Post Op

Well, I hope I can now truly say that the worst part is behind me. Although I know recovery will be grueling and often painful, I’m hopeful that the hardest and most painful parts are in the past.

The Surgery

The surgery went well and in my opinion it was a huge success. I say this because my knee was downgraded from a fairly catastrophic knee to a bad knee. In my opinion, this is great news! They left the IT Band to re-attach on its own, the fracture was well lined up and will also heal on its own, and they repaired my MCL and my PCL. My LCL and my ACL were both strong enough that they left them intact! The surgery was still 3.5 hours in length – this is because two ligaments still take a long time but also because the PCL is so hard to get to and hard to fix. I woke up an hour after surgery freezing with my teeth clattering away. As soon as I saw Dr. Litchfield who did my surgery the first thing I asked was how many ligaments did they have to fix. When he told me it was only two instead of the possible 3 or 4 I was told earlier, I was so happy!

The Following Week

The day after the surgery I was in rough shape. I didn’t expect it to hurt so much and struggled with the pain that first morning. We were able to ‘catch’ up to the pain after about 6 hours and then I was more comfortable and started to improve with each day. I spent 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital. I hope I won’t have to go back anytime soon. However, I was treated extremely well and I have to say that good nurses make ALL the difference. Wow, they can truly be a godsend.

Once back from the hospital (on a drive that made me feel rather nauseous) I did a lot of sleeping in the first few days – averaging 16hours/day. I’m now staying awake more and getting more energy with each day. My appetite since falling has been rather small but after the surgery it took me about 4 days to get back to more normal eating. Since the fall I’ve lost around 15lbs – a shocking amount of weight to me…although I guess my leg’s muscles probably weighed something in that category.

Surprise Visit

On Thursday night a huge crowd who’d walked from Chicopee Ski Hill surprised me on my parents’ doorstep. When I got to the door they broke out singing O Canada. I was extremely emotion at this show of support and hearing the anthem – I had hoped I’d be singing it in Vancouver.

Here is a link to that story which was covered by CTV:

http://swo.ctv.ca/news.php?id=6548&PHPSESSID=f8f4f91bc1df6d238ec2fd9f9306681c

Franklin School Visit

On Friday morning I visited my old school who’d adopted me for these Olympics. This too was an amazing event and so wonderful to see all these kids…and even a few teachers who I’d worked with when I was a student there. There were about 500 kids awaiting me cheering a chant they’d made up! It was great to be there and let them know that I will come back from this. CTV and ET Canada were both in attendance so it was quite the show - even though it was a short talk since I’m still not up for too much just yet.

http://swo.ctv.ca/news.php?id=6549&PHPSESSID=f8f4f91bc1df6d238ec2fd9f9306681c

Torch Relay Update

I have the information for when I’ll be running (or wheeling) the Torch in Vancouver on February 9^th:

Community:	New Westminster
You will be carrying the Olympic Flame for a distance of approximately 300 metres. Your segment details are:	Starting along: 8th Ave
	From: Moody Park Arena
	To: 5th St
	On: 8th Ave
Approximate time of your segment:	10:55 AM PST

I’d love to see some of you there is it works out with your schedules!

Many Smiles,

Kelly