I am very nervous and scared about the surgery. I won’t be able to eat after midnight and I am always very hungry in the morning, so that should be interesting. Also, I don’t get any liquids after midnight except clear liquids, and I can only have those until 7 A.M. I am also really worried about the I.V. Does it hurt? What about the mask that puts you out? How long are you out? What happens if you keep sleeping for a while longer? How do you feel when it’s all over? Will the pain medications make me sick then making me not be able to take them anymore causing intense pain all the time? Yikes! It’s all so scary, and I have no idea what is going to happen to me! Just thinking about all of the medicine TV shows that I’ve seen makes me woozy. Is that what they are doing to me?
Some other things I have to be aware of is that I have to make sure that all of my nail polish is off. I just got done taking it all off and it took me forever because I had to get in all the nook and crannies and get all of the little bits of nail polish off, what a bother! Also, I didn’t get to have any ibuprofen starting about Sunday. That wasn’t too bad, but it was still a restriction, and another thing to worry about. I am always being constantly reminded of it through those restrictions.
I am also being constantly reminded by the homework I have and by all of my friends telling me good luck and to text them as soon as I could and all. Then there also are all of those people who always ask you where you are going and when you tell them they ask why and yadda yadda yadda.
Then there is the fact that I still have to buy Christmas presents for my dad and Busy Toddler. I have ideas for both of them, but when am I going to get to the store? Also, even though I get to miss school, I still have a Christmas 4-H Program thing that Horse Lover and some of my other club members are participating in three days after my surgery. Then there is an early Christmas my whole family is having with my Great Grandma before she goes to visit other family four days after my surgery and also five days after my surgery my cousins have invited me to a hockey game and I really want to go! I really hope I am feeling good enough to go to those things!
As I mentioned before, I get to miss school through all of this. The good part of it is that I am only missing three and a half days until Christmas vacation making my vacation almost a whole week longer than it should be! But missing school always means one thing, homework. The only okay part in it is that since it almost being Christmas vacation, I am not missing much since in my middle school there are no finals. I also got most of it done in study hall the past few days.
Anyways, all in all I am pretty scared and nervous about it. In fact, I even started having dreams about it last night! That was pretty freaky. I dreamt that a lady was putting an IV in my hand and while she was doing that I asked her what the odds were of me waking up during the surgery. She said that that had happened only like 1/6 of the time. Boy, that really freaked me out! That still meant that people did wake up! But before I could think much of it I started feeling woozy. Just when I was starting to fall asleep, I woke up because I had even started feeling woozy in real life! When I looked at my clock it was 5 A.M. and so then I just sat in bed and worried for an hour and a half until my dad and mom came in to wake me up.
I will report more after the surgery, but for now I need to get to sleep so that my mom can wake me up for some more spaghetti before it is to late to eat anymore! Good night!
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thank you for posting this blog. my daughter also plays soccer, basketball and lacrosse, is the same age as your daughter and has been experiencing what her orthopedic described as a sliding knee cap. she seems to have experienced the same pain as your sports girl. she has been wearing the same brace on her right leg and the dear doctor recommended pt to strengthen her quads. some days her knees hurt, some days she says shes ok but i wonder – do i pull her know and get it taken care of. hopefully pt will help her. only time will tell. she hasn’t experienced a full out debilitating eposide yet – just severe pain. as you can imagine – for me to tell her she will be sidelined for 6 months or so— yikes!
I remember surfing the Internet when my daughter first started having the knee problem and coming up with not much of anything. So I am glad our experience can serve as a resource for you and others!
I hope physical therapy works for your daughter. Surgery certainly shouldn’t be the first choice. We opted for the surgery only after Sports Girl’s knee cap slid out of place even after weeks and weeks of PT.
I also think Sports Girl came to accept the surgery and subsequent time away from the sports she loves, because she actually had started to greatly fear that her knee would go out again. The issue was definitely interfering with her ability to really play to her full potential.
One thing I do know — not all doctors perform the type of surgery Sports Girl had done; it’s a relatively new approach to this problem. The doctor who performed Sports Girl’s surgery said he was the only one is all of Western South Dakota that actually does this, but he really didn’t know why others hadn’t caught on and started doing it yet. I’m guessing you’re from a much more populous part of the country since your daughter plays Lacrosse … we don’t even have that as a choice here … we’ve only watched that on TV!
I will be posting an update on Sports Girl’s recovery soon. I hesitate to be too optimistic, but I’m starting to think she may be able to start doing some physical activities closer to the 3-month time frame than the 6-month recovery time.
Thank you so much Sports Girl for sharing your feelings before the surgery. My 12 year old daughter is scheduled for this surgery this week and I think it was very helpful for her to read that she is not alone in her fears.
I have read your story so many times!! I need to for mental support. My son is going in for this surgery next Tuesday. He plays hockey which as you know is a very physical sport at the high school and above ages. I am so nervous that being such a physical sport it could possibly not work or cause bigger problems. I say a prayer for good and long lasting results for him to be able to play the sport he loves. Thanks for your post.