I took a break from writing about my surgeries to
participate in the first annual #RABlog week last week. It was an awesome experience and I met some
amazing people who were also participating.
I just have to say, this world has some incredible people inhabiting it.
So, the last I wrote about my surgeries was finishing my
first knee replacement surgery. The
doctor said if he had room in his surgery schedule the following Friday (my
surgery was Tuesday), then we would do surgery on my other knee. Friday came and I had done all of the usual
surgery prep. No food or water after
midnight, they put a new IV in me, I was in a drafty hospital robe, and I was
waiting, hoping that I could get in that day.
The doctor came in around 2:00 and told me that he was doing the best he
could, but there just wouldn’t be room for me that day and would have to do the
other surgery on the upcoming Tuesday.
I was disappointed, but there was nothing I could do. I changed into my regular clothes, tried to
eat some food (I had a lot of nausea going on from pain medications), and settled
back in my bed for another four days.
I had been getting regular visits from family, friends, and
neighbors, and I was trying to take lots of naps, watched a lot of TV, tried to
do anything to keep me occupied, but staying that long in the hospital made me
stir crazy. Technically, I could have
gone home and come back on Tuesday, but it would have been difficult to explain
to insurance why I was being admitted into the hospital again, so I just stayed
the entire week until my next surgery.
I was still doing physical therapy every day, and it was
getting a bit easier. I was walking
farther and farther each day, we practiced going up and down stairs, and he
bent and straightened my knee until I screamed.
My mom had one of my nieces staying with her for a few days and she came
along when my mom came to visit me. I
don’t know how she did it, but my mom seemed to always come during physical
therapy, and it was at different times during the day. I knew my little 3 year old niece wouldn’t
like watching me scream out in pain, so I had to ask them to go look at the
little newborns for a while until I was done with physical therapy.
The night before my second surgery came around, and my
brother and a couple of his kids came to visit me. My niece showed me a website that she has
played around on called edheads.org. It’s
an educational website to help kids apply math, science, and critical
thinking. She showed me a virtual knee
surgery activity that she had done. It
was quite a cute activity. You choose
the tools, make the incisions and cuts, perform the surgery, put the staples
in, and finish the virtual knee surgery.
The PA came into my room to talk about the next day’s surgery right as
we were finishing the activity and he watched the end of it. At the end of the activity, it says something
like, “Great job. Are you sure this is
your first total knee replacement?” We
all laughed! Nope, it sure wasn’t my
first total knee replacement!
 |
| Virtual Knee Replacement edheads.org |
The next day, when I got into the operating room, I noticed
and recognized many of the tools on the table that would be used in the surgery
from the virtual knee replacement I did the night before. The tools looked intimidating, but it was fun
to recognize them and remember their functions.
The second surgery went about the same as the first. I was nervous, trembling, crying, and hugging
a nurse while the anesthesiologist put the needle in my back.
I feel like the next few days in the hospital were about the
same except now both knees were intensely painful. I was nauseated, didn’t like the hospital
food, physical therapy came and worked on both knees, I was woken up in the
middle of the night… The hospital
dietician came and wanted me to drink high calorie drinks because I hadn’t
eaten much during my stay. Trying to gag
down those drinks were awful while I was already nauseated. I don’t think she had ever experienced major
surgery and the nausea that accompanies all of the medications, hospital
smells, food that doesn’t sound or taste very good. I don’t think she would have eaten much
either.
I was finally able to go home on the 4th of July
after 10 full days in the hospital. I
was so ready to be home. I could stay in
my bed, in my clothes, eat food that sounded and tasted good, and get as much
rest as possible.
One of the hardest things after knee surgery was getting
enough sleep. I’m naturally a side
sleeper, but I had to keep my knees straight so they didn’t heal in a bent
position and create scar tissue. That’s
what happened to my knees before surgery.
I couldn’t straighten them because scar tissue had built up and
prevented them from straightening. So I
was sleeping on my back and I had Iceman machines and ice packs on my knees all
day every day.
I was doing my own physical therapy exercises at home. It was hard to do, but it was much easier
than having the physical therapist push and pull on my knees to stretch them. I was taking pain medications all day to keep
on top of the pain. As I’m sure you
know, opiate pain medications aren’t refillable and the doctor can’t call the
prescription to the pharmacy. You have
to take a paper prescription each time.
I was starting to get low, so I called the surgeon’s office to see if I
could get another prescription. I called
on a Wednesday and left a message with a medical assistant. By Friday I hadn’t heard anything and I wasn’t
going to have enough to get through the weekend. I tried the doctor’s office again and left
another message, but by the end of the business day I still hadn’t heard
anything.
I started rationing my pain meds because I only had a couple
of doses left and 3 days until my follow-up appointment with my surgeon when I
knew I could get a written prescription.
Rationing probably wasn’t good, but I didn’t know what else to do. My husband was calling all over to see if
anybody had some pain meds. He even
called the doctor’s house and talked to his wife to see if anything could be
done to get a prescription. My dad was
calling everyone he knew to find some. I
think he was even trying to find some druggies in town to buy some. Despite everyone’s efforts, they couldn’t get
any more pain killers for me and I ran out over the weekend.
Monday came and I went to the surgeon’s office to get
staples taken out of the first knee. They took staples out and then took x-rays of
my knee. The technician hung up the film
and I saw for the first time, my implant in my knee. The bright blocks of metal against my light
outline of bones sparked something in my emotions and I began crying. It was a depressing sight and I was thinking,
why me? Here I was, a 24 year old, and I
had two knee replacements. This kind of
thing wasn’t normal.
The doctor was finally able to see me, and the first thing I
said was that I had run out of meds and need another prescription. We chatted about how things are looking. He asked me to bend and straighten my knees
as far as I could and requested that I do outpatient physical therapy. We set up an appointment for the next week to
get staples out of my other knee, and I walked down the ramp to physical
therapy, which was in the same building.
I thought it was just going to be an evaluation and I would
get some things to do at home. Nope, they
hooked me right up to the electrodes and started a full PT session. I sent my husband to the pharmacist to get my
pain killers because we all knew I would need them for PT.
This post is getting quite long. I will continue with PT next time…
I’m sure I’m making this all sound like joint replacement
and physical therapy are horrible awful things that should be avoided if at all
possible. That’s not what I’m intending
to portray at all. All of my surgeries
have been wonderful at helping improve my quality of life. I have heard many people say that they need
joint replacement surgery but they are waiting until the pain is absolutely
unbearable. I believe that is a terrible
idea. I wish I would have started surgeries
sooner than I did so I could have had a better year of life than I did. I would encourage anyone thinking about it to
schedule surgery now. It may be a few
months before your surgeon can schedule you in. I’m not saying it’s not going to be extremely
difficult and painful, but once you get through the first few months, it is
awesome!!
Riley
