I think I knee'd to update!

This is probably going to be really boring, because I'm probably going to be writing some of the details that I'd like to remember later. So, if you want the cliff notes version...things are going relatively good!

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I had surgery, and I'm feeling a little better every day. The surgery apparently went well. They did a PCL reconstruction and saw that my medial meniscus was partially torn as well, so they trimmed that up. They did not have to do anything with the PLC (Posteror Lateral Corner), which saved me from having another huge scar and an even longer, harder recovery, so I was really happy about that. We got to the surgery center around 9:30am. The surgery center was amazing. The room where they prepped me for surgery was on the 15th floor and had an awesome view of Rice and Hermann Park. What a great way to distract you from all the pre-surgery worrying! The surgery itself lasted about three hours, which apparently is fairly long from what my surgeon said. It took me quite awhile to wake up, because they had given me phenergan (YAY!) so that I wouldn't wake up nauseous. I sort of remember getting in and out of my dad's suburban on the way home. I think we finally got home around 7:30pm. The only other thing I remember about that night was that I scarfed down two slices of pizza, because I was starving! The next few days are sort of a blur.

Aside from the pain, last week was actually pretty enjoyable. I LOVED hanging out with my mom all day. She spoiled me rotten. Actually, she spoiled all of us rotten. I thought K was going to throw himself on top of her car and beg her not to leave on Saturday morning when she left. She cooked wonderful meals, and even cooked several extra meals before she left and froze them to make things easier for us for the next few weeks. She organized Ryann's room, and made the cutest curtain for Ryann's closet. She took a white sheet and then sponge painted purple flowers with lime green stems on them, because those are the colors that Ryann's room is painted. We had taken the doors off of her closet months ago, so that we could put her dresser in her closet. She also made a curtain for our kitchen/breakfast nook window (out of dish towels...which sounds strange...but was SO adorable!). They turned out great. I'll have to take pictures and post them, because they both turned out really cute. She taxied me around and did all of my laundry and organized my pantry and was her usual Superwoman self. I can't tell you how much I love, respect and appreciate her. I would've been lost without her last week. I just can't imagine a better mom or better person in the world, and if I turn out to be half the woman/wife/mother she is, then I will consider my life a huge success.

Okay, back to the knee...I went to physical therapy twice last week and it was torture. I felt like such a wimp. I cried both times from all the pain. They've cut it down to once a week, but I still have to do the exercises at home every day. I went back to physical therapy yesterday and it went SO MUCH BETTER! I didn't cry once, so that's progress. They had been trying to get my quad to fire, and it just wasn't happening last week, but yesterday it was doing so much better. They hook me up to this muscle stimulation machine that shocks the hell out of me and they leave it on for 15 minutes. It shocks you for 10 seconds and then goes off for 10 seconds. While it is shocking me, I'm supposed to be doing a quad set, which is basically like trying to flex your quad. Last week, when they couldn't get my quad to fire, they kept turning it up higher until I was in tears. The only other real exercise I can do right now are straight leg raises. My first day of PT, I couldn't do them at all. My leg felt like it weighed 100 pounds and I couldn't lift it at all. Later that evening, I practiced until I could do it and was so excited when I actually did one that I ended up doing about 50. Because. I. Could. So two days later, when I went back to PT and was going to show off my accomplishment, she took my brace off to do one and the pain was unbearable. I just couldn't do them at all without my brace to keep my knee stable. (But I can now...hooray!) I've been working hard at home, trying to flex my quad and do the straight leg raises and trying to get my leg to extend fully, because I haven't been able to do that since my injury and that's one thing they really want me to work on.

I came back to work on Monday, and it's been going good. The hardest thing is that I still can't drive, so K has to drop me off. He was to be at work at 7am, so we drop Ryann off at my MIL's house and then he drops me off and I'm at work by 6:30am. So, we're waking up around 5am, which SUCKS! But hopefully, I'll be able to drive soon, and we can all sleep in a little more. Also, the bathrooms are somewhat far from my office, so it's a pain to get to them. My arms are so tired from the crutches, but I think they're getting stronger. The only other thing that is difficult is lunch. I'm spoiled to running out and getting whatever I want for lunch. Now, I'm very limited on what I can eat for lunch, because it has to be something that I can bring in my backpack, but doesn't have to be heated up (because I can't carry it from the kitchen to my office). My coworkers have been amazing, and would definitely heat things up for me, but I really don't want to impose. Plus, maybe this is a good way for me to lose weight or at least keep from gaining weight while I'm so pitifully inactive. I've been eating less for lunch. For example, one of those individual size servings of cereal (sans milk b/c I didn't have any at work) and an apple with peanut butter.

Okay, speaking of work, I better get to it. I wish I had a clever or even interesting way to wrap this up, but the truth is, that my brain is muddled from a combination of hydrocodone and waking up at 5am all week...so I've got nothing. Sorry!