Knee Surgery

Blake tore his ACL about 6 years ago playing basketball at church.  At that time, he chose not to have reconstructive surgery.  He didn't want to take the time off work to have the surgery, and he certainly didn't want to take the time to appropriately rehab it.  He's tweaked it several times since then, put some ice on it, limped on it for a few days, and been back to normal, so we've continued to ignore it.  Then, a couple of months ago, we were at a Sunday School cookout and all the late 20/early 30's guys decided they would play a game of football.  The instant Blake got up from the table to go play, I had a bad feeling about it.  Sure enough, the football game ended when Blake twisted his knee.  I originally thought nothing of it and offered very little sympathy.  The knee swelled as it always does, we put ice on it, and when Blake would complain about the pain, I'd tell him to take some Advil (in a very unsympathetic tone -- I was never meant to be a nurse).  But, the swelling wouldn't go down, lots of bruising started appearing, and Blake kept complaining that this felt different than all of the other times.  So, he scheduled an appointment with his Dr. and we had another MRI.  Good news: nothing else was torn.  Bad news: everything else was either strained or bruised.  Solution: ACL reconstructive surgery.

Ok, so we opt for the "bone-patella-bone" reconstruction, which is supposed to be the "gold standard" but makes for harder, longer recovery.  I don't think we fully comprehended how hard or how long!

Blake had his surgery on August 11, and the Dr. said everything went very well.  When I got to go back and see Blake in recovery, I couldn't stop laughing.  He was just so out of it!  He kept saying that his knee felt like a ton of bricks and he asked me 6 times in a matter of about 10 minutes if I had talked to the Dr. and what he said.  When he was "ready" to go home (which, by the way, he really wasn't ready to go home) my dad and Blake's dad helped get him loaded in the car and into our house.  Looking back, that was the easiest part of the day because his leg was still numb.  When we got him home, of course all he wanted was his Blackberry so he could catch up on his emails.  I told him that I didn't think it was a good idea for him to be sending emails since he couldn't even remember anything I said to him, but he insisted!  So, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful.  THEN THE ANESTHESIA STARTED WEARING OFF AND IT WAS A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME!  A whole new ball game that started about 10:00 PM (that's my bedtime, by the way).  Blake was suddenly in an incredible amount of pain.  He thought his kneecap was going to explode and if I came within 3 feet of even breathing on his leg, he cried out in pain.  One of the most stupid things we did was try to move from our living room to the bedroom at midnight.  Blake wanted to try to move to the bed, because he thought he would sleep better there -- seemed logical enough.  But, that move was physically and emotionally painful for both of us.  I just cried.  We finally made it to the bed, but it didn't matter.  We didn't sleep that night.  The next morning I kept thinking that this must be the closest thing to bringing home a newborn, except that I had no help, because my helper was the one who was down.  Really, the only way to describe the first couple of nights was BRUTAL!!!!!  Once that anesthesia wore off, there was nothing I could do.  He was taking the maximum amount of pain medicine and was getting no relief.   The pain meds weren't even knocking him out to give him a little sleep.  Since he couldn't sleep regardless of where he was, he sat in a chair in our living room for the rest of the week.  We didn't dare attempt to move back to our bedroom.  We just slept in the living room.

This was Blake's setup.  Doesn't he look like a pleasant patient?

By Thursday night the pain seemed to be under control.  That allowed the real Blake to finally come shining through.  His sarcasm and sense of humor finally returned.  Friday morning he had his first rehab session and the therapists were very positive.  Friday was also our 5 year anniversary.  It was celebrated with a therapy session from 7 to 9 AM where we also finally got to see the battle wound when the therapists undressed his knee, Blake's first attempt at a shower, me finally getting to work about 1:00, picking up Carino's take-out for dinner & a brave outing to Katie's Custard for a special 5 year anniversary treat.  Pretty much how I had always imagined we would spend our 5 year anniversary!

Now for some of the not-so-funny-at-the-time moments that are now pretty funny -- at least to me!

• The night that Blake woke me up at like 3:00 AM to ask me if I'd been to the restroom yet.  Seriously?  When I have to use the restroom, I wake up.  It's not necessary for you to wake me up and remind me to go.  So, now that I was awake, of course I had to go!  Then, just as I get back comfortable on the couch, he says "I want to try to move to the bedroom."  You stinker!  Are you kidding me?  You woke me up because you want to move to the bed?  Do you realize what time it is?  Do you remember the ordeal we went through the last time we moved you to the bed?  So, we move.  Of course, he wasn't comfortable there either.
• Friday morning after rehab I got Blake & myself a bowl of cereal.  Of course, I didn't put enough milk in his cereal.  So, I took the milk into the living room and proceeded to pour some more milk into his bowl.  But, the spoon was sitting on top of the cereal and when I poured the milk, it hit the spoon and splashed up all over Blake.  I was so drained and exhausted that I had no reaction time and didn't realize that I was pouring milk all over him.  He thought I was mad at him for asking for more milk and that I was intentionally splashing him with the milk.
• Saturday night I dozed off on the couch and Blake kept trying to get my attention to go fill his ice chest thingy with ice and water.  The next thing I know, Blake is trying to get up off of his chair and walk with his crutches while carrying his ice chest to the kitchen to fill it up himself.  By the time I realize what's going on, he's in the kitchen rinsing the dishes in the sink and filling his ice chest.  I lost it.  I started going on and on about how I was a horrible wife and nurse and how I wouldn't hear Landon crying and how I wouldn't be a good mom because "I just can't do it all".  Oh, it was a pathetic moment.

I am happy to report that Blake is now well on his way to recovery...FINALLY!  He's been going to rehab 3 days a week since his surgery, and he was unable to drive for the first 4 weeks since it was his right knee that was injured.  Thank goodness for awesome in-laws who helped shuttle him around to therapy, his class at Baylor (yes, he's teaching this semester on top of everything else), and work.  I couldn't have done it without them.  Thanks, Steve & Betsy!!  He's only driving now because he released himself to drive.  One night when we were driving through Rosa's to pick up dinner, he said he was ready to drive and asked me to let him.  So, there in the drive through we switched places and he drove home.  Then he drove to work the next morning and came home at lunch to tell me that he'd scheduled two meetings in Dallas for the next day.  I wasn't crazy about that because I didn't feel that driving from Rosa's to our house or from our house down Austin Ave. justified his ability to drive to Dallas.  Oh well.  Of course, he still won't fess up to his therapist that he's driving!