Bionic Woman

Today was the day - the 1st day of my transformation into Bionic Woman. Ok, so that's not exactly accurate. Today was my arthroscopic knee surgery. It was a quick day and I'm happy that it's over. Over the past few days I had many friends ask me if I was nervous. I kept responding that I didn't have time to think about it because I was so busy getting life in some kind of order that I wasn't nervous. Staying busy served me very well!

This morning Tim & I got to the hospital about 10:15am. Got checked in, paid my part and then was taken back to pre-op. All of the folks that attended to me were amazing! My nurse even gave me a hug before I was wheeled back to the OR. First they did my weight, blood pressure (believe it or not, it was 105/56 even with everything going on!!) and ran through my medical history. Then it was talking to anesthesiologist, getting an iv and them prepping my knees. The iv thing was not the most fun part of the day. They tried in my left hand and once they started the medicine, my vein blew so they had to redo in my right hand. Doesn't that sound fun?! After all this was done, Tim got to come back to see me. My doctor and a few other nurses attending the surgery came by. It was the weirdest feeling to be wheeled to an Operating Room. I have never been in one before. LOTS of lights and equipment and stuff. They hooked up a bunch of monitors to me, secured me to the table, put a little medicine in my iv and I was out. Next thing I know, I was waking up in a recovery room. That's a weird feeling - completely missing time. I never even knew I was asleep! After a while, they let Tim come back to where I was. I enjoyed a few Chips Ahoy and some water (hadn't eaten since 7pm last night) - MUCH enjoyed. Tim had pictures that the doctor gave him from the surgery and boy were my knees bad! They photos show such rough edges and proved to me that the surgery was very much needed. The doctor asked him if I did a lot of running. There's a very thin spot on the end of one of my bones that has him concerned about any future high impact activity.

They hooked me up to these very cool ice packs for my knees that have a cooler of ice / water running via pump and circulating around my knees. You can see them in the pictures below. It's weird having little motors running. I feel pretty good right now. Doc says the pain meds in my knees will probably wear off tonight / tomorrow and I'll feel it more then. Fortunately they didn't have to do a release on my knee caps so that was GREAT news. My recovery should go much quicker as a result. No effects right now from the anesthesia other than a metal taste in my mouth probably from a breathing tube. They warned me that I might get sick tonight - I sure hope not!!

So that's the update from here. All went well - thank you so much to all my friends that called and sent emails wishing luck. My mom is here now to help with the crazy boys while I just watch the madness go by. I'm so lucky to have her close and have her help.

My knees are wrapped and then these packs have ice water circulating through them.

My pumps