A Long Week

I have a feeling Phil's week has went faster than the rest of ours, since he's slept most of it, but I've felt it being a little long, of course the pain might not help him at all, I am thinking the pain pills do though, oh and it's not just a long week, it's a super long post so some might not make it to the end.

About 6 weeks or so ago maybe shorter or longer I don't remember I am sure Phil does, Phil really hurt his knee, again, playing basketball, you know that church-ball and how rough it gets. How long has the same knee been going out, since he was 15 and I can't even count how many times in the last 8 years... Last week during soccer practice he said they were running the field (remember this is the 6 year old group so it's not that aggessive) and he turned and it just went out. I threatened him a little and told him I was done with it and he was calling a doctor. He called him friday, had an appt. on Monday and was told it was a torn meniscus. He called me said I am scheduling my surgery is tomorrow ok? Tomorrow? Seriously? Who has surgery, that isn't life threatening the next day. Apparently they, as in Phil and the doctor want him to get in and get it done.

Surgery day. This was a routine surgery. As in out patient surgery when he wakes up I can drive him home. We drop him off at 8 AM with surgery scheduled at 9. Get home, get the kids ready, get back out the door and drop them off with a neighbor at 9:40ish. I go back the hospital and they give me a pager, Phil was told he'd be done around 10 or 10:30. So I am thinking I hope he isn't done and the doctor wasn't looking for me to give me the update. Nope I was good. I finally got paged about 11.

Doctor comes out and brings me back to his little consult room. Honestly some parts I don't remember, but what I do remember is him saying, It's much worse than what we thought originally. There is no way we could have known except opening him up the damage that he has. He has a torn ACL. Now here's your decision, do we keep going with the surgery without his permission and give him 4-6 months recovery instead of the 3-4 weeks. Ideally I want his permission, but waking him up getting it and then putting him back under isn't really practical. But you can give it. I don't want him to loose confidence in me as a doctor if I do it and he is not happy with me or you if that isn't what he would want.

He told me a lot of things. It was 90 percent torn. His meniscus was torn as well. The way he put it to me if we didn't do it he said that he needs to go in when he can as soon as possible and get it fixed. It is bad. Time for my decision. I said no. I don't think I could have him wake up and he couldn't walk well for 4-6 months without being prepared.

Another 35 minutes go by which feels super long when your in a waiting room. Doctor comes in and says he's done it went well. Then he leaves. So I am thinking I can go back. Nope I don't get paged. I finally get to go back a while after that when he woke up. Now it's like 2 hours past when he was suppose to be out of surgery! I am just feeling bad for my friend because she has three kids of her own including a 6 month old. Which I completly trust her I just felt bad I made her have them that long.

Phil is awake when I go in there and I said so the doctor talked to you. He said no, why? Seriously? I get to tell him eveything, not even the nurses knew or they didn't write it down, apparently he figured I could tell him. Remember when I couldn't remember everything. He wasn't happy just because of the torn ACL, I don't really blame him he thought this surgery would fix it and now he gets to go in and get another one with an even longer recovery. To me he had explained he needed to go in and mentioned a date which was right after our Disney trip, because he knew about that and said I don't want him not to walk at that so let's do that the week after. He had mentioned a brace, but I didn't understand that. By the way, my decision was a good one. He would have been very ticked at me and the doctor had we decided to do it. So glad we didn't do it, ok it wasn't that hard I really didn't think much about it, I knew what he wanted.

We did have a note to call the doctor the next day, but when we got home and he rested I said just try and call him because I couldn't believe he wouldn't want to talk to him without explaining, because I should not be the one explaining it! He did call, which the doctor said he really wanted to talk to him even though he had the rest of the day off and said that he can brace it and wait awhile even up to a year. He goes in next friday to talk to him and get the brace.

He's had crutches he can't walk without them, which means he can't carry anything, he is trying out one today, he did make it down to our front room, which is quite the accomplishment because it is two staircases and I think he is in the basement right now which is another staircase! I like how the Physical Therapist said, don't worry about bringing the crutches back. We put them on your hospital bill and you keep them. Gee thanks I have always wanted to have my own crutches!

This is killing him because I have seen him to go work with ammonia. He hasn't been to work since Monday except yesterday he tried in the morning, but that's all he lasted.

He got to take off the dressing this morning. He got to wrap his leg in saran wrap. I would have taken a picture, but his stiches are really disgusting!