Turning the Tables (and Aaron's knee)

Now it's Aaron's turn to be the patient. Thursday night while Aaron was playing softball, he injured his knee. He was running from 3rd base to home, stopped and turned, and heard a loud pop (NOT a good thing)!

We found out that he has an ACL tear and an MCL tear. One ligament would be bad enough - but it's two! We saw two different orthopedic surgeons today to discuss the options. The plan for now is that he will have physical therapy for about 3 weeks and then surgery will be scheduled after that. I know that sounds backwards, but they want the swelling to go down first and also want to increase his range of motion in the knee which will get rid of some of the stiffness before surgery.

The biggest pain right now, Aaron said, was trying to maneuver on crutches. They certainly look a lot easier to use than they really are. He almost fell twice when he used them for the first time. Jeff and I were trying to stifle our laughter. When we went for his doctor visit today, I got a wheelchair for him and had quite a time trying to push him around. I was laughing so hard at one point that I was afraid they were going to admit me to the psych floor. It's harder to push a wheelchair than it looks, too! When I came home from church on Sunday, there was a grocery bag on the bed. He had wanted a drink and something to read, so had gotten up, found a plastic grocery bag, put a can of Coke in it with a newspaper and then tied the bag to his crutches to make it back to the bedroom. That would have been a funny sight! He's ready to invent something that will let you carry stuff around while you are on crutches. :-)

Kevin Moser (who has recently had ACL surgery) came over to look at the MRI images. It was certainly "all Greek" to us, but we sure tried to figure them out.

Aaron is very thankful for wireless internet. He's been surfing all over the place since he has a lot of time on his hands and can't get around as easily.

Kevin let us borrow this ice pump. You fill it up with ice and water and it pumps the ice water around Aaron's knee. It's been a life saver and certainly makes his knee feel better while keeping the swelling down too.

Aaron and I are getting a lot of practice taking care of each other. I didn't think this was supposed to start until we were old - but we'll certainly know what to do when we're in our 80's! I guess we're making lots of memories (although I prefer the less expensive memories). :-)