Post-Op Day 9: Promised Land

110 degrees. I've finally reached 110 degrees of ROM (range of motion). That's the goal. Of course this is a passive feat, meaning that the CPM is able to bend my knee but I cannot do it on my own. My muscles are wimpy and have lost much mass. What's also nice is that I can straighten my leg out completely, though it hurts a lot.

What's surprising at this stage in the game is just how stiff the knee is. Almost any knee movement feels like my knee is surrounded in pea gravel or very thick honey. There is no swinging movement like my good knee exhibits. I've always had skinny legs, some would say "girl" legs, but after this surgery my left leg would be on the same scale as a runway model. That's not good for a guy by the way.

I've been sitting around all day working my leg. Nothing too exciting except Andrew and I finished the Indiana Jones game after a few hours of gaming. The problem is that Andrew wants to go through it again. He literally has spurned all of his amassed vocabulary and decided to keep only those morsels that really give meaning to his life: Indiana Jones, candy, gum, "That's cool". He's a focused gaming beast. I can't wait to see him turn this type of focus into something useful. He'll be incredible.

Post-Op Day 8: Plateau

Interesting day indeed. Fairly uneventful but completely frustrating. I thought I could keep up my furious rehab progress and see daily improvements. I just couldn't get my knee to bend beyond 95 degrees no matter how much I iced it.

Yesterday... I might have done some things that have contributed to my poor performance. Yesterday morning about 7:30am I heard a strange noise, like that of running water, so I thought was someone taking a shower. After a couple of minutes it suddenly hit me that my sprinkler valve on the side of the house was spraying water all over. I've had SO much trouble with my sprinkling system. I had just put on a new cap on the valve filter on Friday and that cap busted open. Argh! In my anger, I decided that I needed to fix the sprinklers that day or risk having all my plants dying. My knee felt okay to be on my feet for an hour, no big deal.

It was a big deal. It took my 2 hours because I had to fix 3 valves. My knee was KILLING me all night and into the morning. Even big V was struggling to keep the pesky pain away. So, all day my knee has been a little swollen and thus no results. I'm just lucky I haven't digressed.

To make matters worse, I went to the library around 4:30 pm, with Andrew (that adds about 3X the effort) to get 2 books I'd reserved. By the way, our library is so great. I can reserve books across all the libraries in San Diego. They have this self-checkout system that is so slick. You swipe your library card and set the books near this book reading sensor and the system instantly checks out the books and prints your receipt. It takes about 15 seconds. Good to see our tax dollars at work finally. Back to the story. So I found my reserved books and Andrew was screaming for a book for him. I'm not stupid. I'm not new to working with 3 year olds. If I had given in to "finding" Andrew a book, I would have burnt at least 2 hours looking at every book in the library until some inspiration from heaven would barrel down and enlighten Andrew to finally choose a book. But sometimes inspiration doesn't come. Then I must resort to making a decision for him and carry him kicking and screaming to the car. He's 3. What can you do? Reason with him?

On the way, I stopped by Ralphs for some liquid refreshment, aka Gatorade and Vitamin water. Little did I know that Michele had already stocked up some while running errands that morning. My bad. My knee was hurting but I knew I needed to refuel so I dared to run the gauntlet of the supermarket with Andrew. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ralphs had a nice sale on their drinks. I got PowerAid bottles for 40 cents and Gatorade for 80 cents. Like my sister, I love a good deal. I got some extras and tried to get to the check stand before Andrew latched onto anything that he couldn't live without. I was literally standing in a freshly opened lane (I love it when the checker selects you, the chosen one, out of all the people in line to come over to a new open lane. I am special.) taking out my first Gatorade when Andrew bolted from sight. I knew it was a bad situation due to the speed and ferocity of the little man's sprint. I quickly unloaded a 1/4 of the items and then looked over the magazine hedge to spy on Andrew like a solider looking down at enemy activity from behind a stone wall. Oh NO!!! Andrew had the Hotwheels cars. Mayday, mayday, code blue.... we have an immediate and substantial situation on checkout 4. The next 15 minutes was like a scene from "Black Hawk Down". Mayhem, screaming, crying and pleading with plenty of cat and mouse. I decided to play the very slow disabled cat with my HUGE knee brace. Andrew just wouldn't give up the car. I'd take it away and then he run and find another. Pretty ugly. Finally he came back with a virtually white flag of peace... ironically clad in orange... yes it was a bag of Cheese Puffs. We made a compromise that if Andrew would give up the car, he'd get Cheese Puffs later. Obviously Andrew's negotiation skills are far superior to mine. He'll make a fine future Secretary of State.

I'm back home, swollen knee and all watching Andrew feast on Cheese Puffs and having a fine time playing... you guessed it - Indiana Jones. We only played 2 hours today, our new low. Looks like Andrew maybe sick of the game. I can only hope.

Post-Op Day 7: Almost a week

I went to Dr. Kim's office for a follow-up. Beforehand, I gathered up my crutches and knee brace and prepared myself to get the staples out. I was very excited to get them out because they kept snagging on everything driving me nuts. Plus my swelling had gone down A LOT and the staples were just hanging there flopping around. I gathered the car keys and my wallet and we were ready to go... Oh wait, no wallet. I haven't seen or used my wallet since Thursday when I came home from the first follow up in a stupor of pain meds. I literally have NO idea where it is. Drugs are a killer on the memory by the way. Purple Haze baby. We've looked around in the usual and unusual places for quite some time and just can't find it. The wallet is here somewhere. I even looked to see if the cards had been used by someone who might have picked it up. Nothing but a fuzzy purple haze.

