Monday was the day of my "minor knee surgery" to repair my torn meniscus. I met with the surgeon the week before and we went over what to expect/not expect after the surgery. He did say at one point "The MRI only gives me a general idea, I wont really know how bad it is in there until I get in there".
The surgery time was 3:15 Monday afternoon. Bill and I worked out a plan that he would take girls to school & work (I work at their school on Mondays to offset tuition cost) and I would stay at home with little man. Little man had a speech evaluation that had been scheduled for weeks. And going to the girls school with the smell of coffee/food in the church cafe probably not a great idea for me.
After school was over I took a little nap while Bill fed the kids and his parents arrived. And then we headed into Seattle for my "minor knee surgery". I had told everyone "It's not a big deal, it's an easy surgery" and normally it is. I should've known when they hadn't taken me back at 3 that things were going down hill. Bill finally asked and they said "OH, the doctor is running behind we will get her back in 20mins"
Finally, at 3:30 they came for me and I got to get all dressed up in my fancy gown, socks & hat. Yes, they made me wear this funny knit hat thing. They took me back shortly after that. The operating room overlooked Seattle skyline & it was raining. So it was kinda of cool to see from the operating room as I laid down on the table - which was heated by the way! The anesthesiologist numbed my arm and tried to get my vein for the iv. After 3attempts he finally found a vein in my wrist that he could use for my iv. Thank goodness for that numbing agent or else I would've been dying. (I have deep vein issues, veins that roll & disappear and result in my arms being human pin cushions.)
I woke up in recovery a little after 5 and they soon got Bill for me. I got a little sick from the anesthesia but they were able to keep me from a huge puke fest. Good thing. Sadly their parking lot didn't fair better though! The doctor said the tear in my meniscus wasn't as bad as he thought but that the other cartilage damage in my knee was worse than he had expected. He sent me home with some nifty pictures. Let me know if you want to see them.
After stopping to get my pain meds we were home and I was in bed by 9pm. I didn't sleep as well as I had hoped even being on pain meds. And again this should've been a sign they say. By 6am I was wide away (only sleeping 3hrs) and having a charlie horse in my calf under the bad knee. Bill got me some more water and a banana. By 8am I was still having the charlie horse pain and I jokingly said "Maybe it's a blood clot" and Bill said "It's not a blood clot, stop saying that" and we laughed it off. By 11am I called the doctor's office and left a message with my symptoms. I also still wasn't able to sleep either no matter how hard I tried.
At 3pm the call came from the nurse. She asked me several questions and then I heard these works "How fast can you get back here?" and I said an hour. And she said "You need to get here as soon as possible we believe you have a blood clot and you need to be seen immediately"
We called the in laws who met us at the hospital and we went into the Vascular center within the hospital to be seen. An ultrasound on my leg revealed 3 blood clots. Three of the four veins in my lower calf were blocked with different size clots. And this is where the story gets fun. This is where a "minor surgery" has rocked my world.
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