We went to the hospital around 8 am and waited for about an hour or so for him to be taken back into surgery. Then, I had to go sit and wait in the waiting room for what seemed like FOREVER! It was more than 3 hours! Luckily, I had a good book to read (The Help) and I just about finished it while I was there. Once he was out of surgery, they took me back to the recovery room. He was pretty sad! I should have taken some pictures, but I felt too bad for him. He was in a lot of pain! By about 2 o'clock the Dr had come in to give some directions and then they were giving me the discharge instructions. That is when things got a little crazy...If you know me, you know that I do NOT do hospitals! I can NOT even be in a hospital without feeling a little bit sick and lightheaded and I have been known to pass out a few times. I have several bad experiences with hospitals! One of my best friends growing up in high school was in a pole vaulting accident and I remember that I went to see him and saw him on the backboard and everything and almost threw up and had to sit on the gross emergency room floor with my head between my knees. He was totally fine, but I couldn't handle it! I had a cousin who had cancer when I was in high school and they would always have to have some juice ready for me when I would visit and a chair to sit on so I could put my head down. And, when my mom and brothers were hit by a car when I was in college, me and my sister ended up in my brothers' hospital beds with cold compresses on our heads because both of us were about to pass out.
Anyway - as I was saying, I don't have a great record with hospitals! Also, being pregnant and having some morning sickness anyway did not help the situation. I also had not eaten much of anything all day. I was going to go get some lunch, but I was too afraid that I would either get lost in the hospital or pass out somewhere all by myself. So....all of that added up to a rather disastrous discharge! As the nurse was finishing up her instructions, I started to feel really sick. I remember warning her that I felt like I was going to pass out and asking for some juice, but then I don't remember anything until I woke up in a bed. I apparently passed out onto Darren's bed. They had to wheel Darren out into the hall and put me into a bed. Once I woke up, I felt really sick and I threw up several times. The great thing about this was they introduced me to the coolest barf bags that I now have stashed in the car in case we ever need them. Anyway, I was in no state to drive us both home so I had to call my brother who was babysitting the girls to pick us up. What a fiasco!
Once Darren was home, he was a pretty permanent fixture on the couch for the next two weeks. It was really hard for him to go up and down the stairs on crutches, so he slept downstairs and stayed on the couch for most of the time, except when he needed to take a shower. Rylee was a great helper and loved to be Daddy's little nurse and get him whatever he needed. I spent a good part of the time on the other couch feeling pregnant sick. We were quite the pair! Darren took the rest of that week off work and was supposed to go back the next Monday, but he ended up canceling a lot of his patients for the next week because he couldn't perform all the procedures yet or quite work a full day. By the end of that week though he was feeling pretty good and I have no idea how he was working with crutches, but he was!
September 23 - Here is Darren's knee a couple days after surgery once he got his wrap off. It was pretty swollen and to be honest, it grossed me out! I could barely take these pictures without feeling sick. I am such a wimp when it comes to this kind of stuff! I think he took a lot of pictures on his phone over the next couple weeks to document healing. I will have to steal a few and post them later. He was a pretty good patient, although I probably wasn't the best nurse since I wasn't feeling very well myself. He rarely asked for anything except to fill up his Cryo Cuff, which is a cooler thing that pumped cold water into a compress on his knee and that I was about ready to throw away by the end of the whole ordeal! I was so tired of filling it over and over! But, he really didn't ask for much and we are so glad that he is better and not on crutches anymore! It was hard to have our daddy down for so long and I realized how much he usually helps. Our house really suffered having him not able to help and me feeling pregnant! He spent the next few months doing some physical therapy and he is hoping he can get back on the soccer field before too long! With a knee brace, of course!