Needless to say we went to the doctor's office sans ID. Michele and Andrew drove with me to make sure I didn't do anything dumb while operating a car. The nurse was great and painlessly removed all the staples. With a sense of mastery, I turned in my crutches like a toddler handing his dad his training wheels. "Look how far I've progressed. I shan't be needing these again. Take them away because obviously I'm way too superior to be seen with such." I showed off how much I could do with my new knee (yes I stood on one leg) and the nurse did the best she could to act like she cared by giving me ample praise for such mediocre. For me, the feat was unbelievable. Last week I couldn't fathom ever walking again and now I'm on one leg people. One leg. In my fantasy mind I just sort of expected a reaction like, "Let's get channel 10 news in here. I've never seen a patient do what you've done in only a week. Incredible. This isn't science. It's a miracle." In reality she's seen a thousand patients do the same thing. Yawn.

I can walk pretty well with a very noticeable limp. Though I casted off my crutches this morning for good, it seems I have a new crutch. Ice, Ice baby. When I ween myself off the ice machine for more than an hour, my knee really starts to hurt and the range of motion goes way down. The pain goes up and the patience goes to zero and then irritability overtakes me like I'm the Incredible Hulk turning huge and green. "Why won't this car door close?" Then I savagely beat the car door shut 10 times to just to show the door who's boss.

The nurse didn't really offer me any insight on the pains around my knee, mainly where the hamstring attaches to the tibia. She just said that it's normal to have pain and that I should continue to use my CPM to extend my range of motion for the next 2 weeks. So basically she didn't know and she read me the Sunday school answer.

Two weeks. Who wants to take bets that I self-check into a mental institution by this Thursday? Wait, Thursday is a sure lock so how about Wednesday? This idleness is the worst thing I've ever experienced. I hate it. I asked the nurse how to fast track the rehab. She smiled not in a totally condescending way but rather letting me know she was way ahead of me. There's no way to speed up the healing. For the first 6 weeks there's absolutely nothing you can do to get the knee better. Too much exercise, even simple easy exercise is bad. The internal wounds need to heal. The bone has to graft itself over the screws so that the new ACL will hold. The hamstring has to repair itself. Too much exercise and such will pull the screws out. Not good. Once that 6 week mark is hit, you have to get the muscles and the rest of the functions to work properly. The muscles, hamstrings and quads are just simply exercised with resistance and weights. The other portions have to do with balance, weight transfer and flexibility.

0-6 weeks: Increase flexibility and range of motion to about 140 degrees or to basically be able to rest the ankle against the thigh. Light exercises like leg lifts and extensions just to get minimal muscles and usage. That's it. It's a waiting game.

6 weeks - 4 months - Daily work outs of the muscles and knee functions. Gradual at first scaling to full normal strength. By 3 months, you should be physically healed sans the muscling. You should be careful not to go postal on the knee and twist it all over the place until the muscles are back. More than half of what holds the knee together are those muscles. Tendons can only do so much.

I've been reading about athletes who get back into competitive play in 3 months. I'm just an athlete trying to have fun so I should be able to get back into action in 3 months assuming all else goes to plan. I'm not going to push too hard until the 6 weeks is up, but then I'm going to go full bore. I want to surf and golf again very soon. Patience is a virtue that I'd wish would hurry the crap up because I need a heavy dose RIGHT NOW!

Post-Op Day 6: Captain Jack

I'm a wild man. I'm pretty much a hard-core bad momma in surf shorts. Women love me, men fear me.  It's a blessing and a curse. During this whole knee surgery I've had a tough time dealing with... well the ugliness factor. No one likes ugly. My knee has been constantly described as ugly, hamburger and mine shrapnel. I have staples and stitches all over my knee. Not pretty. So let's turn this frown upside. I blinged up my newly acquired piercings with a touch of Captain Jack Sparrow inspired by my endless movie viewing. I took some pirate loops and Captain Jack beads and worked my magic. These staples come out tomorrow so let's party 'til it's 1999. Here's me acting like a tough guy - quite contrary to the blog title and real life attributes. Needless to say, my wife wasn't too thrilled about the idea and grudgingly obliged to snap these photos. Seems as if the pirate's "Argh!!!" growl is getting on her nerves but of course Andrew is in hog heaven. He has his sword and pirate hat out and is loving having a new partner in "Argh!" We sword fight a lot and he cuts off my hands, arms and legs then moves in for the death blow while making all the appropriate vocal background noises, "Whatcha! Huah!" It's good stuff. Since this is bugging certain people, I'm thinking that these whole pirate thing has legs. I'm going pirate all day.

Though ruggedly handsome with a devilish whit, I possess a great brain. It's pretty special. While sitting in my own filth for almost a week, for I was unable to take a shower due to the stitches and staples, I decided to escalate my stink problem to my great brain to figure out a cure. Sure I could take a sponge bath but who are we kidding, that really doesn't work. It just moves the stink to a different place. There's lotions and perfumes but that only masks the stench. No... I needed a shower because I stunk like a skunk. (Have you ever noticed how animals names often mimic a noticeable attribute? Stunk and skunk, Ssssnake.) So I put my great brain to work. In literally tens of seconds, the answer came to me. I can shower if the knee stays dry. Boom! The great brain delivers. So how do I keep the knee dry? By putting something flexible yet waterproof over the knee. What could do the trick? A common kitchen staple in every house - plastic wrap. I wrapped the knee in plastic wrap and taped the two ends. I slipped into the shower and the heavens opened and I literally heard harps and beautiful music raining down from above. That was the best shower I've ever had bar none. The wrapped knee never saw a drop of water. I not only showered, but shaved and applied appropriate lotions and perfumes to bring me back to civilization. It feels SO good to be clean again.

There was a price to pay for the shower. No the knee didn't get wet, but the heat from the shower and the time away from my beloved friend, the ice machine, was brutal on my knee. It quickly puffed up like a balloon and then mister pain and his friends were dancing on my knee. No fun. So I'm preparing Camp Chad for some scripture reading and spiritual enlightenment on this fine Sabbath day buttressed by watching my Duke Blue Devils win today and go to the final four.

Post-Op Day 5: The Ugly Knee is feeling better

By looking at the trashed knee to the left you might think I'm crazy for saying that I feel much better today. I slept a full 8.5 hours, a new record post-operation.

Let's get to the performance stats: 80 degrees of knee range achieved last night. Looking to get to 90 degrees today. More balance and greater weight applied to the knee. Reduction in swelling around the knee. I can actually make out a knee cap. The staples are loose and from what I know they are ready to come out. What's fun is when the staples catch on the ace wrap when the CPM is working my knee. I can't wait for the staples to be removed! The nausea I've been experiencing may not be necessarily from what I'm eating. When upright and walking around my head really hurts, almost migraine like. I take the pain meds and the headache goes away but I'm knocked out and floating in the air like Peter Pan. I love Peter Pan. Beats Peter Pain.

Usually my calf is taut, toned and terribly handsome. The cat calls from the ladies are sometimes embarrassing but always present. My perfect beautiful calf has been taking out behind the woodshed and beaten black and blue. I'm assuming that during the operation the doctors have to clamp down on the leg pretty hard while they drill and screw my knee together. That or they are quite jealous and decided to take me down a notch. Though quite ugly, the calf actually hurts quite a bit. You don't realize the "lesser" pains of this surgery until your knee starts to heal. There are other lessor pains but the there is currently a big pain.

The biggest pain in the knee is actually the hamstring, but it isn't where you think. Usually when people think of hamstring they think the back of the femur. That area is sore too but not as much as the front of the tibia. On the picture to the right, there's a huge incision that has 3 staples. This is where the hamstring was harvested. When you contract the hamstring, the tendon pulls on the front of the tibia right where the incision is. The hamstring needs to heal and only time will heal it. The problem is that when you move the knee and that hamstring becomes taut, the pain is surprisingly strong.

Wow, I must say that my knee is probably the least attractive thing I've ever seen. Look away people, I'm hideous.

Though ugly and whining like a mule, I've had visitors. Some visitors yesterday came bearing soup and crackers. Blaine and Aaron came over with soup and good company. It was a very nice gesture.

Anyway, the visit allowed me to break away from the 5-6 hours of Lego Indiana Jones that Andrew forces me to play with him. Notice the huge smile on Andrew's face. Usually he is happy camper and he squeals like a girl when he plays Indiana Jones. But there are times when Andrew turns into a mean gamer and he screams and yells, "Oh shoot!!!" or "Oh Man!!!" or occasionally when he pretty frustrated he'll break out the "Oh Crap!" which will bring down a stern reprimand from Mom... directed to his dad. I tried to break the lovely stretch of 4 straight days of Indiana Jones with my new Forza Motorsport game that Weston and Jadon brought me. Andrew loves cars, but it's too advanced for Andrew. He just crashes the car into the wall and gets mad. Soon he gets fed up and and walks over and ejects the game. I immediately react and tell him, "Put the Forza game back in the XBox!" He just looks at me like, "Oh yea... what can you do about it?" He knows that all the screaming I do is easily triumphed by the fact that he's mobile. He's not cocky or obstinate about his disobedience. It's just a matter of fact. "Hello, you can't move around and let's see... I want to play Indiana Jones." He's no dummy. I can't just get up and run him down. I'm hooked up to the machines. To the victor goes the spoils, dad... and you lost. More Indiana Jones, dad???

Post-Op Day 4

Did I just pee myself last night? I've been reading about the bladder numbness that can occur with anesthesia and I woke up and my foot and leg were wet. Turns out it was water condensation on the water tubes that are attached to my new ice machine. The tubs are exposed for a number inches and the humid air condenses on the cold tube. This ice machine is the Ferrari of ice machines. It cools the water itself without the need to add ice and it is always cold at 43 degrees.

I've decided that I must be pregnant. I wake up every morning with severe morning sickness. I'm so nauseated it's debilitating. I believe it's the anti-bacterial pills combined with the powerful pain meds. I got about 4-5 hours of sleep yesterday. I just couldn't sleep with so much pain. I decided to take my knee off the CPM and try sleeping normal with a huge pillow between my legs while still keeping the ice machine going. I slept pretty well once I got situated and I'll do it again tonight. Pain and sleep just don't mix well. If I dope up on Big V to help me sleep, I end up getting an upset stomach. Dr. Kim said that the nausea was usually from being dehydrated. I've been drinking fluids like crazy and I have to "go" all the time now so I'm not sure my nausea stems from dehydration.

I got to 60 degrees of knee bending last night. I'm currently up to 70 degrees of motion right now. Not too bad considering just yesterday morning I was at 40-45 degrees. Dr. Kim instilled some confidence that  I needed to push myself. I'm going in to remove the staples and stitches on Monday. I can't wait because the main incision with the multiple staples is right on the tibia and it always hurts.

Another major milestone is that I can indeed walk on my knee without crutches. Contrary to my mindset as late as yesterday morning, I can walk on the knee. The almost comical thing about walking on the new knee is that it feels like I'm using an artificial limb. I have NO control over the knee and there's little stability. The reason for this sensation is that the knee has "broadcasted" out to the connecting tissue that "I'm HURT. Don't use me and stay on the down low for a while until I can heal". My muscles and nerves are not working correctly and thus instability. As you can see to the left, I can do a leg lift without passing out. It's still painful and the staples aren't helping at all. I can do several leg lifts without assistance. I can feel the hamstring in the front of my tibia straining and struggling with each lift. The only way to get the hamstring back is to use it.

