A Little Update

Well, my knee surgery is over and done with- at least as far as I can tell. I have a follow-up on Tuesday, and if it’s anything different, I’ll let you know.

If it wasn’t for the surgery, it would have been a pretty nice weekend. Helaina was home a night early, coming home on Thursday night after having picked up Rachael at the bus station. Rachael was able to stay until Sunday morning, and Jake popped in and out throughout the weekend. Sam, of course, was always near by.

A few days before the operation, the doctor’s office called to tell me that they had moved the operation up on the schedule. To me, this was a good thing. I figured that the earlier it was in the morning, the more likely it was to be on time. Turns out I was wrong.

I was told to be at the hospital at nine in the morning for the surgery, which was scheduled to begin at 10:30. As near as I can remember, they were close to two hours late. It wasn’t so much the waiting itself that was bothering me- Rachael was doing a good job occupying my time. What was bothering me was that first of all, I had told Sam that I would be home by the time he got back from school. I was beginning to doubt that this was going to happen. And secondly, Jake was due to come home from Rhode Island and he had been having car problems, starting the night before. What if he ran into problems getting home?

There wasn’t a whole lot I could do about either of these things at this point. I did manage to have some last minute communication with Jake while I was in the pre-op area- and that would have to suffice. It was about 12:20 at this point, and they were getting ready to wheel me away.

I remember being wheedled down the hall to the operating room and that’s about the last thing I remember. Before the operation a nurse had told me that after wheeling me in there, I would have to climb onto the operating table and they would put an oxygen mask on me and at some point, slide a breathing tube down my throat. Somewhere in between all of this, they would knock me out. I don’t remember any of this. I’m glad I don’t, but a part of me finds it disturbing, just the same.

Judging from the texts and logs on my phone, it was about three hours later when I woke up in recovery, and it was about another hour and a half beyond that when I finally made it home- well past the time I had told Sam I would be back. At least Jake had made it back in the time that I was out of it.

Most of the day and most of the evening is still lost in a fog. I remember getting into the house, but did I manage to get anyone dinner? I had left popcorn and a bowl out the night before, in hopes that I could keep the Friday night tradition of Sam and I watching "Monk" together, and I was able to keep that promise- with Sam’s help. I remember that Rachael watched it along with Sam and I, but I don’t remember much about the show itself. I remember not being able to stay awake long enough to wait for Helaina to get home from work and feeling bad about it, but I don’t remember going upstairs to bed.

I guess none of the particulars really matter all that much. I may not remember anything about the operation itself and I may not remember many of the specifics of that evening, but I remember everyone being there to help and being there to be supportive- and that’s everything that matters.