The (Crazy) Past 24 Hours

It has been a CRAZY day in the Votino household. 

The day began with my post-op appointment. I felt incredibly car-sick from riding sideways in the back seat mixed with the pain meds (that I mostly took out of fear of getting my stitches out--the knee felt okay). We're trying to figure out a better way for me to travel.

The athletic trainer came in first and told me that the sutures looked good and healthy, and that they were healing nicely, so they wanted to remove them. To everyone who said it wouldn't hurt, you lied to me!!! It did hurt! Not as badly as I was expecting though, and the athletic trainer was awesome. Two of them felt like a pinchy-pully thing and were just mostly uncomfortable, and the last one stung really badly and brought tears to my eyes as I death-gripped my momma's hand. I am a big baby with that sort of stuff. I could never have been a nurse, and I admire everyone who is one. 

The PA (physician's assistant) was next since the doctor is out of town, and I was told to work on increasing my ROM (range of motion). The guy who delivered the CPM machine said increase 4-6 degrees a day, so I have been increasing 6-7 per day, so I was at about 50 degrees. The PA said I really need to bump it up and to increase it by 10 degrees a day, so that's what I've been working on. It's definitely not comfortable, but I want my ROM back! She also showed me some really cool pictures of what they did during surgery. 

The one on the left has the bottom of my femur and the top of my tibia, at the healthy part, how it should look.
The picture on the right is my damaged cartilage/bone that could've broken off soon. More pictures to come!

When I got home, my I spent some time convincing my dad to call a doctor about his hips/back. They have been hurting for quite some time (I think for over two months), and he's had numbness/tingling down his leg. I told him that's a spinal cord problem and to go to the doctor's and get an MRI. When he was having some bathroom issues yesterday, I insisted he call a doctor because of some syndromes we learned about in school where having bowel/bladder issues is a HUGE red flag. I was scared to death it was cauda-equina syndrome, which is a when there is pressure at the bottom of the spinal cord and it requires emergency surgery.

My dad finally called an orthopedic doctor since we don't know of any neurologists, and they told him to get to an ER immediately because of his signs and symptoms (saddle anesthesia, urinary retention, severe lower back pain, sciatic pain, numbness/tingling in his legs). Everyone in my family was a bit nervous at this point since we don't know of any good neurosurgeons. We talked to a family friend who is a nurse, and she convinced them to go to OSU, saying that's where the best back surgeons are. Around 3:00pm, my parents went off to OSU.

My wonderful parents at Siesta Key last year. My dad is rockin' that beach shirt.

I was trying to keep myself from worrying, so I worked on my PT exercises. I got through about 100 of each of them, until my leg started cramping. I bent it to try to increase my ROM, and when I straightened it it felt like something pulled in the back of my leg and there was a really sharp pain. I started freaking out that I had messed something from the surgery up, and left a message at the doctor's office. I laid on the floor for about 30 minutes and Caitlyn got me an ice pack. Caitlyn was going to help me up before she left for work, but I couldn't straighten it to put the brace on without a lot of pain. She had to leave so I stayed on the floor. 

Luckily, Kevin's wonderful boss let him leave early and he came to help me since the rest of my family was gone. After the ice, I was able to straighten it and get the brace on, and Kevin helped me to the couch. I couldn't put much weight on it without a lot of pain, so I was back to using two crutches when I had been using one or none. I am so thankful he was able to come to my house.

While this is going on, I'm continuously worrying about my dad and that I messed something up in my knee. The athletic trainer called back since the PA had left, and said I probably overworked or pulled either my hamstrings or my popliteus (a tiny muscle behind the knee). She said to take it easy and that if my knee locked at all, to call immediately because that could mean the plug popped out. I'm now trying to balance pushing myself to get my ROM back and taking it easy to not overwork anything.

Itty bitty popliteus muscle

Nathan and Caitlyn got home from work, so we all just hung out waiting to hear news about dad. I was Googling like crazy, trying to find a good neurosurgeon, and my parents were sitting in the ER waiting for the MRI. He finally got in to get an MRI around 6:30pm. They waited a few more hours to hear the results, and they heard there was something on his spine, but that the physician's assistant wasn't quite sure what and that the doctor would be there in the morning. At this point, a million scenarios are going through my head (Tumor? Cancerous or not? Has it spread?). The doctor said it might be a bone growth, but nobody was sure yet. 

Kevin, Caitlyn, Nathan, and I are all anxiously waiting, and then we hear a Buttercup throwing up. Sometimes Buttercup does that if she eats too quickly, so we didn't think much of it. Then she threw up again. And again. And again. Then, there was the worst smell ever, and she had diarrhea in the dining room. This continued for about an hour, with her throwing up or having diarrhea every 5 minutes. I have no idea how she got so sick. Normally I'm the pet person of my house when my mom is gone, but I can reach the ground with my brace. My siblings get too grossed out by it and started gagging when they tried to clean it up...so Kevin volunteered to clean it up. 

Feel better soon, Buttercup!

My mom now refers to Kevin as Saint Kevin. He truly is! I could not have gotten through last night without him. He helped me get my brace, my ice, food, blankets, socks, pillows, cleaned up cat mess, set the garage up for Buttercup, captured Buttercup to put her in the garage for the night since I wouldn't be able to clean in the morning, and comforted me while I had multiple emotional meltdowns from worrying about my dad. 

"Saint Kevin"
(Please excuse my terrible laptop editing.
Those are angel's wings, not blue ears.)

After an exhausting evening, everyone was finally settled and fell asleep. It was far from a restful night's sleep though. My hip was killing me from the PT, my knee was sore, and my pain meds were in the kitchen. I absolutely could not wake Kevin up and ask him to do one more thing, was too sore and exhausted to get my brace back on.

In the morning, we found out some excellent news!! My dad has a ligament bending and pressing on his spine, and he is scheduled for surgery on Friday. If the ligament is calcified, they'll remove it then put a rod and pins in. If not, they'll remove it. While back surgery never seems like good news, and it's scary since it's on the spine, we are thankful it wasn't a tumor, and that it wasn't cauda equina. He really wanted to come home before surgery, and they came home this afternoon since he didn't need immediate emergency surgery. 

The next few weeks are going to get crazy. We're praying for a complication-free surgery and a speedy recovery for dad, and for everything to slow down around here! Thankfully, my grandma is coming to town this weekend to help my mom out, and hopefully I'll be off of my crutches and more independent soon! We are all trying to take it a day at a time. 

P.S. Yesterday was also my Great-Grandma's 100th birthday! She always said she wanted to live to be 100, and she did it! Unfortunately, she isn't doing so well right now, and it's just kind of a day-by-day thing. 

Happy 100th Birthday, Great-Grandma Sophie!
This picture was taken November 2012 around Thanksgiving.