Well greetings everyone and Happy New Year! And I guess a belated Merry Christmas to all! Soooo much to type about here.
After I got home here to Texas, I started preparing for my left knee to be replaced. I wasn't looking forward to it for several obvious reasons, but chiefly, I just HATE being a burden on anyone, especially my best friend Julie and her family, but she did offer, so it ended up that way.
I had my left knee replaced at Dallas Regional Medical in Mesquite.....first, I should say, my surgeon, Dr. Port is AWESOME. I would recommend him to anyone who needs Orthopedic help. But the hospital was AWFUL! I later found out they have quite a reputation of being terrible, but I got to experience it first hand! LUCKY ME! Surgery went well. I had to stay ion the hospital for 3 days. Right after I came out of surgery, they were trying to get me some liquids in me with protein since at this point I had not eaten in 24 hrs. Everything we tried, i threw right back up. All the anesthesia they gave me in surgery was making me quite sick. It took the hospital almost 3 hrs to get something for me. Julie was right there next to me the whole time; trying to feed me, as I was still slightly unconscious. But I do remember getting sick over and over again. Then the next day, I was up and moving doing physical therapy. There was lots of pain and swelling, but I did it with the help of a therapist and a walker. Taking lots of pain meds helped too! My IV began to leak and needed to be fixed. It took the staff almost 2 hrs to come and fix that. I dreaded each time Julie wasn't around. She was awesome in keeping the nurses on their toes to administer to my needs. My Dr came everyday to check my scar and check my progress. After 3 days of NOT getting any rest in the hospital...because they come in to check on you every 4 hrs, I was READY to go home. Once home, slept almost all afternoon trying to get caught up. Within a week and a week, PT was going very well. I was able to lift my leg on my own and do most of the exercises myself...Julie helped a lot. We spent about 3 hrs a day doing exercises to rehab correctly. Then the wound started looking bad. I suspected an infection.....so we went to Dr. Port's office. He administered a oral antibiotic and some creme to kill it, but 2 days later, my leg was starting to turn colors and had A LOT of excess oozing. It was diagnosed as a staph infection; a topical one. The wound was looking really gross. So on NEW YEARS DAY, we had to go back to the hospital to receive antibiotics via IV. I stayed at a different hospital this time; didn't want to go back to what probably GAVE me the infection in the first place.
So....here I am back at Julie's now. I was released yesterday. Still taking meds via IV. Julie has been helping with that; I have a PICC line in which makes the administration much easier and painless. So today, just been very sleepy. Trying to get caught back up with sleep, but doing much better. It's good to be home away from the hospital.
On a different note...I was suppose to be assisting and observing my Pastor all this month, but due to my infection, I will be writing a paper instead on the Theology of Pain and Suffering; something I think I know a little about now!
Classes resume for Spring semester on February 2nd. Iowa has been getting dumped on with snow. Its been colder than normal here in Texas, but nothing like up there! Anyways, I've got one more paper to finish, so tootles! Peace to everyone reading.
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