Good Friday aka Surgery Friday

J's surgery was ironically scheduled on Good Friday.  We thought that would be a good omen for her.  The surgery went well, as J did not wake up in the middle of surgery.  However, when she did finally wake up in recovery, she kept saying "my knee hurts."  The nurse decided to give her more drugs, which made her very sleepy.  Apparently, she was so sleepy that she would periodically stop breathing.  D kept watching her oxygen levels fall and would frequently poke her to wake up and breathe.  Although she was half asleep, J remembered thinking, 'why are you saying that, of course I'm breathing!'

Once home, although she didn't feel too much pain, J had to take a lot of strong pain medications (hydrocodone).  That was the worst part of the whole surgery experience, as her body did not like it very much.  The medication made her nauseated (throwing up each time she took it) and very drowsy.  She quickly decided to ween herself off the meds and stick to tylenol and aspirin...good thing she has a higher tolerance for pain.

Before and After photos of J's right knee.  Good thing the doctor operated on the correct knee.

First post op visit, 5 days after surgery, the knee is a wrinkled mess

 Two weeks later, still swollen, and now comes the bruises.  The bruises are supposed to get worse before it gets better.

One month later, all the stitches are gone with some slight bruising remaining.  Just need to rebuild some more muscles.

J's first excursion a week after surgery, shopping at Costco.  She asked Dan for her crutches, and he shows up with a much better option.  Turns out these electric carts have weight sensors on them.  Joy finally figured it out after several stalls.  Dan was quite the pro at maneuvering the cart - forward and backwards.  Yes, it does beep (very loudly) when it's in reverse.