Hardware Removal Surgery – Done!

And it’s over! On Monday morning, my kids headed back to school after spring break. On Monday afternoon, I had surgery to remove the hardware from my tibial plateau fracture/ACL repair surgery from 16 months ago. Look, here I am! Don’t I look thrilled? This was while the nurse was placing a 2nd IV in my other hand, after the first one blew out. Man, I hate getting IVs. But I was a brave girl.

I had my surgery in a brand new, practically empty facility. I was the last surgery of the day, so it was literally just me and my husband and the staff. Pauly had them all laughing, and the whole experience was actually pretty chill. I woke up shaky and staaaarving (as you do, when you can’t eat after midnight and your surgery isn’t until 3 in the afternoon.) We hit Jimmy John’s on the way home and I had what I can only be described as a life-changing turkey sandwich. 

Once we arrived home, I decided to take a look at my little surgery souvenirs – the actual screws that held my tibia together. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THESE THINGS. No wonder my leg hurt all the time! 

In case you can’t tell how large they are, here’s an object for scale. My face, all jacked up on Percocet. 

Those screws are downright beefy. We could use them to rebuild the deck, or perhaps construct a treehouse! I can’t even get my head around the fact that these were inside my tibia. It’s crazy.

So, I’m two days post-op and I’ve finally had a shower (yay!) and had dinner delivered by a friend (double yay!) I think I’ll be ready for driving by the end of the week and back at the gym by Monday. I can tell I’ve got a lot of stiffness to work out in this knee! The bike will hurt so good.

Anyway! I did a lot of Googling when I was considering this surgery and I wanted to add this post to the mix – getting the hardware out is great! I am sore from the surgery and incisions, but I can already tell I’m going to feel better. There’s no more sharp pain when I stand, and no more pinch when I walk. I suspect things will feel a little better the next time we have chilly, humid weather, too.  I think I made a good choice in having this done! 

Now what shall I do with those ginormous screws? Deck repair? Gothic art project? Kill them with fire?