Sammy had surgery yesterday to reconstruct his PCL on his left knee. We thought it was a partial tear, but the surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Jurist, told us after Sam's surgery that it was a complete tear. Dr. Jurist used a "donor" ligament to patch Sam's PCL (from a cadaver, so Sam now has his own "zombie knee"!).
We had to be at the hospital (Beaumont Royal Oak) by 8:45am yesterday, so we drove down Thursday and stayed at a Super 8 that gave us a great discount because we're here for a procedure at Beaumont. Sam's surgery was supposed to start at 10:45am, but as usually happens at all medical-related establishments, there was a delay & didn't start until after 12:30pm. The surgeon had planned on 2 hours for Sam's surgery, and it took 2.5 hours. Recovery was expected to take an hour, but that also took longer. It was a lot of time for Kev and I to just sit and wait... and worry, worry, worry.
Because we live so far from Beaumont, Sam was put into an inpatient room, and he stayed overnight. We finally got to see him about 4:30pm or so. Sam was still really tired and sleepy. When Sam began to wake up more, as expected, he did not feel great. But since he hadn't ate anything since the night before, he was very hungry. Feeling sick from meds/anesthesia and from being hungry made for a rough evening for our boy. Just trying to take a pee was An Event. Poor Sammy. He's got a big brace on his leg to immobilize it, and he cannot put any weight on that leg for several weeks (he will be on crutches). Sam was able to eat, but it was a few hours before anything actually remained inside his stomach.
Sam's left foot was also feeling very strange, tingly and numb. Soon after getting into his room, when he was getting more and more awake, he began to not feel it... he couldn't feel his foot but it was strangely kind of vibratingly tingly. Sam hated it. I could touch his toes, and he could kind of feel it, but I think it was more from him watching me touch his toes. The bottom of his foot was feeling dead. I think it really freaked him out... it did me! It was eventually explained to us that they had put a tourniquet on Sam's upper thigh during the surgery to reduce blow flow and, thus, bruising, so the odd and somewhat painful feelings in his foot were just something like his poor foot getting used to receiving blood again... ugh.
Kev was able to stay overnight with Sam in his room, sleeping on a bed that's a chair that pulls out like a sofa bed... only way smaller. So Kev took me back to our hotel room and then returned to Beaumont. That was difficult for me. As the momma, I wanted to stay with my boy. But Sam is a lot more comfortable with his dad helping him on certain matters, and I totally understand. Plus I've been informed that I snore, so Sam probably wouldn't have been able to sleep well if I stayed!
Beaumont is a super nice facility and the folks were all, for the most part, really great. I took a lot of photos and will share more later.
The Super 8 is in Clawson, only about 3 miles from the hospital. There is a nice Benihanna's just down the road from the hotel, and the 3 of us had a great time having dinner there Thursday evening.
So more info & photos later on all that.
While we were in Sam's room during the time right after he arrived, and Sam was still in and out of sleeping, mostly in, we heard a one-sided conversation from the hallway. A nurse was talking to someone about how a mom wanted to move everything up a half-hour for her child, and then the nurse explained how that would move the chemo up, and the 2nd chemo dose... and on and on. I felt a chill, looked at Kev and said "We are so lucky." Kev nodded his head.
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