Post-Surgery Update

For those of you who don't get bombarded with my twitter feed or google buzz, I re-tore my ankle last Monday night at practice. I was popping in a zone and I pushed off my ankle as I caught a pass and the exact same ligament snapped. It wasn't super painful, and I wasn't sure at first whether I had torn it or whether someone had kicked my ankle. When I was able to pop my tendons out of place, it was pretty obvious, though.

Anyway, I went back to my doctor and scheduled surgery for yesterday. I was pretty nervous because I'd never had surgery of any kind. I'd never even had an IV, so all of it was a pretty new experience. My mom's job has amazing health insurance, so all of my health care so far has been pretty swanky. The surgery center had a super minimalist, modern style and was totally empty when I went in. I got dressed in a gown and they hooked me up to an IV, but my doctor was running behind schedule on his first surgery so I ended up waiting for like an hour and a half. I passed the time by chatting with a young guy who was teaching people how to use the cold water circulating machine about LA for like 45 minutes.

Eventually the anesthesiologist came around and gave me a nice shot of valium into my IV. After that I was pretty cool with everything. They wheeled me into the freezing operating room and and had me roll onto the operating table. The doctor gave me a shot of something stronger because I don't remember anything that happened after they gave me an oxygen mask to breathe into. I know they were going to give me a nerve blocking injection and then test it by using electro stimulation, but the next memory I have is waking up in the recovery room with the big splint on my leg. My leg was completely numb for rest of the entire day and through the night, which was probably a good thing, but it's kind of scary not being able to wiggle your toes.

The pain in my ankle woke me up this morning, but I took a pill, crutched out to the couch and fell back asleep. I have an awesome machine that circulates cold water over my foot, and I've been hooked up to it pretty much non-stop. I spent a good part of today napping, but I've been feeling better and better.

I have tickets to fly to regionals on Friday, but I'm not sure yet if I can go or not. If the weather report says rain, I won't go, but so far it looks good. I'm worried about getting through the airport and keeping my foot elevated, etc. I could really use those three extra days to work on my term paper. However, this is maybe the last tourney of the year. What we've been working for all year long. I don't think I could feel ok with myself if I didn't go. I'm going to wait and see how I feel Thursday before I make my decision.

I should have 1 month of cast, 2-3 weeks of walking boot, and then I'll start rehab mid-June. I'm going to take my rehab slowly and carefully, and it should be easier cause I won't be at practice all the time. I should be able to play again mid to late August. I'm committed to playing with BCBC when I get, assuming they still want me by then.

For now, I'm just trying to focus on finals and recovery. After that, I'm going to enjoy my time off and focus on my job search. I can watch the last season of the Wire, watch the Yankees in HD and do some reading. Should be nice.