Thursday, April 10, 2008

Surgery...and then this?!!?


Howdy friends! What an interesting week it has been. One week ago today right about this time (9:15 a.m.) I was dropping off into a nice deep rest induced by the anesthesiologist. I was having a knee scope on my left knee to find out what was going on inside there! Let me "take you back" to December 22, 2007, to Thedford, Nebraska...

It was a dark and cold night and the small community of Thedford was gathered at the Thomas Co. Fairgrounds to bid farewell to longtime community members Jonathan and Kathleen Busch and their two boys, Ronnie and Tanner.

I was taking pictures for them and for the story I was writing for the newspaper. I was squatting down on the floor taking an "upshot" photo and as I went to stand up, my left knee locked in place. Not knowing what was going on, I hobbled over to a chair, sat down and tried to rub my knee out. I really didn't think much of it other than it hurt.

Now, back to Thedford again this time on January 1, 2008 to the home of Jonathan and Kathleen. I was giving a room a fresh coat of paint, went to turn and freshen up my roller. As I turned, my knee locked up again and took me to the floor. Not a pleasant experience.

Fast forward to a snowy cold February Sunday after church. Innocently playing cars downstairs with my boys, crawling across the floor on all four, it locked again. For this gal, it was the final straw.

I visited with my boss about my knee, the Physical Therapist 3 times, and finally on Valentine's Day, I met with Dr. Wright. He performed several tests and it was decided that the next day I would have an MRI on my knee.

The results came back and nothing showed on the MRI, but the doc still felt that there was something wrong with the knee and I was scheduled for a knee scope. I wasn't sure about what to do--whether or not to have it, so 3 different occasions I changed the surgery date and finally agreed on April 3.

The surgery went as planned and I found out that I tore my meniscus in 3 different areas and have soft tissue damage. At least that gave me a reason for why my knee was hurting.

Upon arrival at home, I had supper with the ladies from my church at the Pizza Palace--where I enjoyed a piece of pizza and spaced out the meeting (thanks to anesthesia and percocet...but it didn't matter to me as I was doing what I do best...socializing! Friday, Caleb had Kindergarten round up so I ventured out of the house for an hour to sit through the round up session for parents. From then on, I spent the majority of the weekend on the couch.

Went to church on Sunday, led worship with Dave and about half way through service, ended up taking some pain killers. Needless to say at 11:30 I was in the nursery snoozing with my foot up.

Monday morning came, as far as I was concerned, life was back to normal and I was off to work at Valley Co. Chiropractic. I made sure that I kept my swollen foot elevated and iced as needed, but Dr. Fields looked at it and told me that my foot was not normal. I ended up calling Dr. Wright and he wanted me down in Kearney immediately! I didn't realize the seriousness of it until his nurse Kristine called me and told me that Dr. Wright was leaving surgery to find out what was going on with my knee and foot.

What a day! Dr. Wright came in and couldn't feel a pulse in my foot so he had to get a doppler and eventually found a weak pulse. Ended up in X-Ray for an ultrasound. They thought I had a blood clot in my leg, but the blood flow just wasn't optimal through the knee thus hopefully the reason for the swelling.

Thank God, no blood clot was found. After almost 6 hours at the Good Sam. Hospital, I was finally on my way home to find out what a week on bed rest is like.

So, as you can tell by the previous statement, I am on bedrest for the rest of this week until Friday when we head back to Kearney to see the dr. again, weather permitting. Hopefully the swelling goes down and I can get off bedrest on Friday.

So, dear family and friends, welcome to the introduction of a daily blog as I look out my living room picture window...from my picture window to yours, have a great day!

No comments: