Hurtin

If you ever have the opportunity for your husband to tear his ACL, leaving him at not full capacity around the house for six weeks and then needing surgery...on your birthday, I would definitely say, pass.  Oh, how fun these last few days have been.  SARCASM.  Let's see if I can recap a little bit...

Friday (which was also my birthday, but not bitter or anything) I woke up at 4am.  We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am.  I sat at the hospital, allll day.  Alone.  And did I mention it was my birthday? :)  I guess the one positive is that I read an entire book I had really wanted to read and when do I ever have that long with a book having my undivided attention??  The surgery lasted four hours, which was way longer than I had anticipated, leaving me a little worried, but the surgery went well.  Brad's ACL was completely removed from the femur and the graft from his hamstring they took to make the repair was way longer than normal because, in the surgeon's words, "Your husband has large tissue.  He is a big guy."  ha.  

Here is Brad in the recovery room.  Where we stayed for several hours.

We also went into this surgery not fully realizing the depths of recovery.  

Here is a picture of Brad's robocop looking knee brace.

Brad is in so much pain.  He has periods of feeling somewhat ok, thanks to pain meds and a catheter that is still hooked up to him, dispensing a partial pain block.  But he's thrown up several times.  Has had periods of incredibly intense pain.  Hard to do anything for himself.  And earlier tonight he ran a 101.2 fever, which scared me half to death.  And then there's the caretaker part.  Cleaning up throw up.  Waiting on Brad hand and foot.  Worried.  Such a helpless feeling seeing him in so much pain.  Setting an alarm on my phone for every four hours, through out the night as well, to make sure he takes all his necessary medicine.  Help him up to the bathroom, etc. etc.  Plus, taking care of two little ones, a dog and a household.  Its been intense, I'll be honest.  Exhausting.  Oh, and starting tomorrow I get to attempt taking off this massive brace, undo his bandages, clean his incisions, re-bandage and put back on the brace.  Every 24 hours.  Yikes.

Picture of all his meds lined up, with logs I made so I can remember when he is supposed to take what pill.

One day at a time though, right?  We'll get through it.  That's what I keep telling myself.

Also, I should note, that Brad did still manage to make my birthday special.  I came home Wednesday night from a much needed girls night out to this on the counter...

My favorite flower.  And my favorite candy.  Come to find out, it was because Blake told Brad he wanted to get me treats for my birthday.  Heart melted.   I woke up Thursday (day before b-day) and had two very excited little boys showing me the flowers and "treats" they helped pick out.  Brad and the boys also gave me two cards both with sweet notes and the boys having colored on theirs, of course making it absolutely priceless.  I said to Brad, "You do know today is not my birthday right?" And he replied, "You know I'm going to be unconscious tomorrow right?"  Touche.  And we had a wonderful dinner out with of course a Steins cake, with my parents that evening to celebrate my birthday and fathers day and I was a happy girl.  Even though it wasn't technically my birthday, it was a day filled with lots of love and it was definitely enough to carry me through the next day.