Monday, March 26, 2007

Well, I'm still alive


Sorry Caleb, I pulled though. Look on the bright side... oh there has to be one somewhere, just keep looking.

Anyway, yes, the surgery went very well. I do not remember a thing and I came out with both my legs attached. (Two things I was worried about the reverse happening) Oh and they operated on the correct leg too. But, I have good news and bad news. I will start with the bad, the tare in my lateral (outside) meniscus was too great and they could not fix it. They removed a big chuck of floating cartledge, about 2 cm long and 1cm wide. That little guy was causing all the problems. So, I will be able to resume my daily activities soon. However, I will never be able to run that marathon I had been working towards for the last few years... That was the hardest to hear. It is not that I could not go out and run the 26.2 miles in one go, but since that is impossible for me at this current state of fitness I will not be able to do it. It would be really bad for my knee to go through the training for it. Onto the Good! I am not it a brace because there was nothing to fix!!! so the healing time will be much much faster and I will not have to go through near as much physical therapy. I will only have to be on crutches for two weeks. In other good news, the drugs they gave me are really really good... So I hope all is well with you all. I will be in touch.
-Danny

Friday, March 02, 2007

Surgery!

So, nothing new has happened with the girls. I'm sorry to all you who had your hopes up for me. I did too. I did meet someone else though, her name is Dana, and she works at Seattle's Best Coffee, I drink a lot of coffee apparently. I did ask her out, but had to cancel because of school and then I hurt my knee. Here is where the surgery part comes in, but I will tell you the whole story.

So, Valentines Day, I deliver flowers for my aunt who owns a florist every year. I have for the past ten years. Anyway, I am bending down to pick up a box of flowers and my right knee feels like it pops out of joint! Now it has done this before, but this time it stayed out! I tried to force it back in by walking on it and using my weight to push it, but I just nauseated myself. I nauseated myself to the point where I had to sit down. Then I proceeded to black out. While I was blacked out apparently my arms when up over my head and I went into a full body convulsion. That's right, arms and legs flailing about with no abandon! I unfortunately do not remember any of this. When I came to, my cousin asked me if I was alright and I told him that I thought that I had just blacked out. He then was relieved because he though my flailing was me just being frustrated with the pain. He said, "Good, I didn't think you were a drama queen" So then he asked if I though I should go to the hospital, I said no. I think I will be ok although I should probably go to a Chiropractor because they will be able to see me sooner and not cost as much as the ER. The Chiropractor I normally go to was sick, of course, so I went to this other guy he recomended, Dr. Dawson. Dr. Dawson worked on me for 45 minutes and could not get my knee to unlock. So I went home, in excruciating pain and my knee finally let go that evening at about 9:30. So I went back the next day and he popped it back in and the tells me to come back in a week.

One week later, I go back and he is working on it stretching it and he locks it up again! He was able to get it about half unlocked. But, since I was there for so long then, his assistant came and was working on me and he locked it up for a second time. I know they were trying to help, but I was so mad! This was an 8:30 am appointment and the rest of my day was ruined because I could not put any weight at all on my knee (way too painful). It did not unlock that evening, but when I woke up the next morning I was able to walk on it again.

So I went on Monday to the hospital to have an MRI. Cool process by the way. The machine uses the water in my body and magnets to look at my muscles and ligaments, not x ray technology.

I got the results back today and I went to a specialist and the news was good and bad. Good that it is a relatively simple surgery and will only last an our. It will be done at an out patient clinic, so no hospital time! yay! The bad new is that I will have to be in a brace for a month to keep my leg straight at all times! After that I will need intense physical therapy because my right leg muscles will deteriorate a lot from lack of use. What really sucks is that I am going to miss the New York Trip my cousin, my aunt and I were going to take my grandma on. She is 82 and has never been off the West Cost. It has been a dream of hers to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to see where her parents immigrated in from. I can not describe to you the hurt in my heart for not getting able to do this. She is such a special person to me and I wanted to be apart of this so badly. I am not a crier, but today I have cried a lot. It has all been a lot to take. So if I come to mind please pray for me. Thank you guys for being such great support. I love you all.

-Danny