Healing!!!

Two days after surgery!

I haven't been in the hospital as an inpatient for almost 20 years so this was sort of a new experience for me! I can hardly believe it has been 2 weeks today that I was being wheeled back to my room after surgery!  Anyway, I was told I would have to stay in the hospital for a couple days to make sure everything was going ok before I headed home to Madison.  I have to say that the experience overall was not that bad for a hospital. Everyone from the admissions staff to the nurses, NA's, residents and Dr.'s were amazing and really helped me to remain calm throughout the experience.  I kept telling the nurses that I felt like I was at a spa!  I got my legs massaged with those anti-blood clotting machines, watched cable TV,  got to eat anything from the menu which came like room service and didn't have to go to work--so I guess it was sort of like a vacation in a way.  :)

Unfortunately I missed the race (Old Capitol Crit) on Sunday but Jess and Kristin came by before the race to check on me and I made them promise to kick ass for me!  They called after the race very excited and I found out Kristin had won, Catherine had gotten 2nd, Jill 4th and Jess 9th! What an amazing day for Team Kenda!  Kristin came back later and brought her podium flowers which consisted of a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses with a blue ribbon wrapped around! So awesome!  Kristin got some host housing with Robin that evening so she could stay and drive me home on Monday. Thanks to both of them for helping me out so much! I also got some calls from the rest of the girls before they headed for home and a great pep talk from Catherine so thanks to all for keeping me from getting too bummed out!!

When I met Dr. Kealey Sunday morning he told me that the verdict was a ruptured artery. Luckily he said that the dying tissue had pinked right up and that the artery had clotted off.  He said I should be ok as far as not needing a skin graft though could not be sure until I healed a bit further.  He also told me I must adhere to taking 30 days off the bike as it takes this long for any wound to heal and reach 30% burst strength. Wow! That is crazy! Anyway he did say if I were to push it that a cyst would most likely form in my hip causing another mandatory surgery and skin graft!  OMG!  I am definitely listening to the Dr. this time! It is going to suck but before I know it 30 days will be over but my fitness will be gone!  :(

So, Kristin drove me home and I spent most of last week at my parent's house recuperating. They were so generous and took such great care of me it was like continuing my vacation after the hospital.  I did lots of reading and sleeping, ate lots of healthy, organic food and vitamins and drank tons of water. My parents are retired so I think they sort of enjoyed having me around.  :)

Aren't they cute?

This past Monday I went to see the trauma surgeon here at UW hospital to get my surgical drain removed.  Being an athlete I think I have a pretty high tolerance for physical pain though was absolutely petrified to get this tube yanked out of my leg. It was in there about a foot or so, so I could not imagine how it would feel getting pulled out!  Thankfully the Dr. explained it all and did a pretty good job and all I felt was a burning/pinching sensation for about 5 seconds and it was over! It did make a sort of slooshing sound which was really gross but I was so relieved when it was over!  One more step in the healing process! Unfortunately he told me the staples have to stay in another week and they are now getting very irritated and I can't wait until they are gone!!

In the mean time I went back to work Wednesday just in time for our school to have the first district wide diagnosed case of Swine Flu/H1H1 virus!  I figured I have had enough bad luck for a while so just told the kids to wash their hands with soap and sterilize the tables.  I guess there is really nothing we can do except take regular precautions and try not to freak out. I think the media has really overhyped it all anyway and soon it will hopefully be over.

There is much more I could type but this has gotten really long. Time to eat my mango and get to bed!  :)  Thanks for reading! :)