Beside there being way too much to do compressed into the last week before the yearly University two week shut down I had knee surgery three days ago!
I went home at the end of Monday exhausted, and thinking 'only a few more days'. I went home Tuesday exhausted, and thinking 'I have to go back for that installation meeting in the morning'. I came home Wednesday for lunch and fell asleep for three hours.
God knew I was going to try to finish out the week so...on Thursday the University sent everyone home at lunch time because of the impending ice storm.
The ice storm happened but there wasn't any damage in our area and the roads were blessedly clear the next day because Friday I had an appointment at Johnson County Orthopedics to get my sutures out. So we were up early Friday and driving.
If you have never had the opportunity to watch someone pull metal staples out of your skin, it's pretty cool! They have this tool that is shaped like a mini sheet metal crimper that grips the center of the staple and presses it down between two prongs and curls the ends up and out of your skin. I had always wondered how they did that; now I know.
So, I walked into the appointment on crutches, and after the nurse and the doctor were finished with their work the Athletic Trainer came in. He told me to get rid of the crutches and the brace; said didn't need them, at least at home. So I've taken him at his word and it's been great.
The main reason for this blog post is to show you some pictures from the week after surgery...
You can see the three small holes around the knee cap for the orthoscope the meniscus repair, two on the right and one low on the left; the other two holes served multiple purposes: drilling holes in the bone to set the new ACL and getting hamstring tendons for the repair and whatever else, I'm not sure. All in all not very invasive considering what I've seen on others.
My bruising on the other hand is impressive to say the least, so without further adieu:
One of the reasons it's so bad is that they used a tourniquet during surgery to control blood lose.
The long and the short of it is that I'm healing, I'm walking, and I have a couple of weeks of vacation coming up filled with family time and great activities, and may be even some time alone with my sweetheart! I'm not jumping for joy...because it hurts, so I'm sitting with energy.
Merry Christmas.
3 comments:
oooh! look at all the pretty Christmas colors!
Hi mark. I was looking for tourniquet Burn images and came across your blog. My mom just had both her knees replaced and has awful burns the same size and place as the back of your thigh. Her skin is peeling off though and exposing raw skin beneath. I wonder, did yours? How did you dress it?
Really all I had to focus on was staying active, after a few days the bruising started to heal on its own. Circulation it the key I think. I'm sorry I don't have a secret weapon for you!
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