Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Mike's Knee Surgery

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 this morning. We left the hospital at 10:20 this morning. In and out pretty quickly. Fairly uncomplicated procedure. God is good.

He has spent most of the day in the recliner, as to be expected. Surprisingly, his pain has been tolerable. So much so that he has chosen not to take the pain medicine the doctor prescribed, but Tylenol instead. Hmm.

He begins physical therapy on Friday. They actually want him using his leg as soon as possible. In the meantime, he has to use ice therapy for the swelling and inflammation. It's a pretty neat contraption they sent us home with, a machine kind of like a small cooler that holds ice water which is pumped through circulatory tubes connected to a brace wrapped around his knee. Pretty cool. Except that I have to keep adding ice, because he has to wear it continuously, night and day for the next 3 days.

He is not one who enjoys sitting very much either. He's a fairly active type, so he has already become quite bored. Lord, help us over the next few days :)


Polar Ice Therapy





This is a picture of the inside of Mike's knee. The arthroscopic surgery is really cool, as it allows you to watch the procedure being performed. This image is one of the lesser gross-looking ones. Not sure just what is happening here... I know the doctor had to remove a bone fragment that had broken off the knee, as well as the tissue build-up around the fragment. He also had to remove part of a certain band from the side of the knee.


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