I was almost laughing last night as I walked/shuffled around the house at how much my life has changed since Feb 27th. Almost one month ago I was in the best shape of my life, surfing every day and skiing the best I've skied in years. I told my dad that while skiing in Utah at Deer Valley just weeks before the accident that I haven't skied so well for a long time. My endurance was really strong and I was pulling "heli's" all over. I felt so good. On my birthday,  Feb 24th I went for the SoCal special and skied Mountain High in the morning and then surfed Grandview in the afternoon - just 3 days before the accident. 

Now I'm stoked if I can hobble around sporting a massive 6 inch strut. I've become Bill Murray in "What about Bob". Baby steps to the bathroom. Baby steps to the kitchen. Baby steps up the stairs. Baby steps back to Camp Chad on the couch. Don't take for granted what you have right this second. By grateful for it might be gone in an instant.

ACL Surgery Lesson- My knee got screwed

Enquiring minds want to know. Literally tens of people are sitting on the edge of their computer chairs to finally learn what is an ACL and how is it fixed. Thus starts the lesson.

The ACL is a blood carrying ligament that attaches to the back of the femur to the front of the tibia. This ligament keeps the tibia from sliding right into the knee cap during activity.

Skiing is brutal on the ACL because often you fall backwards in a rock hard ski boot half way up your tibia and said boot is mechanically clamped onto a monster lever called a ski. You don't have to be a genius at physics to realize that if that lever and the solidly attached ski boot decide to move forward while the full weight of your awkward and out of control body falls backwards, that ACL becomes 100% taut and crying in pain. Usually the ski boot will release from the large ski and relieve the pain being applied to the ACL. When the ski boot doesn't release you've got serious trouble. That's why ski racers have knees like jello. Ask Lindsey how her knees are doing. When the ACL tears, all the blood it carries spills out into the tissue. That's how doctor's know if you ripped the ACL if you have a soft mellon sized knee.

So to fix the snapped ACL, the doctors resort to fairly crude methods - drills, screws and staples - stuff that would get any common Home Depot addict frosty. Philips or standard? Makita? The doctor takes a harvested strain of the hamstring and literally screw the reconstructed ACL to the front of the tibia and back of the femur. The hamstring grows back in time so no loss there. No wonder I'm in so much pain. My knee has been screwed. From what I understand the hamstring is a strong piece of molasses and it can handle a ton of abuse. So the knee is totally fixed after surgery. The internal healing and the swelling is the only thing keeping me from surfing. There must be a faster way to rehab. If all these overweight people can lose 150 lbs in 4 hours, I should be able to get this knee back in action in a week. Right?

Post-Op Day 3 - First Check Up

Going in to see Dr. Kim today. The first day out of the house since the surgery. Dr. Kim pictured with me bewildered that I'm still alive.

Last night was better than the night before. I actually was able to sleep for about 7 hours. I'm sleeping on the couch with my ice machine running full blast and the CPM machine going at 30 degrees incline. Yesterday I was at 40-45 degrees but it was too painful to sleep with that range of motion. When the knee is idle doing nothing, it gets surprisingly stiff fairly quickly. The next time the knee is moved or I start up the CPM is not fun at all. Feels like I'm breaking little strings as my knee gets back into motion.

By the way, the numbness in my good leg is gone as well as the numb bladder control. Yeehaw.

Big V. Let's talk about the pain medication Norco/Hydrocodone/Vicodin. This stuff is wicked. I'll be honest, the first two days I really didn't appreciate what the Big V does until about 2:30am last night. I woke up in quite a bit of pain. I'm prostrate on my back with my butt on a large pillow and another pillow under my back and the knee is in the CPM doing its thing. The knee is always at heart level or higher. I have always had trouble sleeping on my back because I get vertigo. So this whole leg strapped to this CPM setup is doing a number on my mind. I find myself experiencing vertigo each time I go to sleep. Back to Big V. I took a drink of Gatorade and decided that though I couldn't eat anything (I couldn't get up to get any food), I'm going for the V. I took 1 pill, waited about 15 minutes and the next thing I knew it was 6 am and I was out cold. The only reason I woke up was because I was hot. I find that the V makes me hot, temperature wise people, temperature. I wonder if that's a side effect. I slept well to about 6:40 am and then I decided to jump on the blog and write for a while. Good night over all.

I'm going to Dr. Kim's office today for my first post-op appointment. He's going to change my ice machine to a better one and rewrap my bandages which are barely intact. Not sure what happened but the knee wrap wasn't done that well from the hospital.

Dr. Kim is a stud. Michele drove me up to his office in Temecula. We were late leaving the house but we made it there in record time. Turns out Michele likes the gas pedal! Right honey? So in the car I apologize about 50 times for being such a baby and whining all the time. Seriously I'm completely sick of myself whining about the pain, the knee, the rehab. Shut up Chad. The problem is that I can't help it. That's how I communicate with what's going on with me. I let it all out. Terrible excuse. I'm Chad and I'm wimpy. So, I popped a Big V pill during the car ride and from what I can recall I was almost passed out the whole way to the office. We arrived to Dr. Kim's office and waited for about 10-15 minutes (again time sort of stood still for me) and my name was called.

I stumbled up on my crutches and was struggling a bit as I entered the hallway to the patient room when Dr. Kim saw me. He scolded me for not putting weight on my severely destroyed and hacked up knee. I stopped and looked at him like he had 4 heads. Put weight on my knee? Are you kidding me? Are you totally mad? Turns out my knee is as stable as it will ever be and the trick is to get the rest of the tissue and muscles to heal up and get in shape. So I tried to put some pressure on the knee and the pain was almost 4 letter word pain. The photo to the right tells the story. I slowly hobbled in and got on the patient table. Dr. Kim also told me that I needed to be at 60 degrees on my CPM asap. I'm at 45 degrees and I thought that was painful! He said I need to push it and get to 100 degrees by next week. Yea right. I'll try to get there - doctor's orders, right?

Dr. Kim took off the badges and inspected the knee. I had thought that orthoscopic surgery was minimal and only 1 incision about an inch longer was made. Wrong big time.

There were several inch long incisions and they are all held together with staples. Seriously staples. There's no plastic surgery I take it with the ACL operation. Just bands of steel holding together flesh. The knee was fairly swollen as you can see. We took some pictures of the knee for the blog and Dr. Kim even posed for a photo. He wrapped up the knee and put on the new and improved ice machine wrap and we were done. He said the operation went well and that my knee was fixed. All I have to do is rehab the leg and get it back in shape. That's all???

I have some allergies to wheat and seafood. Around the wounds and other areas of my leg, I was having a fairly bad reaction to something. There was some discoloration and some blisters especially around the incisions. From the time I got home from the operation I knew that something was bad because I was having an allergic reaction usually reserved when I eat shellfish or seafood. I couldn't figure out why I was breaking out. I thought that stress was causing my auto-immune system to go haywire. On the way home from the doctor's office, it hit me so hard as to why I was having such an allergic reaction. Iodine. Iodine is very heavy in shellfish and seafood. Iodine is also used to treat wounds and as an anti-bacteria solution especially during and after surgery. After I came home, I undressed the bandages and cleaned off my whole knee and especially the wounds from all iodine and applied some prescription anti-bacteria cream instead. That should do the trick. From now on I'm going to remember that iodine is indeed a medicine and I need to list that as something I'm allergic to.

Now I'm just chilling on the couch getting ready to play Forza Motorsport 3 that I got from the two coolest high schoolers/varsity scouters, Weston and Jadon. I already pounded my Jamba Juice. Thanks guys. Getting ready to watch some NCAA action this evening.

I have my knee hooked up to the new ice machine and it works really well. I'm going to push to 60 degrees by tonight. We'll see. I'm still pretty wimpy.

A few photos for the few who dare. Yes those are steel staples holding the hamburger together.

Weston and Jadon's surprise visit

This afternoon, Weston Joyce and Jadon Neuendorf came by for a post-op visit. I've been trying to blame them for this accident to most everyone who's heard the story. Someone besides me needs to be reasonable for this disaster. The reasoning goes like this: Weston and Jadon are too much fun and are too good of athletes to do the normal scouting stuff. They snowboard like Shawn White so I decided to take the "reckin' crew" up to Big Bear and show them how to really rip the snow. How often do you end up having scouts that are so good at everything, especially skiing. This was a chance of a lifetime.

During the incredible ski day these two boys were ripping up the mountain from top to bottom so I HAD to take it up a notch. If the boys had been terrible snowboarders I would have never been placed in this situation because I would have been on the bunny hill all day and been 100% safe. So to make a long story short, I ended up reckin' my knee on a jump at the base of lift 4 at Big Bear. I obviously am not at fault and I put all the blame onto Weston and Jadon, who just need to be lame greenie snowboarders and all this nonsense could have been avoided.

The boys came by to see me with gifts in hands. They knew I'd be laid up for a while so they gave me the gift of speed, Forza Motorsport 3. If I can't go fast and have fun in reality I'll be able to virtually do it on my XBox 360. They also gave me a Jamba Juice that was devoured rather quickly. Great gift and I'm obviously going to be playing this game a lot in the next month.

Seriously, it was a very nice thing to do. I am not too manly to say that I love these boys and I see so much potential in them it's scary. You'll be reading great things about these two... and I'm not just saying this because I got a great XBox game. Michele commented on how incredibly mature and respectful these two boys are. I hope Andrew can be as cool yet mature as the reckin' crew. Hopefully from here on out the only reckin' will be the waves and the snow. No more knees please...

The toughest part of the visit was when Weston and Jadon proceeded to update me on how great the surfing is this week. I miss surfing so much right now as the weather gets warmer. They went early morning and after school today. The waves were huge and the water was warmer. These two are not only great snowboarders but competition surfers. Competition surfers people. They are REALLY good. They must have learned it from their fathers who are great surfers too. When I get healthy again the first item on the scout agenda is to have another surf overnighter. Oh yea!!!

Post-Op Day 2

It's surprising how painful this operation really is. Don't let the smile fool you. Today I woke up on the couch downstairs after taking a high dose of pain medication at 4 am and amazingly enough, the knee hurt a lot more. I thought it couldn't hurt worse than it did on the day of surgery. Turns out I forgot about a few trouble areas. One area that is on FIRE is the hamstring. The hamstrin, if you remember was tapped as an ACL replacement. The hamstring will grow back so you don't "lose" any part of the hamstring but it takes time to heal. Day 2 has brought the hamstring front and center. It's really sore. So the knee is very stiff buttressed by a terribly sore hamstring and you have Day 2. Welcome to rehab.

I've been literally tied to the couch with tubes and straps while the CPM bends my knee for hours upon hours. Yesterday I was bending it at 30 degrees. This morning I was at 35 degrees and this afternoon I'm at 40 degrees. The goal is 5-10 degrees a day until 110 is reached. It was a little alarming to have your good leg still a little numb from the surgery even on day 2. We called the doctor's office and they said it's normal and it probably due to the anesthesia and how I was positioned during the operation. What did they do, jump up and down on my good leg to make my left leg feel better about being butchered? The numb thigh will go away soon. As I type this post the CPM is bending away. The knee feels actually tolerable when I'm resting here using the CPM. The big pain comes when I have to get up. The doctor recommends not doing anything for a week. I'm not supposed to leave the house except to go to doctor's appointments. Dr. Kim asked if I could spend the next 2 weeks at home and just rehab the leg 24 hours a day. I checked with my boss and I can do it.

