Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Surgy Surg

I'm alive! :) I survived my surgery. Wahoo!! Although I sure felt better pre surgery than I do now. But I am now officially on the road of recovery! :)

Turns out I tore my ACL, my medial meniscus, my lateral meniscus, and I have a periostial contusion. Which is just a bruised bone, but sounds intense when you call it a periostial contustion. :) Neither of my parents, who are both in the make-hurt-people-better field, had ever heard of someone tearing BOTH menisci. So I'm cool! Booyah.

 Part of your meniscus has blood flow and part of it does not. If you tear your meniscus in the white zone, the part without blood flow, they remove the tear. They just take out a hunk of your meniscus. This procedure yields a faster and easier recovery, but you tend to have more arthritis issues in later years. If you tear you meniscus in the red zone, which has blood flow, they suture your meniscus for a better long term fix. If they sew your meniscus, you have a longer recovery and are non weight bearing for a few weeks.

They were able to repair both of my menisci, which my doctor had not seen many times before. Again, I'm cool! So this means good things for the long run, but my recovery will be a lot slower. I am not allowed to put any weight on my leg for the first 2 weeks, and then I can bear a teeny bit of weight the two weeks after that. So basically I'm non-weight bearing for the next month. Not gonna lie, getting around in a straight leg brace without being able to put any weight on that leg is super hard. So I got a wheelchair to help me get around campus. Wheelchair adventures, here we come! :)

They gave me a nerve block, which means my left leg was absolutely and completely numb. I couldn't feel it or move it at all! Weirdest feeling ever. Here is a short, pretty funny video of us playing with my dead foot. Haha. When I was walking around that first day, my foot would get caught on the ground. I couldn't feel it, so I couldn't tell it was stuck and it kept tripping me. :)


My parents came out for my surgery, and I am so very grateful that they did! My nurse told us how often she sends college kids home with their roommates right after surgery. That would make me so sad! I love my roommates to death, but sometimes you just need your mommy and daddy to take care of you. My mom is staying for a week or so, and it has been so amazing to have her here. Not only is she helping me so much, but I love getting to spend time with her. We have had multiple movie nights and have spent hours talking. I love it so much!!

Here are some Happy Things since surgery:


-My awesome aunt and my grand grandparents sent me fabulous flowers all the way from St. George! :) 


-I ordered way cool new Chacos, and they arrived the morning of my surgery! I have been rockin em ever since. :)


-We went to Wal-Mart, and there was a cute special needs guy rounding up all the carts. He saw me crutching in, so he came over and asked if I wanted a scooter. When we said yes, he ran to the store and got one all ready for me. It was totally adorable. 

-Kevin came and hung out with us one night. It was really fun to be with him and my mom. He brought me beautiful flowers too! :)

-My friend Lauren had her ACL repaired a couple years ago, and I have been able to talk to her a lot about this. She has been so encouraging and optimistic and I love her!

-I'm staying in Lehi with my mom, and my roommates sent me a super happy card here. With a band-aid for my boo boo. Totally made my day. :) 

-I was expecting my scar to be way longer than it is. So that's really happy! :) I have so many surgery scars on my legs. Kind of a bummer, but I'm glad this one is not as big as I thought! 

-I got TWO handicapped stickers. What? So cool. And it lasts for half of the summer too. Watch out Wal-Mart, we're parkin nice and close. 


I'm grateful they were able to fix both of my menisci and that the surgery went so well! It's going to be a long recovery, but that's ok! I have another summer at Camp Firewalker to look forward to, and that's my motivation to get all better! :) 

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