My ATR journey

I didn’t really  much pain after the tear.. it was in a splint and since I couldn’t move it, I couldn’t really feel it.  After talking to the trainers at Bradley when we got back from our meet I thought I would have a few days before the surgery, but when they talked to the doctors they wanted to schedule it for the next day, Tuesday.  Everything from then went pretty quickly.  I had to squeeze my MRI in between classes Monday and took my last shower that night.  I also had to talk to all my professors and let them know what was going on and how much class I was going to miss.  My trainers were telling me I would be in bed most of the week, but luckily my profs were pretty compassionate about the matter.  The next morning I met my doc to go over my MRI and schedule the surgery.  He confirmed the tear, but unlike what I had been hearing before (that it was only partial) he said that it was a complete rupture and it was higher in the tendon than normal.   Not that it makes a big difference anyway, but I thought it was interesting.  I went home for a few hours, and we headed up to Methodist around noon.  I also called my parents around then, asking for one of them to come down and stay with me for a few days.  I live with 5 roommates, one being my boyfriend, but I just wanted some family around so I could bug someone to help me all the time without worrying about annoying my friends too much.

I wasn’t very nervous until the anesthesiologist came in and started talking to me.  She wanted to know if I wanted a nerve block to help with the pain after the surgery.  My trainer told me it was probably a good idea, so I agreed.  So the anesthesiologist and her team came in and flipped me over and started shoving huge needles into my leg, right behind my knee.  At first I thought that they would be doing this after I was already knocked out, unfortunately she just said they were going to give me “woozy medicine” for this part, and as they started  I remember saying, “I’m very much awake for this!”  The needles didn’t hurt too bad though, just a lot of pinching.  I could feel my leg twitching like crazy too.  Around this time my boyfriend showed up.  I had asked him to be there for my surgery; even though he couldn’t do anything it was still nice to have him there.  Then before I knew it they whisked me off to the OR, put the breathing thing over my face, and the last thought I remember having was, “Please take care of me!” and asleep I went.

I went into surgery around 3 and got out about 5.  I woke up around 6, after an hour in recovery.  I do remember being coherant enough to actually read the clock.   After I stopped wanting to go back to sleep, the rest of my day was actually pain-free.  That nerve block really worked wonders; when I was laying in bed my friends came to see me and started poking my toes, and they were completely numb.  My appetite was good too, I had some soup and salad from Panera.  After taking all my meds, I drifted off to a nice, deep sleep.  (For a few hours anyway)

Gotta give thanks here too, to my our athletic trainer Jess, who helped me with all my appts, and to Chris who got me my Panera supper!