This is gross but accuracy is what we are going for here. Going to the bathroom is ridiculous right now. There's no stream or pressure. It's like something is numb inside and you just can't cut loose and release the reservoir. Turns out after reading a little bit that the anesthesia numbs that badder control area. That's why my buddy Burk in high school needed a catheter. I'm experiencing this phenomenon unfortunately. As frustrating as this is, there's no desire for "the Tube".

Currently I've been checking emails, watching movies (Grinch who stole Christmas) and playing Xbox with Andrew. He's an Indiana Jones fan and we have to play it all the time, like 4-5 hours worth. I need a new game!!!

Surgery

Today was an interesting, unexpected and fairly painful day. Turns out I underestimated how painful this operation is.

Woke up at 5:50am after a pretty good sleep. If I knew what I know now, I wouldn't have slept quite so soundly. Michele's parents came over at 6 am and her father gave me a blessing to help me through the surgery. His words were beyond comforting and I really felt protected and watched over. I was so glad I had that blessing because I wouldn't have been able to walk in the front door of the surgicenter, but would have entered on a gurney. I'm beyond weak-kneed and I'll faint any sign of pain, blood, needles or hospitals. The title of this blog becomes more relevant, huh? Even the blood pressure monitor makes me faint. I hate that thing. Little did I know that I had NO idea what I was in for. Look at that naive smile!

We got off to a late start and ended up leaving around 6 am. I drove my LR3 with Michele at my side. We had plenty of idle chit-chat with the majority of the banter being me whining about how bad this is going to be. I'm sure Michele wanted to punch me in the face for all the whining and crying I've been doing since the accident. If she had a dime for every time I said, "Oh my knee or my knee really hurts", she'd be a rich woman. To the dismay of all those around me, I prefer to vocalize my discomfort and pain as a way to cope. We arrived and amazingly enough I was able to walk into the surgicenter unassisted and even managed to have plenty of playful banter with the receptionist while filing out the paperwork. We went over all the legal mumbo-jumbo and then got to a few items that made me start to sweat.

The first item was some paperwork concerning my living trust. Living trust's are talked about only when you talk about dying. Am I going to die today? The form was asking if I had a living will in case I died on the operating table that very day. It caused me to pause and reflect if this operation was really worth the risk. I don't want to leave my family now. My mind flashed back to hugging the kids and getting a big kiss from Andrew this morning and I actually thought about postponing the operation. I then remembered the words in my blessing and I immediately became calm and peaceful.

The second item was the out of pocket bill I was required to pay before the surgery. My deductible is fairly high and it turns out I just hit my deductible limit and then some. In hindsight, that was one EXPENSIVE lift ticket that was bought last month. Ouch. After paying the bill I had to wait for the nurse to call for me. Every time anyone opened the door my heart started to race. Finally the nurse called for me while I was taking this picture in the lobby.

I changed into my surgery gown and tried to get comfortable on the bed. The pre-op room was the temperature of a large refrigerator. I had to ask for socks to go on my feet because they were frozen. The nurse was great as she let me know exactly what she was doing and how bad it would hurt. Turns out nothing hurt. She was a magician inserting the IV. Sign her up for Vegas. I can't believe how easy it was and how little it hurt. Amazing. Once the IV was started, Michele came in to comfort me. I tried to act tough but she saw right through me. We took some pictures and I waited for Dr. Kim to see me. He came in about 8:45am and asked me how I was feeling and

he marked up my left knee and explained what would happen. He also asked about my ice machine and my knee machine. I told him that both items would be coming to my house that evening. Turns out that I need the ice machine immediately after surgery. Dr. Kim made some phone calls and procured me an ice machine that I could bring home.

After some more pictures and saying goodbye, the nurse administered the first dose of anesthesia in my IV. I haven't been put under since I was a kid when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I don't remember what it felt like going to sleep. I had this great plan to really observe and be aware of exactly how it feels like to go under. The doctor told me that it takes about 10 seconds from injection to being out cold. I was skeptical because I couldn't imagine it working so fast. I turned to the nurse and asked her how fast the anesthesia would take effect. I never heard the answer.

The next memory I had was the blurry fog of anesthesia and waking up in post-op or rather fighting to wake up and make sense of what was happening to me. I didn't dream a thing while I was out. I was stone cold out. It was so weird waking up expecting an answer to my previous question uttered hours ago, "How long until the anesthesia starts to work?" I finally figured out in roughly a nanosecond that I was waking up AFTER the operation because the pain in my left knee was excruciating. I must have been driving the nurse nuts by saying that my knee hurts. She would ask me to rate the pain from 0-10. At the time it felt like she was asking me to do calculus equations by rating my pain. All I knew was that my knee hurt. Duh! Just shoot me and get it over with. Though I don't remember a lot of what happened during the hour and half of trying to wake up, apparently I told her it was an 18 on the pain scale and she loaded me up with all the goodies. I was flying like a kite at the beach. I can relate to drug addicts who get hooked on prescription meds because you just feel so good! (I don't condone drug addiction all you who think I'm a druggie now. I just understand the appeal.) The side effect of all the pain meds is nausea which I experienced a little later in massive doses. There's always opposition to flying high as a kite.

Michele was there to welcome me back. It took me about 10 tries to just get to where I could sit up without fainting or throwing up. I spent roughly an hour trying to get into the wheelchair. Finally I got in the chair and I was wheeled out to the car. Getting me and my new knee into the car was very painful. Any movement at all sent a flame of fire into my knee. Once I got in the car, I decided it was time to get sick and get serious about do some old fashion dry heaving. The nurse told me that nausea was a side effect of the meds and that I would throw up at least once. The car was pretty hot because it was a beautiful day outside. The AC didn't quite work quick enough and I grabbed the pink pan and started up the dry heaving. Throwing up once was not accurate at all. Many times is more like it. I didn't have anything in my stomach but that didn't stop me from trying to heave. After the good abdominal workout I felt like I could go home without too many problems. I did have a wet and cold wash cloth that turned out to be a wonderful friend and a life saver on the ride home. I can't express how good it felt to have that cold water on my forehead and face.

