The plan had been originally to take the wedge out of my thigh bone, right above the knee. After doing more calculations the doctor decided it would be best if he took the wedge from the area in the photo below circled in pink. He said taking it from the femur (the thigh bone) would change the angle of my knee, which would be bad. He said taking it from the tibia (the larger lower leg bone) will keep my knee level while straightening my leg some.
The yellow triangle on the photo is where he said he will take the wedge out. He said he will also "clean up" where the purple arrow is pointing. I had a very large tumor removed from that spot when I was 14 years old. Because my skeleton hadn't completely finished forming yet, some of the tumor grew back. Lately, when I sleep wrong with pressure on that area, my leg goes painfully numb there. I think it will be nice to have that hook of bone off, I hope it relieves the painful numbness.
The area circled in blue is where I still have good cartilage cushioning for my knee. By straightening my leg the idea is that my weight will be shifted to that part of my knee. The side not circled has little to no cartilage. It is hoped that this procedure will also relieve the problems with the area circled in red (I call that my stalk of cauliflower because that is what it reminds me of). That is the area that they can't do anything with because a major nerve runs right through there. I think that nerve is part of what is causing me pain. There are tendons, nerves, veins, muscles and who knows what other soft tissue right there also. The best way I've found to describe part of the sensation there is to ask you to imagine strumming your thumb down the stings of a guitar. All of my abnormal bumps "strum" the strings of my soft tissue. It is, of course, much more painful than actually strumming a guitar. Sometimes the bumps get "caught" (like sticking your finger too far between the strings while trying to strum and not being able to get it past the next string because of that) and that is even more painful.
Dr. Morshed told me that I can expect to stay in the hospital 3-4 days, which has me anxious. None of my surgeries have ever had me spend more than one night in the hospital. I suffer from pretty severe anxiety when I am out of my comfort zone (home, work, school) for too long, and I fear this will be way too long. I'm worried about being alone in the hospital too. Being there that long, it will be too much to ask my husband to be there with me the whole time. He can't anyway, he has classes and will have to rest. I will have to work on some coping skills ahead of time with my therapist.
The doctor also told me that I am looking at a long, difficult recovery. I will be on crutches for probably 6 months. Since I have issues with my right wrist I will have to have a special crutch that has a "shelf" to put my forearm on to hold my weight up rather than my hand and wrist with a regular crutch. It looks really tricky to manage and I am really afraid of falling with crutches. I can't remember how long he said I would have to go without even touching my toes to the ground, it was either a couple weeks or a couple of months. (I know, that is a huge difference but I got a little overwhelmed by all the information he was giving me). I am used to being able to walk within a day or two of surgery. It is going to be hard, not being able to do much for myself.
One of the other things that has me anxious is that Dr. Morshed says it will be at least 6 months before I feel any relief. So, in other words, things are about to get much worse before they get better. I am no stranger to pain, but this is probably going to be worse than anything I have ever experienced before. I assume they will keep me comfortable with pain meds, but that could have an impact on my school work. Even if I am able to get back and forth to school, I am concerned that being on pain drugs could negatively impact my school performance. The doctor said I should be able to continue going to school with no problem, but we will see. If it gets too tough, I will ask them to excuse me for this semester and finish after I have healed a little.
I am also worried about my work, I do outreach and won't be able to go out for a while. I am hoping we can work something out so that I can still get my hours in without taxing my healing body too much. I am blessed to work with a couple of truly wonderful agencies and I know they won't just leave me hanging. I only work about 20 hours per month with each agency so I shouldn't miss a whole lot. Both places are flexible about where I get at least some of my monthly hours.
On Feb. 21st I go in for my "prepare" (for surgery) appointment. That morning I also have CT scans scheduled for my right wrist (and my head/sinuses). Once I have healed up enough from this surgery I will be getting ready for wrist surgery next. I am hoping that wrist surgery will make it so I can crochet again without such pain. I really miss crocheting for stress relief and the extra cash it can bring in.
No comments:
Post a Comment