Surgery :(

So I have been on blogging hiatus for quite a while now, but I do have to say that this time I have a very valid excuse. I finally got my knee surgery! Yay!

Long story short, a couple of years ago it got hurt on the job and I was misdiagnosed a couple of times until I started demanding better health care and some answers. 2 years, 3 x-rays, 1 MRI and 3 doctors visits later I was finally correctly diagnosed and scheduled to have surgery on March 30th. It does help that I also decided to make the insurance pay for the best orthopedist in the area...he works on the BYU football players when they get hurt. Only the best for me :)

It turns out that when I was running and stepped wrong I got a fissure in the cartilage of my left knee that went clear down to the bone. And my patella got shifted and has been popping whenever I walk for the last 2 years. To fix some of the constant pain and popping their game plan was to do a release of the patella by splicing the lateral tendons on my left knee and to scrape clean my nasty fissure so it wasn't constantly inflamed.

Fun fact...once they got in there it turns out that I had an extra tendon (the plicae) that most people aren't born with. It's supposed to dissolve when you're developing in the womb. But mine didn't...so they went ahead and took it out completely to avoid further complications with my patella. I like to think that it was my unborn twin...like the lump on that lady's neck on My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

For a girl who has never had a cavity or broken a single bone it should be pretty easy for you to imagine the utter fear I had in just anticipating surgery. But the staff at the surgical arts center was so friendly and took the time to explain everything in detail on the day of, which made me feel a wee bit better about the process.

{Me trying to be brave.}

{The inside of my knee...I like to think that the last one is when they put ginger ale in my knee...I'm not positive what was going on at that point...}

They put me under general anesthesia which was bizarre. The last thing I remember before getting super dizzy and everything going black was very weirdly/graciously complimenting the staff on how incredibly nice they were. After that I woke up out of the operating room and shaking like a leaf. Apparently that's how the anesthesia works its way out of your system...your body shakes and teeth chatter like your naked in Antarctica. But I didn't know about the side effect at that point in time so all I could think while I was laying there looking at the ceiling was "This is it. I was allergic to morphine and now I'm dying. I'm dying from complications on knee surgery. What a lame way to die." Then I overheard a nurse telling Michael that it was normal and the shaking should calm down after a couple of hours. It was a pretty close call / near death experience for the most part though. The drugs didn't make me too loopy, but Michael did me the wonderful courtesy of taking some thoroughly embarrassing video I thought I would share. For your viewing pleasure...

{I want to explain that I am not crazy...and the reason I wanted to tell everyone that I don't own waterproof mascara was because they taped my eyes shut during surgery which made them red and super watery. And I had been watering off my mascara for about half an hour. It's not just the drugs talking...}

Recuperation has been far from fun. For the first four days all I could do was lay in pain on the couch taking as much Oxycodine as possible. Then the next three days weren't quite as painful but I still just laid there like a slug/good for nothing. But all my friends, family and ward members have made it so much easier. We had people bring us dinner every night for almost a week, my sister and visiting teacher both came over to clean my house and you don't even want to get me started on the number of cookies/candies/ice cream treats that were dropped in my lap. Between all the yummy food and slothfulness of healing, my figure is going to be begging me to get back in the gym as soon as the doctor gives his okay at the beginning of May.

On the bright side I did get to watch more TV than anyone could ever want image watching...here is a summary of what I have done with the last couple of weeks.

{Shameful, guilty confession. I have to say, I now have respect for the Biebs...}

{I've watched Season 1 - Mid Season 4...yes that is like almost 70 episodes...but I am OBSESSED with this show now}

But life is moving on and I am getting better each day. In fact this last weekend I went on a date AND went to CostCo. I am woman hear me roar! Now no more excuses...I have to start that quilt that I deluded myself into thinking I could work on while on bed rest...