We arrived home and I hobbled into the house and made Camp Chad on the couch in the family family. I had my ice machine hooked up that has a blue tube to an ice chest that continuously pumps ice water to my knee. I have my leg in the CPM as shown. I got some liquids and some food and all the remotes to the TV, DVR, DVD and Tivo and I was ready for my rehab to start. About an hour after I got home, Team McKenna's rep came by the house to deliver the CPM (aka the knee bender). I had heard that the knee bender was a modern-day torture device. I quickly found out that it is an amazing device that gives your knee relief while extending your range of motion. The rep hooked me up to the CPM and the machine was bending my knee to 30 degrees immediately. Again I was surprised at just how much I liked this machine. The goal is to get the knee to bend to 110 degrees within 21 days. What's nice about this thing is that I can leave on my ice machine to cool my knee to a nice 43 degrees while it bends my knee for me.

I got stoked up on some light food and gatorade and pounded some pain pills and got comfortable for the night. I watched my Anaheim Ducks lose to the Calgary Flames. The Ducks are toast. There's no way they're going to the playoffs. I mistakenly thought I could get some sleep in my real bed and around midnight I decided that I could go upstairs and flop in bed. Monster mistake. For anyone getting this operation, don't even think about sleeping in your bed for a while.

Sorry but it's time for bathroom talk. Going to the bathroom is really rough. Your knee hurts so much you can't really bend it and moving around at all is terribly painful. Envision the crutches used for positioning with a throbbing knee wrapped in a huge knee ice brace with awkwardly trying to get to the toilet seat and you have me on my first day of post-op. It is terrible. I only go to the bathroom if my back teeth are floating and the clothes pin just won't hold any longer and I'm about to burst.

So after getting ready to go to sleep I stumbled into bed without crying too much. It's a killer to get that leg up and in the sheets. I slept surprisingly well for about 4 hours when I woke up in sheer terror. My knee felt like it was hobbled. Remember in the movie "Misery" when Kathy Bates hobbles the poor  book author while tied to a bed. That was how I envisioned my knee was. Obviously the pain medicine had worn off and I didn't have ice on it and the full pain of this major operation hit me with full force. I wiggled out of bed and tried to get dressed. While struggling to get positioned to go to the bathroom with crutches all over the place, Michele came in to see if I needed help. She must have been surprised to see me half dressed flopping around the bathroom. Marriage - for better or worse honey, right? Well she got the worse part of the deal last night. She helped me get downstairs and filled my ice machine and get me comfortable - at 4 am. She's been a real trooper and I love her more each day, especially during this ordeal. She must love me or she would have turned around and went to bed and left me on the bathroom floor at 4 am.

Surgery scheduled for tomorrow!

I'm pretty nervous for this operation tomorrow. I learned a few days ago that my surgery is scheduled for 8:45 am instead of 10:45. I have to be there at 7:30am and it's in Temecula, CA which is about 30 minutes away from us in San Marcos. My mother and father-in-law are coming down this evening so that they can watch the kids while Michele brings me to the Golden Triangle Surgicenter. We will have to leave at 6:30 just to be sure we get there on time. Needless to say I've been roosting like a pregnant mother preparing for birth. I've been doing everything I want to get done while I can still walk. I limp when I walk but the limp isn't as bad as it has been in the past. My knee actually feels pretty good although I just can't bend it beyond 90 degrees.

So last Saturday I stained the wood on our new hot tub and did various other projects around the house. I watched the BYU basketball game in which I was hoping the Cougars would advance to the sweet sixteen. BYU played terrible and they gave the game away. It was difficult to watch and I was frustrated.

Today, I took my LR3 down to the dealership to have them fix some things that are still covered by the warranty which runs out at the end of the month. We also had CJ Fellers come over and fix some sprinkler pipe that got crushed during our turf installation in the backyard. I can't eat or drink anything past around 9 pm tonight so I have to be sure I'm properly hydrated tonight or I won't be able to sleep. I'm mentally prepared for the operation and I'm hoping it will go well. I'm a little anxious about the "going under part" or more accurately the "waking up part". I don't want to die during a routine ACL operation. There's no way I'm going to take one sip of water after 9pm because water can affect the anesthesia effect. I don't want to wake up during the operation or be put under so much I don't wake up. I have a lot of life left to live.

Days leading up to surgery

Here's my knee. Looks a little swollen but overall not too bad. Looks can be deceiving and the inside is what counts for this day. Today I learned first hand from my surgeon that I completely tore my ACL. I got my MRI done last Wednesday at Escondido Imaging. The MRI was pretty interesting. I was amazed at how loud the MRI machine was. I tried not to move but each time the machine would kick into a new cycle I would jump. I was able to get a copy of the MRI as I left the center and I immediately posted the information online so that my brother Kirk, an orthopedic surgeon in Colorado could look at it. I actually downloaded the MRI info to my computer and tried to analyze the images. The images were a complete mess and I could barely understand anything. I could see an outline of my knee and various components but that was all. I thought I saw my ACL attached to the knee bone but it turns out I was dead wrong. My brother Kirk called me after a few days and he said that my ACL was indeed torn. He said without a physical inspection of the knee, he couldn't really diagnose anything else.

