I Made It!

"At home."I am home and Day 2 post-op. On Thursday, after surgery, I made it out of recovery around 6pm and was moved to my room. I don't remember any of it. I don't ever remember waking up in recovery or being moved. My first memories are of the middle of the night post-op. I had a pump to push for pain meds, which I was allergic to and got a rash from, and I was SO relaxed that I would stop breathing. They had oxygen on me, but it made my nose itch, so I kept taking it off. Then the nurses would rush in and put it back on. By about 3:30am, I was ready to get up and clean myself up. Not really. But I thought so. Marc explains it like this, "You would wake me up and want me to help you get ready, only to find out that you were passed out a minute later. So I would wake up and get ready to help, look over, and think, 'Are you serious?'" The CPM and the Game Ready are straight from heaven. I will be in them both 20+ hours a day. Dr. White said I had the choice to sleep in the CPM or the booties, I choose the CPM. I don't know how to explain it, but it is comforting and it doesn't allow me to get too stiff. I didn't get sick until last night, at home, when at 4am, I decided I wanted to take a shower and change my bandages. This is when Marc said, "I thought this would be a daytime activity." I was thinking 4am was daytime...when you are awake a lot, or asleep a lot, can't tell what I am really, there is no day or night. I got sick and went right back to bed and waited until 6am. He changed my bandages and I was able to take a shower. I have been laying here since. Pain when I am laying down, 2. Pain when I am trying to walk to the bathroom, 5-6. I am off of Vicodin during the day already-just at night. I am on Oxycontin still, but will use that at night only after today.

I did not have a microfracture, but Dr. White is concerned about one part of the cartilage that he could not fix. It is "waving" away from the bone. I will ask him more in two weeks, but am not too worried about it. Here are the best photos from game day.
"Getting ready to go into surgery!" "I don't know if I'm coming or going...And I can't believe I'm sharing this, but even I can laugh!"
"All set up-Day one post-op, in hospital."

The Last 5 Months...

Running Log Entries:
February 19-"Feeling hip flexor pain since after Wednseday's run...possibly an injury."
February 21-22 Mile Run "When I came home I had to nap, so apparently the run took a lot more out of me then I thought during. I also CANNOT step forward at all with my right leg, which is a direct result of my right hip flexor tightening up during nap. hmmm. Not even sure what I want to do about that."
March 4-4 Mile Run "Decided to take it easy to try and rest my hip AGAIN! This isn't fun. I am not pleased with the progress. Doesn't hurt when I get warmed up, but hurts after and through the night."
March 14-18 Mile Run "Good run today. Took me a little bit to warm up and then was okay. A little stiff after for a few minutes here and there, but overall the Aleve is working."
March 16-7 Mile@8:00. "Scheri is nice for saying, "we" slowed, because it was all me. I was hurting from trying to run with my students at 2:30...my hip, AGAIN, and was very tense the whole run. Then, post run had very bad stomach cramps and aches. So not sure what is going on. Overall, just didn't feel good at all. 9:15pm and still feel bad."
March 18-"Ran with Marc around Villa. Hip hurt so bad the entire time. Appt with Dr next Thursday."

On March 19th I took a week off from running. I had not taken any breaks from running since I started, any breaks for injuries. I took recovery weeks, but never HAD to take a break.
March 26-Unofficial diagnosis-Labral Tear, sent for first MRI to rule out stress fracture
March 30-First MRI-Diagnosis: Femoral Neck Stress Fracture
April 8-Second MRI(Arhtrogram)-Diagnosis: Three Labral Tears, One complete, Two partial
June 21-Third MRI:Hip Stress Fracture Cleared (I couldn't have surgery with a stress fracture.)

Today, surgery! And on the road to recovery. I am excited to move forward with the next chapters...

The Night Before Surgery

And all through the house...it was in perfect order, well- kind of, except I have the cleaning lady scheduled to come tomorrow so when I get home, it will be perfect. She will be coming weekly for three weeks so I don't go crazy. I had a great day today. I was busy from the moment it started until now. I am super tired. I twisted balloons, oh I will post photos when I get them, for 10 or so First Graders! Twisting balloons is something I wanted to know how to do many years ago, so I bought some books and learned how to do it. Now I only do it at my school carnival and for my very close friend's kiddos...in this case, Ella, Scheri's daughter turned 6. The balloons were a hit, but it reminded me of the first week of school when the energy from the classroom and everything I put back into teaching wears me out and I am asleep by 7pm. And these little ones were only 6!!! This is exactly why I teach 5th grade and not 1st. As cute as they are, they have A LOT of energy! My favorite request for the day, a wallaby! A what? I suggested a ladybug, or a cat? She settled on a zebra in which the Sharpie did most of the work on a white balloon. It was a fun time. Christian helped me while Halee face painted.

My CPM machine came today. It is actually a very nice one. I was happy. Nice cushion on it. It is an upgrade from that 1980's picture I posted a while ago on my blog. My bag is kind of packed, and now I just need to get my last night's sleep without booties for a while. I am thinking I should say this is my last post before surgery, but I hope I can write a sentence or two in the morning! If not, I'll write as soon as recovery permits.

Bike Ride turned Photo Op!

Scheri and I went for our last ride on Monday at the AFA before I had to get my bike in for some serious maintenance, and before surgery. I told her to bring the camera since we have very few pictures of us biking and it would be a great chance for us to have some fun. Plus, it was an absolutely gorgeous day with the sun shining and the crystal clear blue sky surrounding almost every shot! It was a blast!
I made her laugh!

Some Questions Answered

As I said earlier, the phone rang and rang and never stopped. Marc came home and I told him it had been going on all day. I write as much as I remember, and I forgot to post some answers that I received the other day - and more today.

My CPM is delivered to my house tomorrow at 10am, so the day before surgery. They show me how to use it and then they pick it up when I am done. The braces that I sleep in are waiting for me in the hospital and I do not talk to anyone (a rep) about those...they are just there post surgery. My Game Ready will be delivered to me at 9:45am, at the hospital before I check in. My check in time is 10am for a Noon surgery. A nurse called me today to go over the hundreds of questions, and then tell me what my day would look like.
9:45am-Game Ready Delivery
10am-Check-in at admissions
10-11:30am-Get my lab work done, meet my physical therapist and anestesiologists, get my IV put in. (Might be missing something.)
11:30am-Dr. White will come talk to me for a bit about my surgery.
12-4 or 4:30pm-Surgery
4-6pm-Recovery room with physical therapist
6pm or so-they will take me to the 6th floor, the osteo something floor. I'll tell you later.
My physical therapist goes with me upstairs and continues to work with me.

The nurse never gave me the "end" time for physical therapy. Maybe there was a reason. My husband can stay the night with me. I was happy. They also didn't tell me what time I would be able to leave the next day. Anyways, it's a busy day!

Ring, Ring, Ring...Total Craziness

For all of you "planners": No matter how well you plan, there is so much that is beyond our control. I do say "our" because today I find my phone ringing every 10 minutes with calls from my doctor here, insurance personel, durable medical equipment companies - a few of them because the equipment doesn't come from one place, and Dr. White's office. I had this whole week to just sit on my bum and do whatever I wanted and it has turned into a bit of a "scheduling" session. So don't put off too much for the last minute, just in case.

Garden Update

I have been waiting to post photos of my garden...waiting until the Miracle Grow kicked in. Since I live at 7000ft, sometimes things take a little while. Needless to say, I am still very pleased with the way things are coming along. We have eaten dill, green onions, lettuce, terragon, oregano, and basil.
The squash box has finally kicked it in and I am sure we will have some pumpkins for fall too! Happy gardening.