Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It's all in your head :) That's nice

I had crazy dreams last night, and even though I did get some rest, I was seriously tempted to call and cancel my check-up appointment this morning. I would say that due to the weather I just can't make that trip to Princeton.

Then I opened the blinds and realized it was disturbingly clear outside. There went that plan.

We began getting ready, which is just kinda slow and awkward with my brace and crutches, when we realized my keys weren't anywhere to be found! My dad was coming to my house to drive us to Princeton in my van. Looking for keys on crutches is really hard. Up and down all around and the keys weren't anywhere to be found. As soon as my dad got here, he said, "Wouldn't YOUR keys be in YOUR purse?" I said, "No, I haven't driven in almost 2 weeks, so they would definitely not be in my purse."

So you know where they were now, don't you?

In my purse - of course they were in my purse, this wouldn't be worth typing if they weren't in my purse!

I got into the exam room and a lovely little lady with long fake nails came in to help me get up on the exam table. She said, "Oh, you have stitches, we'll get those out." She came back with a paper towel, tweezers, and scissors. She said, "This may sting a little bit." Then she took the tweezers and pulled my skin up and apart as she snipped the fishing line that was holding my skin together. um-ouch All the while she was poking my incision with her long nails.

The surgeon was out of town this week, so my check-up was with his Physician's Assistant Greg. We had met him at a previous appointment, and I just wanted to know if my leg should be able to do more than what it is doing, so that was fine.

They took X-rays and I got to see the cute little screws in my bones. yuck

They had me take off my brace and then lay back while he tried to bend my knee. um - ouch

He explained that there is only one problem with my post-surgery situation.

I'm a scaredy cat, and I'm holding back on my leg for fear of what might happen.

He demonstrated this by having me let my leg hang over the side of the table. I was extremely scared and kept wincing at the slightest feeling of discomfort. After letting it hang on it's own for a minute, I realized that it wasn't that bad. Thus the diagnosis - it's all in my head.

In my defense, I didn't exactly know what I could or couldn't do, or what I should or shouldn't expect it to be able to do. That was why I wanted to quiz him and then I could feel better about it. I did quiz him, quite a bit actually. Since he does everything except for the actuall surgery, he was probably not prepared for all my questions about what they did to my knee to remove the graft and then to reinstall the graft with drills and screws and anchors into my bones!! um-ouch After all, I've watched it on YouTube, I knew what I was talking about, did he?

I feel much better after finding out that I'm just making it worse in my head.

I'm on the road to recovery and will start my re-hab this coming week.

I can put 25% of my weight on it this week, 50% next week, 75% the next week and then full weight bearing for 2 weeks with crutches.

So I actually will be able to get off of my crutches if all goes well in about 5 to 6 weeks.

The numb feeling that is weirding me out is because of a nerve they cut during surgery. I may or may not get feeling back, which really isn't that big of a deal.

I should be able to lift it within the next week or so, and the Physical Therapist will help me with ways to try to keep the strength up so I don't lose all my muscle tone throughout the next 6 months. However, he did say I am losing a lot of muscle tone and it will be hard to get it back to where I was before.

I love a good challenge.

1 comment:

  1. girl, i'm still praying for you!! I'm proud of you, my brave little soldier!!!
    love you!

    ReplyDelete