Today I went to see Dr. Kim. He asked me how I was doing. I replied that I was hanging in there. The next utterance Dr. Kim said, "Your ACL was torn in two. I looked on the MRI and the ACL is basically gone. You'll need surgery." Boom. There it was. Cut and dry and no nonsense. I gathered myself quickly and then asked to see the MRI, not because I doubted him but I was curious how in the world he was able to decipher anything from the mess of images known as the MRI. He pulled up the main photo and rotated it to show where the ACL should be and that there was nothing left but a dark mess of muck. He told me that I actually have 2 options in dealing with this injury. Option A - don't fix it, allow it to heal but I'd have to quit all my sports and activities or wear a brace that may or may not prevent further injury. Basically I'd have to give up my active lifestyle, no surfing, no skiing, no anything. Option B - ACL replacement surgery. 4-6 months of rehab and I'd be as good as new. Needless to say I opted for surgery immediately.

Dr. Kim explained that the reason why the knee swells up so much when the ACL ruptures is due to blood leakage. The ACL carries blood and when it rips or tears it leaks blood all over. Internal bleeding results in a huge fat swollen knee. Pretty gross. He then explained how the ACL is repaired or rather replaced. Almost always now days, they harvest a strain of the hamstring and screw it into the opposite knee bones. The hamstring is not a blood carrier and it is very, very strong. The ACL holds your tibia to your knee joint. Without it, your tibia could come up and out from your knee producing a terrible injury. Plus without a ACL, the knee can move around and produce complicated injuries. Dr. Kim makes an orthoscopic incision about an inch long and goes in and cleans out the knee and replaces the ACL. Pretty cool way to repair the ACL in my opinion. I was pretty optimistic at this point when I suddenly remembered the experience my friend Burk Adams had when he tore his ACL in high school. I started to sweat and became light headed. I had to lay down on the table or I would have fainted.

Burk, pictured left, blew out his knee playing football in his senior year at Meridian High School in Meridian, ID. A couple of his friends and I went to the hospital to give Burk our support. While we were walking in the hall to go to his room we heard a scream followed by faint sobbing and then pleading stemming from one Burk Adams. It turned out that Burk needed a catheter due to his surgery. As a boy in high school, a catheter is pretty painful especially during the insertion. Burk was doped up on pain medication but he knew that the catheter (aka "The Tube") was coming. He pleaded to the nurse to let him have another half hour to pee. He kept saying "No tube. No tube!" Nurse said she couldn't wait because his bladder was terribly full and he simply wasn't able to relieve himself. So all of his friends stayed outside in the hall while the nurse plugged in the Tube into Burk. It sounded as if the tube was a garden hose because Burk was vocal with his discomfort. After that event, I considered Burk to be the bravest guy I'd ever known. I have always been very wimpy when it comes to blood, needles and hospitals in general. I couldn't take it and I had to sit down with my feet up to avoid fainting. So, ever since that fateful day I've been terrified of being in the hospital and having a catheter. Just the thought of it makes me light headed.

Dr. Kim gave me the best possible news under the existing circumstances. He said that ACL surgery is an outpatient operation now and that I wouldn't need a catheter. I was so relieved. No Tube, no needles, and hopefully no pain. That was my plan. Dr. Kim gave me the date of March 23rd for the surgery at 10:45 am. Sounds good. I'm going to continue to ice my knee and bend my knee to prepare myself for the operation in two weeks.

Accidents do Happen

While skiing at Big Bear with my varsity scouts on 2/27/2010, just a few days after my 42nd birthday, at approximately 3:00pm I blew out my knee. Turns out it was a complete ACL rupture in the left knee.

The day was a perfect day for the hard core skier. This photo left to right has Ben Memmott (scout advisor), Weston Joyce and Jadon Neuendorf (age 14 and 15). Don't let the age fool you. These boys board like they were born and raised in Park City, Utah. True powder hounds.

It was snowing an inch an hour and the snow was deep and untracked. Visibility was quite poor but any snowhound worth his salt could simply "feel" their way down the mountain. I was skiing with Weston Joyce and Jadon Neuendorf (aka "The Wreckin' Crew") who are my 2 varsity scouts under my tutelage. Two California snowboarders who can really rip, true tree mongers who like big air and deep powder. Giving us a round number of 4 was Ben Memmott, my co-leader and former Utah boarder who was loving the fresh California powder.

A lethal combination of great snow and poor visibility buttressed by a desire to catch big air was my downfall - literally. I came ripping through the trees around 3 pm just to the right of Jadon. I pulled a 360 just one run earlier and was feeling pretty good - age 42 and I still got it. As I barreled down the trees I neared the main run by the bottom of the lift 4. Photo to the right was taken just after the yard-sale that happened just up the mountain from the base of 4.

I looked down and eyed a nice little rock that I could launch off. As I flew in the air I then realized I had more air and more speed than anticipated and I prepared for landing. The problem was that I flew over my sloped landing and instead dropped right onto the flat hard-pack. I landed awkward and my skis shot out from under me. No big deal, happens all the time, right? Not this time. My right ski popped off with ease but my left ski binding didn't release. In slow motion I fell backwards and my body twisted right but my ski boot firmly attached to the ski stayed fixed. The sequence of events was an audible "pop" coming from my left knee, almost a crunch rather than a pop, then accompanied by a direct and intense pain in my knee. The pain was such that initially it literally took my breath away. Granted that I'm a self-proclaimed and widely known wimp, this was pain that would make even the toughest of men cry. I grabbed my knee and silently sobbed but outwardly screamed out that I was hurt. People on the ski lift were asking if I was okay. I couldn't answer because too many four lettered words were delicately teetering on the tip of my tongue and any attempt to speak would have sent them flying. I tried to walk it off thinking the pain was just temporary but deep down I knew I was hurt badly. I told the others to stay and ski while I wait for them in the lodge. I skied down and every passing minute my knee hurt worse and worse succeeded by massive swelling. I knew I was toast. Went to the orthopedic surgeon's office on Monday and after an MRI it was confirmed that my ACL was completely ruptured, torn in two, nothing left. Immediately I started to mentally prepare for surgery and this is my day-to-day account of my ACL surgery and rehab.