Well, some of you already know all this, so forgive the repeat. But here's the news from today.
To start with, I was really bored. :) Okay, that wasn't a tragedy, it was inevitable. But nevertheless, it was beyond true. I was the third person there in the waiting room and not a single person who started there with me (or was there even soon after that) was there when I left. They had all left hours before. I have now seen more soaps in a day than I have in the rest of my life combined (which means I watched 2 today). I saw Ellen (she's really funny), watched the entire process of the Pope being elected, from the announcers saying, "Is it really white smoke?" to the announcement in Latan, to the Swiss Guard and all the ceremony following. It was REALLY cool. I wrote a letter, wrote in my journal, read 50 pages in a book, ate very little and slept not at all (unfortunately on both counts). And all of this BEFORE 2:30pm.
Now, what you want to hear about. Rob went in at 8:30am. He was in good spirits and we were laughing about stuff. They gave him a local block for his leg. (He's just now, actually, finally starting to feel the ice pack on his knee.) They did the surgery. I was talking to the doctor who did the surgery, Dr. Kenter, at noon. He showed me pictures which were cool. Basically, from what he said, there was some more damage in there than they expected to see. Not unusual damage, though. There was a little arthritis in there. And the back of the knee cap was really worn down, which he didn't expect at all. But, he said because of that, it's a good thing that Rob went with the type of surgery he went with (there are 2 options), the hamstring option. The other option that he didn't choose would have taken away some strength from the knee cap, and he said with the damage there it just wouldn't have been good. So, that was nice to hear, that we made the right choice. But in spite of the damage, he said the surgery went really well. He sounded really positive and was impressed with his own handiwork, which is good. He said we'll have to see how it heals, but he expected it to go well and was optimistic. He also showed me a picture that caught my eye. You know how you see like shark attack wounds when they're fresh, and the flesh is just shredded? That's what this looked like. I think that was supposed to be his ACL. I can't be sure about that, and I'm sure he'll tell Rob on Monday when he goes for a return appt., but whatever it was, it was DEFINITELY not supposed to look like that. It just looked like carnage inside the body. Wow.
So all in all, we're glad we did the surgery now before the damage got worse.
As for recovery, Rob has a brace that he's supposed to wear (I don't know until when) that keeps his leg absolutely straight. He can weight bear on it, and he's already done so to get up the stairs to our apt. He is supposed to do minor exercises for now and hobble around and try to get off crutches as soon as he can, like in the next week or two, I think. Really, it sounds good. I guess there are a couple different philosophies doctors can take after this surgery. For instance, my friend's doctor is apparently anti-brace. Thinks people can rely on them too much. Obviously Rob's doctor is okay with braces. And that's okay with me. The drug docs said the pain will be the worst tonight and tomorrow, and if tonight is any indication, Rob should be okay. Granted, he's only sitting on the couch, but that's okay for now. The doc sounded like Rob will really be able to go as full speed as he wants to, within some guidelines. And we now own some cool equipment--crutches, a leg brace, and some rad ice pack that's like a cooler that constantly pumps ice cold water into a pack covering his leg. He's supposed to keep ice on it for at least 24 - 48 hours following surgery.
Other than that, let's see. Rob is not very grouchy now, which is nice. He was pretty out of it and grouchy when he first came out, which wasn't so easy. I guess I just didn't remember that pain and drugs do that (I'm sure I was like that after the 2 C's I had). Oh! That's right. The other thing the doc said was that he was able to repair Rob's miniscus, which is good. It'll increase recovery time, though. He said normally for the surgery they start pretty agressive therapy right away, with full range of motion. Well, with this, it'll be about 6 weeks before they start doing that kind of stuff. He made it sound to me like Rob should not move his knee past 90 degrees for those 6 weeks. I'm sure we'll find out more as it goes on.
Really, right now we're just going with the flow. And hopefully tonight things go just fine sleeping, cause I'm really tired, and Rob's really tired.
And S, don't feel bad. Rob's Mom came down to help us with the kids, or I'd be calling in favors from just about everyone I know. :) As it was, she was at our house to watch the kids from when we left at 6:45am - 5:00pm. And my good friend across the way cooked dinner for us, which was really nice. Even though I told her not to bother, we'd have it all taken care of, it was REALLY nice to have it taken care of by her. And with me and Rob not so emotionally on top of the world, it's nice to have Grandma here to help with everything we still have to do--like be nice to our kids.
We love you all and we'll keep you updated as this goes on.
Tamra
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