Can I find GOLD at the end of this rainbow?

It's St. Patrick's Day and I am headed to the surgical center for a knee operation. I am hoping at some point I will find the gold at the end of this rainbow. I am a little nervous, but feeling much better about things since last night. Bob Boice came over and he and Shawn gave me a blessing, I know that things will go well. They got me all settled in those AWESOME hospital gowns. You would think after all these years they would come up with something a little less revealing, so lovely to feel your rear hanging out as you head for the bathroom! The nurses said they were pretty close to starting on time, 8:45 am, since I was his 1st of the day at their location. They marked my knee with a permanent marker to make sure they cut on the right one. Shawn thought it would be funny to tell them it was the other. Ha, Ha. I wouldn't want to go thru this twice!

Waiting for them to take me away!

My ROCK, Shawn has been amazing. Clearing his calendar for the day!

The nurses came and wheeled me into the very cold operating room. They told me they would put a heat blanket on me, and got me all strapped down. That's the last thing I remember, them starting to strap my arms down. They told me earlier it would be about a 2 hour operation.

That heat blanket they said they would put on me, was actually some sort of blow-up blanket that they pumped hot air into constantly. It was awesome, but I felt a little like the Michelin Man!

The next thing I remember is being so tired, and Shawn trying to stuff crackers down my throat. He kept saying, "you've got to eat these", then stuff another one in, then I would fall back asleep. I remember him asking the nurse if she had anything else, and then they changed from saltine crackers to graham crackers. I remember the nurse telling me to take a deep breath, then cough ten times. All of this was done in quite a fog of medication. When I finally did wake up enough to know what was going on, Shawn told me that when they brought me out of surgery I was in so much pain that they put me right back out. The crackers were so they could give me pain meds, so they could start working. The coughing was to keep my lungs clear. I guess I have to do that every so often when I am laying down a lot. The nurse asked me if I remember being in all the pain, and I told her I didn't. I asked her if I said anything I should be embarrassed about and she said "no, you didn't even say a bad word". I guess I can be proud of that. They probably wouldn't tell me if I said anything embarrassing anyway.

They ended up having not only to fix my torn ACL, but also stitch up a large tear in my miniskus cartiledge (sp). Bad news! That means instead of being back on my feet in 2 weeks, I have 6 weeks on crutches, no weight bearing on my leg. Ugh! No gold yet!

They sent me home pretty quickly after I came to. As soon as I drank something to raise my blood sugar and gone to the bathroom, I was on my way. The pain was not to bad at this point as I was still pretty heavily medicated.

When we got home Jenaee was there with the vacuum cleaner, sprucing up the house. I am afraid it's not going to look to great the next month or so. They got me in bed and I conked back out.