December 11 - Nate Update

Well December 11^th came upon us.  Nate had his knee surgery today.  They told us we needed to arrive at the hospital at 5:00 a.m.  Ugh!  So we did.  His doctor does Saturday surgeries every so often to accommodate people (very nice of him), but that means Same Day Surgery is closed so he had to be admitted to a regular hospital room.  The nurses were very nice and got Nate all ready for surgery, but that took a total of about 30 minutes so we waited and waited.  They finally wheeled him to the O.R. around 7:00 a.m.  I was lucky enough to meet and chat with an older gentleman who was also waiting for his spouse to come out of surgery.  He kept me entertained.  It’s funny the things you find in common with complete strangers even when they are more than double your age.  Anyway, the doctor finally came out a little before 9:30 a.m. to tell me the surgery was done.  And to both of our surprise the PCL (post cruciate ligament) had some damage, but it wasn’t the thing causing all the problems.  It was actually his ACL and meniscus.  The radiologist or whoever reads MRI’s didn’t do a very good job at it!  Seems really weird.  The funny thing is when Nate first saw the orthopedic doctor he thought it was the ACL by the way it moved and all the manual tests he did, but he changed his tune because the MRI said otherwise.  So instead of using a cadaver ligament they used a couple tendons out of Nate’s hamstring and cleaned up and took out about 20% of the meniscus (cartilage) that was hanging around.  So the good thing about it not being the PCL is the ACL replacement has a quicker over-all recovery…. Yay!  Nate was in recovery for a good hour and a half before I got to see him.  I was told he requested Christmas music when he woke up and they were happy to oblige. :)  Then they took him back to the room we started in.  He was determined to get out quick.  I don’t think the nurses let him go as soon as he wanted, but they were busy with actual patients who weren’t just same day surgeries and of course doing their job not letting him go until they were certain everything checked out.  We left the hospital around 1:00 p.m.  The kids were all happy to see their dad’s arrival and that he didn’t look too hurt…. just a big brace on his leg.  Rachel has been his little sidekick since she came down with a fever last night and doesn’t feel well today.  Nate has done really well today, but I know the next day or two will be the worst.  He starts physical therapy Monday.  It’s great to have one more surgery checked off the list.  We had to add Eliza to the list of surgeries earlier this week.  She needed tubes in her ears so that was done on Wednesday.  It’s nice that ear tubes are done quick and with minimal discomfort.  She’s as happy as can be now.  As for the jaw surgery, it’s still planned for February.  We’ll keep you posted.  He picked out some glasses yesterday.  His vision is still giving him grief especially when he’s tired.  So he decided to just go ahead and get glasses to help him when he’s really struggling.   His vision is 20/20 in both eyes, but one eye was moved slightly as a result of the accident so they don’t communicate like they used to and that’s why he see’s double.  But Nate is still just going strong.  Can’t get that guy down and if you do, you can’t keep him there!  And now it’s time for me to catch some shut eye before I fall asleep on the keyboarddddddddddddddddddddddddddd…. Oh sorry….. or my alarm goes off to give meds.  And I’m sure a child will wake me for one reason or another as well.  Thank you for your continued love and support through our trials and seemingly same old news.  :)