My last draft saved here was intended to be a holiday gift guide for teenagers of the internet, featuring lots of geeky t-shirts and stickers and jewelry. Yep. And here we are now, at the tail end of January. Time flies when you’re lying around the house with a busted leg.
Oh, wait – actually? Time doesn’t fly at all. Time f’ing DRAGS, you guys! As of today, it has been 78 days since I took that spill down the stairs that resulted in my badly broken knee. It’s been over eleven weeks since I’ve taken an unassisted step. My living room truly is MY LIVING ROOM now, since that’s where I spend damned near every moment of my life. I hobble around on crutches and I’ve dinged the hell out of every cabinet and door jamb with my wheel chair. Me and chiweenie, chillin’ in the bed, day after day after mother-effing day.
You’d think during that time, I would have written a blog post or two. But no. Most of the time, I’m on my iPhone or my tablet, which doesn’t make for very easy blog posting. Many, many times I’ve been awake at night, thinking of things I really wanted to write about – but I just haven’t had it in me to do so. This has been a downer and a half, you guys. For real. I’m about ready to really write about the experience, though, so you can relive the excitement of our Christmas From Hell, where Paul and Mallory had food poisoning, and Kayley was admitted to the hospital for days, due to complications from HER broken leg. It’s been coconuts.
Things are looking up at the Casa de Chaos, though. I’m going to physical therapy twice a week, and although it is absolute freaking torture, I am sllllllowly regaining some of my range of motion. I truly can’t believe how badly I destroyed my leg, in just a simple fall down a couple of stairs. My physical therapist called over everyone to count the holes in my knee – he said he’d never seen so many scars from one single surgery. He pushes me really hard – which I need – but dude. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. It hurts SO MUCH. He puts my leg in this thing called an extensionator – I fondly refer to it as The Punisher – and during the ten minutes I’m strapped in, my eyes burn with tears and all I can do is focus on my breathing. It’s like my knee is in labor!
Friday is a big day for me – I’m seeing my surgeon again for some x-rays, to see how my knee is healing! He seems super pleased so far with my progress, and continually tells me what a challenge this surgery was. He detailed how it took him three tries to tuck my avulsed ACL back into place from where the bone tore away, and how he had to shoot “bone grout” into the area where he placed the screws, to hold it all together. I’ve got two really long screws running horizontally across the top of my tibia, which makes for cool x-ray pictures. Honestly, though, after all the Googling I did of tibial plateau fractures, I think I got off easy – all the pics I saw showed repairs made with a huge plate with about nine screws.
I am crossing my fingers that Friday will be the day my surgeon tells me I can stop walking with crutches. I cannot wait to regain a little independence! Wish me luck!
Kayley’s Bad Luck – mommy daughter matching broken legs!