Epiphysiodesis Surgery

1/3/2019

07:32

Surgery day is here. I’m hoping for an early release from the hospital. I can just sleep the rest of the day. Sleep again in the evening. Good luck. Worst part will be the third day and walking around. Eat well and stay hydrated. You might be able to swim soon, too. Next time you write on this chat you will have a cooling pad on your leg and a pair of crutches. Unfortunate to say but that’s the truth. It shouldn’t hurt too bad, though. This shouldn't be a tough one. And, on the bright side, you have 5.5 days of recovery before school. 

1/3/2019

17:11

Haven’t eaten for almost 24 hrs. Surgery went well. Subtle pain in kneecap. Body feels tired and slightly dead. The feeling is normal: my whole leg feels blocked up. Like the knee equivalent of earache pain. Not sharp, but throbbing and dull. Don’t worry rest is good eat well blah blah blah. Pressure on my knee hurts. Took a Tylenol. For third time in a row, we didn’t fill the opioid prescription. Totally not necessary for this minor surgery. The medicinal taste is back in my mouth and gotta say I’m not a huge fan. Kinda like rubbing alcohol mixed with chalk. Have a good evening! You have a valid reason to do nothing today! 

1/3/2019

22:54 

Good luck with sleep. It seems like there is never a position where I am 100% comfortable in my bed. One more dosage of Tylenol, no nausea hopefully. rest well. Swelling isn't too bad at the moment. We will see how it looks tomorrow morning. Last time I made the mistake of keeping the CryoCuff on for the first 2 days and the pain got a lot worse. Some swelling is good. Check in tomorrow. 

1/4/19

09:50

I’m better. Knee hurts more but that’s because morphine is wearing off so I’m fine with that. Anyway, pain exists but not too much, surviving on Tylenol and Motrin. Icing it. Haven’t removed ace bandage yet, won’t remove cryo cuff til tmrw evening probably. Then I will let it be free! I ate some breakfast this morning, and it stayed down. Things are looking up on day 2! I want to watch a lot of James Bond movies; seems like a beautifully unproductive distraction. 

1/4/19

22:10

I am going to bed now. Pain is still relatively dull, but the incisions have started to burn a little. Nerve endings weaving their way back together. Skin around my knee is still 90º despite having the CryoCuff on. Tomorrow is the third day which is rumored to be the worst. I have chosen  to adopt a much more optimistic outlook. 

1/5/19

07:54

Pain at a 4/10 right now. All night it throbbed a little, which made sleeping difficult. Doing this surgery with only Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 8 hrs is not super fun. Incisions burn slightly and knee feels like it’s actively swelling.  2 inch border around incision swollen and painful to touch. When I stand up, it feels like a weight is attached to the scar. Getting up is super uncomfortable. I have the medical wrap and CryoCuff still on. Once I get downstairs I’m taking them both off. Taking off both should relive some of this pain. But, the instant that the. CryoCuff goes on, everything feels so much better.

1/5/19

21:53

I am really tired. It’s strange. Even when I can’t move around without help from crutches, I still find myself making dinner for my family, cleaning up my room, and making my parents their morning coffees. I do it because I genuinely enjoy it, but also because I HATE feeling dependent on others. I don’t use surgery as an excuse to sit on the couch all day and wallow in my misery. I use it as an opportunity to learn something new, or help others, or just use it as motivation to get something else done. My vocabulary right now is quite limited. When you make your blog you might have to edit some of this out. I’d love to fast forward 2 years in the future. 

1/6/19

08:06

Swelling pushed kneecap to right and ouch big time. Yes, I am a sophomore in high school who says ouch big time. Once the CryoCuff was removed, the swelling moved the kneecap to the right. Whole area is tender and swollen. Hurts. Also didn’t take my Ibuprofen (which, to be fair, was scheduled for like 2am) so that’s  probably why it’s hurting more. Definitely feeling it, though. I can do some organization stuff to prepare for school tomorrow. 

10:51

I just ate a really great hamburger. Also, my knee muscles are twitching. It’s been 5 minutes of random twitches and tremors and while it is minorly uncomfortable, it’s extremely entertaining to watch. 

12:23

I put the cuff back on cuz it’s so swollen might help reduce inflammation and pain. I’ve also had a lot of water today, which is 10/10 awesome. 

1/7/19

09:52

A little pain this morning, Ice-ing it helped a lot. Tylenol feels useless now only Motrin helps. Knee kinda looks like a grapefruit. Kneecap still pushed to the left side. Can’t bend it. Still better now. And to top it all off, I have a mottled bruise that spans the knee joint region. Hopefully tomorrow will be more pressure, less swelling, more movemeant, etc. Hoping for a lot but whatever.  And my feet are cold. 

1/8/19

07:00

Another school day! Pain is subsiding at this point. I’m starting to hobble on my left leg without crutches. Last time I had surgery I was walking after 5 days. It's been 5 days and I am  beginning to walk. Have a good day at school!

14:19

Life is good. I was able to walk a lot today, and it's only gonna get better from here. More pressure should help it recover quicker. Still weak though, still can't move as much.

1/9/19

07:01

Feeling even better today. I’ll probably stop journaling soon because I’m at the point now where my recovery begins to plateau. Now that I’m walking around again, it’ll be another week before the limp starts to go away and another 2 weeks before I can start returning to normal activity. Started PT. All exercises feel familiar. Strength is coming back fast. Basically no atrophy. I feel pretty great.

1/14/19

23:12

Latest I’ve gone to sleep in a while. Leg is doing really well. Swelling has mostly gone away. My kneecap is about ⅔ of the way back to the middle. Bone feels strong. Been off of drugs for 1 day now. I’ve started to stretch my knee’s ligaments. Still a little tight and painful. Take it easy. 

1/28/19

14:29

Haven’t even thought about my leg in a while. It feels great. Everything is back to normal. XRays look good, I feel good, and I’m back to my normal activities. Super grateful that this surgery went by so quickly.