Another Catch up Session

My friend Mark has inspired me to get back on the blog band wagon. It's been almost a complete year since I posted anything. Part of the reason behind this was that I was in high gear most of the time tending to baby.

For reasons I'll get into, I'm stuck sitting on my butt for the next couple of weeks so hopefully I'll be able to crank out a blog or two. Now that I've set a precedent for 1 blog per year, I can only improve upon my record!

So what's been happening?!

Katie, a.k.a Pookas has been growing like mad. She's now 1 year old, saying simple words and pulling up on every bit of furniture she can get her hands on. She's walking two or three steps at a time now and is just getting enough confidence to walk on her own.

Here's something I'm worried about: Katie's a cute baby and she engages lot of people in random public places. I've had numerous people tell me " better get a shotgun!...." She is a cutie but it wouldn't bother me if she doesn't turn out to be a super model. Less worrying and conflicts in the future.


For Katie's first birthday we had a baby luau. We had the Georgia contingent of the family over our house and everyone wore Hawaiian shirts. Stephanie made a hawaiian themed barbie cake with a grass skirt for Katie to tear into. When we presented her with the cake she was suprisingly civil, tasting it very daintely. I was hoping she would tear into it like a beast!

We are building our dock! We signed on the dotted line before the holidays and the contractor has finished about 40% of the project. So far they have driven piles in the marsh out to the river and complete 200 ft of the walkway. We're gonna be poor people when this thing is over with.

A month and half ago I jumped off the third rung of a step ladder and hurt my knee. I felt something pop, but I was in denial that anything serious had happened. Four weeks went by and it was pretty clear that my knee wasn't getting any better so I scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic. After two visits and an MRI it was determined that I busted my ACL outright and I damaged one the cartilage meniscuses padding my knee.

Last Tuesday I had surgery to replace the ACL (I won't get into the details of how they do this... kinda creepy) and possibly repair the meniscus. I was nervous as heck going into the surgery - I've never had surgery before. The worst part was getting the IV put into my hand. Needles really creep me out. After the IV was in they started pumping me with some happy drugs so I barely remember what happened after that. I know I wasn't breathing frequently enough so they stuck an oxygen tube under my nose. I don't remember them starting the anesthesia because I was so drugged up. I just work up slowly and my leg was bandaged and swolen. They were supposed to use something called a femoral block to stop me from having pain from the surgery but apparently it didn't work and my knee was on fire after the surgery. ......So they pumped me full of more happy drugs. Stephanie took me home and I slept for the rest of the day.

God bless Stephanie for taking such good care of me while I've been out of commission. She's been working full time, caring for a 1 year old (NOT EASY!!), cleaning the house on top of cleaning up after me and fetching things around the house.

I'm having a run in with the orthopedic doctor over my rehabilitation. During my surgery it was determined that my meniscus wasn't repairable so they cut the damaged section out to avoid further complications. From my understanding, many doctors recommend an aggressive program to get you back walking after 2 weeks after ACL repair and meniscus removal. My doctor has commanded me to stay on crutches with no weight applied to the knee for at least 4 weeks. So I'm stuck on crutches for 2 extra weeks which absolutely sucks.

Physical therapy has been going well and I'm getting a lot of flexibility back. I'm wondering if we'll get to a point in the therapy where I've progressed as far as I possibly can without actually walking. It will stink if I reach this point and I still have a week to go before the doctor gets his head out and finally issues the command to let me put weight on it.

I have decided I don't like my orthopedic doctor. He approached the rehabilitation with a very narrow mind and didn't consider how/if intensive of therapy would be right for me. If I had gone to a different doctor in the area I would be very close to walking right now....

The other thing that bothers me about this doctor is that he acts like I'm wasting his time by asking in depth questions about the surgery and recovery. I strive to understand exactly what is happening in my knee as I recover so I understand what's at risk of breaking while I exercise. He answered my questions but his tone was annoyed when he was answering them. It's almost as though he wants the patients to be processed like a can of meat. There's no flexibility in his recommendations.....to me this suggests he is insecure and probably inexperienced with these procedures.

The good news is that the ACL repair is actually very good. Besides all the instant muscle shrinkage after the surgery my knee feels great. The joint is tight and there is practically no pain. If I get through this rehabilitation I'll probably walk/run normally again.

This last picture illustrates why we call Katie, pookas.


Well this has turned into a marathon post and I'm out of interesting things to talk about. That's all folks!!! See ya in ....? 6 months?