Long time no see

I’m in the midst of a few life changes.

To recap, The Boy left in October for AmeriCorps NCCC. He’s currently on a project in LA. We’ll know in a few days where he’s headed next. The first three months with him gone were bumpy…he was adjusting and I was going through some major stress. When he got home in December for Christmas we were on the brink of breaking up. However, talking with each other honestly and spending time with one another really made us realize why we’re putting ourselves through a coast-to-coast long distance relationship. He means the world to me and I’m willing to trudge through all of this crap if it means we get to be together in July, which is when he’s done with AmeriCorps and starts grad school for his PhD. It has been hard, and probably won’t get easier any time soon…so we’ve got our work cut out for us. At least now we know what to expect over the next 6 months. I think the adjustment period is (finally) over.

In other news, I’m going into surgery on Wednesday. I’ve been dislocating my knee since 2005. It will randomly blow out. I can be doing anything from picking up a garbage bag to getting off the toilet (which is how it happened this last time) and my knee will completely dislocate. Then, I have to actually put my knee BACK in place. It’s not a pleasant experience and has caused massive damage to my patella and surrounding ligaments.

On Wednesday my (very good looking and talented) orthopedic surgeon will be doing open knee surgery (most likely) on my left knee. If he has to do what he thinks he does, I’m going to be having a Tibial Tubercle Transfer, a Lateral Release, Medial Reefing, and cartilage cleanup. Before you run to google, this is what that all means. He’ll be going into my leg and sawing off a piece of my leg bone where my patella ligament (the ligament that runs from the top of your thigh, over your kneecap and to your shin bone) resides and moving it around so that my patella tracks properly in its "groove." He’ll also be fixing a problem with the way my patella rides to the outside of my knee, which is the lateral release and the medial reefing. He’ll to this by loosening the ligament on the left side of my left knee (it holds my patella in place) and tightening the ligament on the inside of my left knee. This will hopefully move everything into place where it should be.

I’m looking at 6-8 weeks before I can walk without crutches and about 5 months of physical therapy. 

I’m going to be updating this as much as possible to keep everyone posted on my progress.

I’m also starting school in two weeks. It’ll be fun times. All of my professors have agreed to extend my start date to the first week of February, so I don’t have to worry about driving to school for three weeks after my surgery. This was everyone’s biggest concern because of all the variables my surgery has with range of motion, muscle atrophy, and infection. So, to stay on the safe side we wanted to make sure I had ample amounts of recovery time.

Other than that, not much to report. I’m off work for the next week to recover and then on to working remotely until I start school again. It’ll be fun times, for sure. Those people work me to the bone. I’ve been so close to quitting on multiple occasions over the past two months that it’s no wonder I’m still there.

Well, I’m off to bed. I’ve got a lot of running around to do tomorrow and my father is coming into two on Tuesday…so anything I need to do I’ve gotta do it tomorrow!

Talk to you soooooon!