Thanks Mom!

Well if you want a nightmare, come spend a few days in my shoes. Really it could be a whole lot worse, and I am very fortunate, but you wouldn't think ACL surgery would be the least of my problems right now. In the past week I have had the potential for 4 move out dates, 3 of those being in less than a week from now.

Last Friday (the day after surgery) my complex informed me I could stay until the end of the month, no problem. When I called Monday to ask how much I owed them (conveniently right after calling the power and cable companies to change my move out date), they said they actually couldn't let me stay any longer, but they would try and work something out. Numerous phone calls and a visit later I finally have a move out date (a week from today). My mom and I started frantically packing (moreso my mom since I'm on crutches), but I still haven't figured out where I am going. I don't even know what city my stuff plans on ending up in. I need to sell my couches, but me sitting on the floor with crutches is going to be a really sad sight. I have a ton to figure out, but the good news is I rebooked my flight for the end of July, so I still have NZ to look forward too.

My surgery went well. I oddly ended up with the same anesthesiologist from my last ACL surgery and its starting to feel like the entire hospital remembers me. The scheduling lady at PT even remembered what time slot I used to come in from before. She also kindly informed me that the hospital owes me $900 from the last surgery, so we will see how that works out. They weren't able to save my meniscus (only about a 5% chance anyway since it had already been repaired), so they trimmed it down. The good news is now I have a faster recovery, but the bad news is long term my knee won't like me as much (not that they were loving me much before :) ).

Its interesting how different everything was from before. Fortunately, its been significantly easier than last time. The meniscus repair really does a number on you and is far worse than the ACL repair. At PT yesterday they seemed surprised at how much muscle I still had in my leg, which felt incredible to hear. I think the most depressing thing that happened to me the last time around was when I realized I didn't have the muscle strength to lift my own leg. I couldn't even get out of a chair or bed without someone to help. The baseline they measured for my strength yesterday was already where it took me at least two months to get to last time. That has me incredibly optimistic. I am in very little pain and can do everything in PT with little to no pain. I am incredibly thankful for this as it makes the rest of the mess I have to deal with much more bearable.

I can't say it enough, but its times like these that make you realize how incredible your friends and family are. I'm incredibly lucky to have people who will do almost anything for me, and most importantly for a mother who sacrificed her birthday and most likely mother's day to take care of me and become part of this disaster.