It's About Damn Time...

Sorry for the curse word, but that's exactly how I feel after the week I've had...

I've tried to control my frustration, but now I can at least express my relief.

We went to see Dr. Ramsey this morning. Before we arrived, I made sure I could still lift the leg this morning because I knew he would be checking that. No problems... still could lift it as I've done since Monday afternoon.

When Dr. Ramsey's nurse came in, she immediately said, "Well, you look a lot better than you did on Monday." Joel was in the room and she said how I was very pale and my expression showed I was in a lot of pain.

Then she unwrapped the knee - no bleeding this time. Now that I was more cognizant than I was on Monday, I got a better look at it. The stitches are in multiple places - top, bottom, right, and left. However, the bottom has several along the pre-existing scar and the left side has numerous "stitch" areas where the release was made.

Dr. Ramsey then came in and said the same thing - "You look MUCH better." We then went through the leg lifts and he remarked that he could tell I was doing my exercises. I now need to do them every hour that I'm awake to maintain that muscle tone.

He said that Monday's knee draining was unusual. When he saw the stream oozing out the side of my knee, he knew there was a serious problem. Even though he had to insert the needle to get it all out, he said that was a risk of inviting infection into an area that needed to be healing.

Then he pulled out my pictures from the surgery.

First, the meniscus did not need to be repaired. It had a small tear in it, but he said it wasn't significant enough to need fixing. He showed it to me and I tend to agree. He said what we're seeing is normal in most individuals.

However, there was a tremendous amount of scarring. He showed it to me - resembling gray "spiderwebs" throughout the knee. He cut all of that out, which should help with flexibility and pain.

While he was cutting, he ran across a suture. It was blue. He said, "Obviously I wasn't a part of your original surgery, so I'm not sure why that was still in there." He said it was tied to the bottom of the kneecap, so he cut that out. Apparently that surprised him... and me, of course. (The other day he said "sutures" and I guess I forgot to ask if there was more than one today)

Then he went through the "release." He showed the pictures and explained that's why the outside of my knee looks like it has a "vienna sausage" inside of it. The swelling is causing that now, but that's normal.

Finally, he showed a picture of him cotterizing the blood vessels. "And, as you well know, not everything was cotterized even though I tried to get it all - which caused the bleeding and swelling."

So while my knee looks like it's twice the size of my other knee, it's come down enough that he is comfortable to send me to therapy. He doesn't want me to do much knee bending/heel slides right now... which means no biking yet... but at least I can get this process started. This next phase should last 4 weeks.

He doesn't want me to go back to work just yet. I told him I was thinking August 9, and he said he thinks that's the earliest but that I should plan to see him on the 1oth. I felt like he really wasn't sure if I'd be ready by then... but is leaving it up to me. Normally he sees patients 4 weeks later, but because of the complications he wants to see me in two weeks.

So I'm cleared for Physical Therapy starting tomorrow. He doesn't want me to stay by myself just yet, so I'll be bunking at my parent's house at least tonight. I guess I tend to agree... if you saw me, you'd understand. I'm just not there yet to be "Mr. Independent."

He said I might be able to start driving sometime next week. That would be determined by my Physical Therapist, Kendra. They re-wrapped the knee and said I could also start showering without the trash bag.

Overall, I feel like I got some good news today. I really couldn't imagine going into another surgery and putting my parents through all of that again. It's been tough on everyone this week, so I'm thankful for some good news in that I've finally turned a corner.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers...