend of mine (also xjw) spent the night with me.
The anesthesiologist gave me a block in my groin to numb (actually more like paralyze) my right leg. The reason for this was to eliminate the pain for the first 24 hours. And it worked. I haven't taken a pain pill yet. I'm told that that ACL repair is among the most painful knee surgeries. (I should have asked this question BEFORE sitting the OR. Dang!!) The block is really working though. It's a very, very odd feeling to not be able to move that one leg. I can wiggle toes and turn my ankle/foot but am just starting to be able to lift the leg from my hip. Just a little.
It's amazing what medical science can do. I just hate that they need to do it to *my* body...!!
My surgeon records his surgeries and offered to make a tape for me. ICK! But I just *had* to bring along a blank tape. Wasn't sure if I'd actually ever look at it, but hey! why not at least get a copy. My pre-op nurse told me that it's actually pretty cool. Everything's pretty clean and not blood, guts and gore. Maybe I'll watch it later this weekend. A friend is coming to stay with me and we were planning on watching movies and having a pajama party. This could be a feature film. What do you think, chick-a-dee??
As I walked into the OR, my surgeon was preparing the donor tissue (I opted for Allograph - donor (cadaver) tissue. Once I got past the creep-factor, it seemed to be the best option.). So I walk in and it's just too much for me to resist. I had to look. Didn't get to see too much though because I couldn't get closer than 6 feet and doc and assistant were blocking my view. But I did get to peek for about 2 seconds. (WARNING - GORE ALERT: I did not know that the donor tissue - in this case, cadaverous achilles tendon is used to replace ACL [knee ligament] and it is delivered frozen to the OR still attached to the bone. Icky but mighty cool to see.)
My surgeon just called me as I'm posting this...
He reports that surgery went very, very well. ACL was completely torn. (He detailed a little of the surgery specifics which is fascinating to me but I don't want to gore you unsuspecting people.) The lateral meniscus tear has healed but the medial meniscus - which didn't show up on the MRI - was torn. A stitch was placed to repair that tear.
The sad news is that due to the meniscus tear, I need to be on crutches and in a brace for SIX WEEKS. Stupid, stupid injury. The ACL replacement by itself - which is more serious surgery - would have let me ween off the crutches starting in two weeks. But because of the meniscus, I'm looking at 6 friggin' weeks. Damn!!
Oh well. I've known this for a long time: You play, you pay. Still no regrets. I plan to ride again this spring/summer. Once my leg gets in better shape, I plan to have a custom CTi brace made to prevent future injury to this leg. In the meantime, you'll find me on my crutches and with a wide variety of knee supports. I'm considering a secondary career as an orthopedic device model.
Back in a few...
I need to do a little therapy and then will be back to read all the posts to this thread. I can't believe there are so many...!! Thank you SOOO much.
-Denise.
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mrsjones5
I'm so glad it went well
Josie
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compound complex
Dear Old and Wise One,
Here's wishing you well and a quick recovery. As to your mention of "grace" --- please remember the observation of Elaine's [Seinfeld] boss: 'If you had too much grace, you wouldn't be able to stand up.' I believe Elaine was lamenting her lack of it. Take care!
Peace and love,
CoCo
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mia_b
glad it went well and even though youre on crutches for 4 weeks more than you wanted at least they spotted the tear now so it didnt turn ugly later. wishing you a speedy recovery (and all the best in your new career of orthepoedic device model! lol)
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OnTheWayOut
Your good news/bad news isn't so bad. You will be able to
tap dance again. At least you are at home, and you have
your computer until you are up and out the door again.